Perhaps this falls under the "rosterbation" category to an extent, but who cares.
Let's examine the potential 2009 free agency market for the M's.
Current payroll, ~$117,666,482
Contracts coming off after this year:
Ho Ram: ~500,000
Wilkerson: ~2.7 mil
Sexson ~14-15m
Vidro (potentially) ~8.5 mil
Raul ~4.5 mil
Bloomquist ~850,000
Cairo ~850,000
Misc roster filler like Rhodes, Dickey
So assuming the team keeps Raul for about the same, we could potentially have 25-28 million to spend. Where would everbody spend this and what sorts of contracts?
Obviously Tex will be popular, but what if we can't outprice the Yanks? Where do we turn then?