Richie

Sexson

If Sexson ventures into free agency, the Mariners and possibly the Angels are expected to be big suitors. “There are a lot of issues that are important to him, and there are issues that are important to us. They all have to work, it’s not just the numbers thing,” GM Joe Garagiola Jr. said. In other Diamondback negotiations, there hasn’t been any movement on the team’s efforts to sign top pick Stephen Drew.

Sexson knows he’s going to be a very rich man, so he’s less concerned about the money and more concerned about how the Diamondbacks can prove to him they will be competitive next season and beyond. New CEO Jeff Moorad said the club has every intention of trying to put a winner on the field in 2005, and that could include bolstering the roster through trades and free agency, even though the payroll may not change much from the $70 million budgeted for this year. It’s open for debate whether the team could/should make a run with Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, and Sexson as the key pieces, or would be better off saving money and rebuilding with youth.

It’s believed that the three-year deal was only partially guaranteed. The $10 million or so Sexson would have earned next year might have been acceptable, but he’s probably going to want a fully guaranteed deal.

As a result, he’s probably a month away from making a decision. Sexson is also considering the two New York teams and perhaps his hometown team of Seattle. As for his shoulder, he said he’s ready to play now. “I’m rehabbing my butt off,” he says. “The shoulder feels great. I’m swinging the bat 100 percent. I’m ready to go.”

We assume this means Garagiola is now guaranteeing more than one year. The Diamondbacks had offered Sexson a deal with option years that would become guaranteed if he played in a certain number of games. They expect a response to the new offer later this week.

The D’Backs will lose the rights to Drew if he attends class at FSU on Monday.

It’s believed there were some concerns about the physical and he’ll be asked to take some additional tests. “It’s not done yet,” one source close to the Mariners told the Post-Intelligencer.

Arizona may not get a chance to match the top offer Sexson receives. Because the Diamondbacks believe there’s at least a 10 percent chance that Sexson’s shoulder injury will recur, they don’t want to guarantee him more than one year’s salary.

The contract better include more guaranteed money if the Diamondbacks hope to sign him. All indications are that he will go unless he gets a fully guaranteed three-year deal. The Diamondbacks want to include vesting options to protect themselves against another shoulder injury.