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Seattle Mariners sign Hisashi Iwakuma

Return of The Bear

The boy is back in town.
The boy is back in town.
Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Let's start with a quick announcement from Jerry Dipoto who not only wakes up early but goes to bed late:

Thanks, Jerry.  Back to the news.

*EDIT*  PLEASE PLAY THE FOLLOWING AS YOU CONTINUE TO READ

Today we were all made aware of a growing development that increased the availability of a certain ex-Mariner named Hisashi Iwakuma.  While we will never know just how long ago he failed his physical, that information was released today.  What seems more likely is that this was known to Jerry and His Excedrin much earlier than any of us heard about it and that his team jumped on the chance to acquire a talented pitcher.  As of this moment, the money is unknown but the contract looks something like this:

That is three years of Kuma in the bag.

A quick, napkin analysis of this move tells me several things.  The first is that payroll has increased for 2016.  The second is that this team is deeper at the starting pitching level than I can ever remember it being.  A starting five of Felix, Kuma, Karns, Walker, and Miley is a knockout rotation.  The third is that this pushes the team from a team in the mix for a wildcard spot, to maybe a favorite for the postseason.  Of course, stuff has to go right for that to happen, but, and this is shocking so sit down, things have to go right for any team to make the playoffs.  Wowooweewow.

To make a long story short, losing Kuma hurt all of us even though we all sort of knew it was a potential outcome.  Kudos to the ownership for jumping on this as quickly as they did, and clearly due to the short time it took, The Bear is happy to be back.  It's almost like we never said, "Goodbye."

We will analyze all this later on and what it means for this team going forward.  But right now, I am happy and it is late and I know where the booze is.  Drink.  Be merry.  The Bear is back.  Celebrate.

Jesus is.

goms