Says Larry Stone, along with a host of others who aren't as awesome as Larry Stone:

Randy Johnson will throw out first pitch at home opener April 12, the M's just announced

I know the feelings around Randy in Seattle don't quite match up with the feelings around Junior, but these are going to be thirty loud-ass seconds. I would've loved to bring Randy in as a 2010 starting pitcher, but given the circumstances, I'll take anything I can get, and this is just perfect. By giving us all an opportunity to express our appreciation, and by not drawing it out any longer than necessary...I can't think of a better compromise.

I may need to sleep, but you guys clearly do not.

I know we don't have any great details right now, but I'm dead serious when I say that tomorrow should be Wear Your Felix Jersey (Or Shirt) To Work Day.

Graham's update: Blavia (who broke the Guti deal) tweets that it's a 5 year/$78M deal. Hot damn! Also, great call by Matthew.

Jeff's update:

ESPN:

The Seattle Mariners have been shuffling the deck, but it looks like they'll keep their ace.

On the eve of exchanging salary figures for arbitration, right-hander Felix Hernandez has agreed to a multiyear contract with the team, pending a physical, a source with direct knowledge of the talks told ESPN.com's Keith Law on Monday.

The amount or length of the deal were not immediately available.

Can't think. Too busy smiling. Can't think...

Note: Absolutely imperative to remember that a "multiyear contract" may be as short as two seasons. This is absolutely good news, but we won't know if it's super awesome Pants-Off-Dance-Off news until we hear about the length.

Additional note: Of course a two-year deal wouldn't really make much sense. Sooooo...

We heard a month or so ago that the Mariners were going to investigate locking up Franklin Gutierrez to a long term deal this offseason. That work appears to be over as the twitter-verse is abuzz saying the deal is set.

Four years, $20.5 million, with a team option for a fifth year is the word.

Gutierrez was worth 1.8 wins in a half-season's worth of play during 2007, worth 2.3 wins in three-quarters of a season in 2008 and just under 6 wins last season. The six looks like a huge outlier until you pro-rate Franklin's playing time in 2007 and 2008 and you basically have a guy that was a three-win player both those years and then took a step forward as he enters his prime years.

Expecting six wins going forward would be delusional, but four to five is entirely reasonable and I prefer to stick with four to be on the conservative side and to try and undercut his defense, just in case it turns out that Franklin is not actually batman out there. Four wins on the open market was worth about $18 million last year. In this winter's depressed market, it's down to about $16-17 million, not really a huge difference.

As Jeff pointed out, the deal buys out three arbitration years and a free agency year, and likely a second FA year as well once the option is exercised. Four years at 40/60/80/100 weighting comes out to 2.8 free market seasons. 2.8 seasons multiplied by, say $16.5 million and with a 10% reduction for the security of a long term contract and a "fair" deal for Franklin's worth and service time would be about $42 million. Even at just three wins a year, the fair number would be about $32 million for these four seasons. The Mariners are paying $20.5.

That's factoring in Gutierrez's arbitration status, by the way. If he were truly a free agent, he would be worth about $60 million over four years. And it's not even including the team option. Go light off some bottle rockets of joy.

Larry LaRue breaks the news that the best catcher in franchise history is opting out of his contract and going back to Japan. Sounds like the real deal, too - Zduriencik is holding a press conference in a couple of hours to discuss it.

Thanks for the years of service, Kenji. I'll miss the silly red glove and the powerpitch swing. Good luck in Japan.

Can't talk too much about the impact of all this now but this isn't a big surprise. Dave's been talking about the possibility of Johjima heading home for the past couple of months. This should free up some significant money for next year, but it comes at the cost of more Rob Johnson.

Matthew's Update: According to Shannon Drayer, no other confirmation yet, there is no buyout. The Mariners owe him no money.

Graham's Update: Section changed to great news. Party time!

Said Geoff Baker on his blog:

We've been at the park for 10 hours and counting now and we aren't going anyplace. When history's on the line, you can count on us to be there.

It's a good thing you can count on them because you sure as hell can't count on us. Life kept me away from the games today, just as it's kept me away from a bunch of games lately and just as it's going to keep me away from much of the next week, but the coolest thing about Ichiro is that, while I missed him breaking Wee Willie Keeler's record today, I'll probably get to watch him break his own record next September. And I think that says just about everything that needs to be said.

Way to go, little dude.

Kenji Johjima just homered off the Dolphin.

The Mariners first-round draft pick, 2nd overall, Dustin Ackley has signed. Details on the signing bonus are as of yet unknown, but for those people who were concerned that he might not sign, rest easy. Ackley is now a member of the Seattle Mariners organization. (Jeff's note: as you've heard, it's a $9.5m Major League contract. My first job after college paid me twelve dollars an hour.)

(Jeff's additional note: so according to Heyman, it's a $7.5m, five-year deal with $2m in escalator clauses, whatever that means. Ackley is still under team control for six years. Don't let the big league deal freak you out.)

(Jeff's final addition: From Jim Callis at BA, "Five-year major league deal, $6 million bonus, $1.5 million in guaranteed salaries, another $2.5 million possible in salaries depending on how quick he reaches the majors, $7.5 million total guaranteed." Let's go with that.)

No word yet on where Ackley will begin for reals, but your best bet is a week or so in Peoria to get back up to baseball speed after a few months off and then probably he joins Poythress in Double-A, but it will be interesting to see how the team handles it as they already have Gillies playing CF in High Desert and Carrera having a good season in CF in Double-A. How they shuffle the centerfielders in the system could tell us something about how they view the time tables for some of our mid-level prospects.

Then again, there is about two weeks left in the minor league season, so perhaps it will tell us nothing.

Another possibility that people are bound to talk about is Ackley at second base. Our system is certainly lacking in middle infield prospects, nearly at all levels and many have claimed that Ackley has the tools to make a successful transition to the keystone position. If the Mariners believe that he could adapt to second base quickly and without impeding his offensive ceiling, that might prove tempting to them, especially with Michael Saunders, Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro Suzuki manning our outfield and under contract for quite awhile.

In the end, we get to trust them to make a better decision than the rest of us combined could ever hope to, so whatever, yay! Dustin Ackley!