Our paper began an interesting series this weekend about the bottoming out of the three major sports teams in the city — the Mariners, Seahawks and football Huskies. Today’s opening act features my story on the Mariners as well as an accompanying Larry Stone column and chart graphics.

There are several elements we’ve highlighted when it comes to how the baseball team has once again found itself in last place, headed towards 90-100 losses and trying to rebuild with a plan where the goals keep shifting.

One thing I’d like to look at here a little more is the amount of payroll being eaten up by both Ichiro and Chone Figgins. Because I believe this has already impacted the team’s ability to compete this year and will continue to do so unless something major starts to change in the way this team is run.

As the story mentions, Ichiro alone now takes up more than 19 percent of his team’s $93.5 million payroll. Forget what you’ve heard about “deferred money” and all that. The Mariners are counting his $18 million on the books each year and that is all that ultimately matters. The payroll is $93.5 million on the books, and he accounts for more than 19 percent of it.

Manny Ramirez is making just under 20 percent with the Dodgers, the largest payroll-eater I could find amongst the game’s top stars and the only one I found taking up more than Ichiro. But Dodgers’ owner Frank McCourt is going through a nasty divorce and the team has cut payroll accordingly, creating the Ramirez situation.

In Seattle, the percentage of payroll taken up by Ichiro is the result of a pre-planned team design by ownership. Not from an unexpected divorce.

And so, going forward, I feel it is appropriate to question that design.

This has nothing to do with Ichiro’s on-field contributions, his WAR, his Gold Gloves, his 200-hit seasons or anything else his supporters will rightly say about him. It has everything to do with how much of a chunk of its limited budget this team is willing to commit to one player in order to attain those benefits.

And in this case, with $9 million per year also committed to Figgins, the team has essentially hamstrung 29 percent of payroll on two players who are generally considered top leadoff men. On a team with bigger bats to drive those two players in, this would not be an issue. But on a team with the worst power numbers in baseball, it should be at the forefront of every Mariners discussion.

Read more…