I like to shoot rubber bands. A few days ago I saw the guy with whom I share an office come walking back to his desk, so I grabbed a rubber band and held it in my fingers in shooting position. When the guy turned the corner and saw that I was aiming at him, he flinched in a matter completely out of proportion to the severity of the threat. Rubber bands barely sting, but he jumped back and blocked his face as if I were holding a porcupine slingshot.
We've been talking about Griffey for so long that, by this point, people on both sides of the argument are firmly entrenched in their positions. For the most part, it's gone beyond "that would help/that wouldn't help" and moved all the way to "that would be awesome/that would be retarded," with some people even claiming that a Griffey signing would undo all of the goodwill that Zduriencik has earned with his tremendous offseason to date.
Stay sane. Look, I don't want us to be the ones forced to watch Griffey limp off into the sunset, but should Zduriencik have to settle, it's not the end of the world. It's not even close. According to the 2009 CHONE projections, the difference between Griffey and, say, Bobby Abreu over 600 plate appearances is about 15 runs. That's less than two wins. While I think almost all of us would prefer to see the M's make room to sign Abreu, settling for Griffey wouldn't spoil the season. It would simply make us a little bit worse than we would've liked. And in the grand scheme of things, in a year in which we're not supposed to make the playoffs, that just isn't too big of a deal.
Should Griffey end up signing here, that's going to cause widespread overreaction, both from people who love him and from people who would've rather seen us land someone else. But at the end of the day, Griffey's just a rubber band. While startling, he's fun for some, annoying for others, and he's not going to hurt that much unless he hits you in the eye. No matter what happens on this front, don't let it overshadow the rest of the offseason. This decision's magnitude of impact just doesn't compare to that of the others.