The Cust Era Begins

The Mariners have a designated hitter. His name is Jack Cust. He's left-handed. He hits home runs. He's from New Jersey. Let joy ring out.

All kidding aside, I like the Cust signing. The M's have picked up a guy who more-or-less suits their needs, for a very reasonable price. Cust is essentially another Branyan type of player: walks, strikeouts and home runs. Thankfully, he doesn't have Russ' injury history and is coming off a somewhat surprising year for Oakland. His .395 OBP is something special, to be sure. He won't be the savior of Seattle, but he looks to be a decent cog in our slowly improving offensive. Hopefully, he'll bat fourth or fifth, knock in some runs, get on base and generally play good baseball.

The Winter Meetings also brought news that we're on the verge of signing Miguel Olivo as our primary catcher. This is a substantially less awesome move, but I'll save that commentary for when everything becomes official. There are also rumors that we've offered a contract to Laynce Nix. Oh boy.

Finally, we snagged reliever Jose Flores from Cleveland in the Rule 5 Draft. His numbers look decent, but they come from Single-A. Flores doesn't look like a great shot to make the team by opening day.