Huh?
According to John Hickey, the Mariners apparently have some level of interest in Hoffman, the 38 year old closer who's spent his last 12.5 seasons racking up 434 saves in San Diego. Which is all well and good - Hoffman's a fine pitcher, after all - until you consider that, where Seattle could bring Guardado back for $6.25m on a one-year deal, Hoffman's looking for a three-year contract in the $25-27m range. This after posting his lowest strikeout rate since 1993.
Hoffman's changeup is still among the best in the league, but his stuff is deteriorating, and he's no longer the lights-out closer that he was in the late-90s. There's no reason he can't be successful for a little while longer, but it just wouldn't make any sense to offer him more money and more years than your current, equivalently-talented closer, who'd probably settle for something in the neighborhood of $13m/2yr. Besides, I don't think that would feel right, anyway - Hoffman belongs in San Diego, just like Edgar Martinez and Jamie Moyer belong in Seattle. I don't want the Mariners contributing to the downfall of team loyalty any more than they absolutely have to, and Hoffman just wouldn't be worth it.
Hells Bells is a pretty kickass intro, though. Trevor pulls it off in a way that Eddie can't even imagine.
Update: It usually takes more than a few hours for one of my posts to become a moot point.