Saw this coming, but i don't like it.

Glad to see him go and I hope he signs with the Yankees where he'll get roasted by the fans in NY when he goes on one of his infamous cold spells and doesn't hit a home run for a month.

To all the people that are sorry to see him go I say when you lose 100+ games you don't need a 37 year old who can't play defense on a 3-year deal. I also don't think it's a big coincidence that since he returned to Seattle after the '03 season (when the M's won 93 games), the Mariners have been a combined 92 games under .500!! He's just not a winner, folks.

Yeah, grandsalami, it's obviously Ibanez's fault that he signed with the Mariners at a time when all of their veterans were getting too old at the same time...don't be an idiot.

That said, he doesn't fit where this team is headed for the next few years (rebuilding with younger guys who can play defense). Good luck, Raul.

Hey Wabubba, I get that you're an Ibanez fan. Sorry, but I'm not. I like my team's players to be a lot more consistent than the streaky Ibanez. Your team is doomed when your #3 or 4 hitter goes weeks without hitting a home run. Here's some numbers to chew on while preparing to post your Ibanez jersey on Ebay:

April 6-12, 2008: Ibanez hits 5 HRs in one week and is named Co-Player of the Week in the AL. He follows that up by going 26 straight games without a home run, not going deep again until May 11th. But John McLaren doesn't notice that Ibanez is slumping and still writes his name on the lineup card every day. The M's go 8-18 during this 26-game stretch and their season is effectively O-V-E-R.

This is not an isolated occurrence. Here's some other wonderful stretches from Raul's time in Seattle:

May 13-31, 2008: Ibanez has another 16-game stretch without hitting a home run; the M's go 6-10 in those games.

June 2-23, 2008: Ibanez goes another 19 straight games without a long ball; the M's go 6-13 in these games.

To top things off, Ibanez goes homerless in his final 21 games as a Mariner; the M's go 6-15 in these games.

So in 2008 along, Ibanez had four stretches of 16 games or more without going deep and the M's went 26-56
in those games (a .317 winning pctg, 60 points lower than their overall winning pctg)...

A contending team simply cannot have one of their middle of the order hitters going that many games at a time without a home run, especially when the team's manager either doesn't notice, doesn't care or doesn't have any other options for that spot in the batting order...

And if you think Raul's streakiness was a one-year thing, here's some fun numbers from 2007:

April 20-June 8, 2007: Ibanez goes 46(!) straight games without hitting a home run

July 1-August 5, 2007: Ibanez goes another 31 straight games without a home run.

He also had separate homerless streaks of 16, 15 and 13 games in 2006. And in '05, he had separate homerless streaks of 19 games, 17 games, 16 games and 15 games. And in his first year back in Seattle, 2004, he went homerless in the first 11 games of the year as the M's started out 3-8 and began their five-year decline.

Simply put, Raul Ibanez was an overrated player who could put up decent enough numbers over a full season, but he's too streaky a player to be a major part of a winning team.

Finally, we always hear what a great guy he is and how he's a team leader. If that's the case, how the hell did the M's clubhouse disintegrate into the disaster it was last season? Probably because Raul was busy in the weight room when he should have been exercising leadership in the clubhouse.