July 2012 - Seattle Mariners Wiretap

Miguel Olivo will enter Spring Training as the No. 1 catcher for the Mariners despite the acquisition of Jesus Montero from the Yankees. Montero, 22, figures to get time at designated hitter and catcher. "It didn't surprise me," Olivo said. "You're competing every day in baseball. He's a good hitter and we need that. I hear he's going to be DH and catching and I'll be doing more of the catching, but I'm not looking at it that way. I'm just looking that he's coming to help the team." Olivo played in a career-high 130 games last season, a feat that seems unlikely in 2012. "I talked to him a couple minutes ago and he said he'd be next to me all the time," Olivo said of Montero. "I told him he's welcome to come and I'll help him with everything I've learned in baseball. I told him, 'The days you catch, I'll be looking at you to see what you're doing wrong. And the days you hit, maybe I'll learn something about hitting from you.' We can go back and forth."

Manager Eric Wedge says he’s leaning toward moving Ichiro Suzuki out of the leadoff spot as a way to improve the Mariners’ anemic offense. Wedge said he’s not set on moving Suzuki from the spot he’s held since he arrived from Japan in 2001. Wedge said he’s considered the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in the batting order for Suzuki, while thinking about Dustin Ackley, Chone Figgins and Franklin Gutierrez as options for the leadoff role.

The Mariners said in a teleconference to announce their recent trade with the Yankees on Monday that Jesus Montero will get a chance to play catcher. Montero is likely to get at-bats at designated hitter and first base as well. Seattle also has John Jaso, Miguel Olivo and Adam Moore at catcher.

Brian Cashman had high praise for Jesus Montero on Monday as the Yankees' trade with Seattle became official. "He may very well be the best player I've traded," Cashman said of Montero, who he sent to the Mariners along with Hector Noesi in exchange for Michael Pineda and and 19-year-old pitching prospect Jose Campos. "I look at it like we had a need and we were trying to address that need, and to get really good players you have to give up really good players," Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said. "If this goes down and helps the Yankees and helps us both long term and short term it's a win-win for everybody."

A little more than a week after agreeing to trade Michael Pineda to the Yankees, the Mariners have reportedly signed Kevin Millwood. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports that Seattle has given Millwood a Minor League deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Millwood, who turned 37 on Christmas Eve, last season went 4-3 in nine starts with the Rockies.

The trade between the Mariners and Yankees involving young talents Jesus Montero and Michael Pineda still hasn't been formally announced, but an announcement could come Monday. Montero was in Seattle undergoing a physical on Saturday. News of the impending four-player swap initially leaked out eight days ago, but Montero had travel issues getting out of his native Venezuela last week, and then was further delayed by a snow storm that hit Seattle.

The Mariners have signed left-handed pitcher Oliver Perez to a minor league contract with an invite to major league spring training. Seattle announced the deal with the nine-year veteran on Wednesday. He spent all of the 2011 season pitching for Double-A Harrisburg in the Nationals organization.

The Nationals are still seriously pursuing free-agent first baseman Prince Fielder, according to an unidentified source. The source added that the most likely suitors for Fielder are the Nationals, Rangers and Marlins, and that the Cubs and Mariners, widely rumored to be interested in Fielder, aren't serious contenders at this point. The biggest sticking point in negotiations between Fielder and the Nationals is the length of the contract.

The New York Yankees have traded Jesus Montero and right-handed pitcher Hector Noesi to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for pitchers Michael Pineda and Jose Campos, a source told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark. The Yankees almost dealt Montero, their top prospect for several seasons, once before to the Mariners in a 2010 trade for Cliff Lee. The Yankees receive the 22-year-old Pineda after he went 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA for the Mariners as a rookie last year. New York has several catchers in their system who are considered far better defensively. They have Austin Romine at Triple-A, plus Russell Martin earned an All-Star appearance in his first year with New York and was praised for his work with the Yankees' pitching staff.

Prince Fielder will sign a contract before the first pitch of this spring, according to agent Scott Boras. "Certainly we're going to have him signed well in advance of Spring Training," Boras said. "I can't give you the exact date. These things take some time. That's why we have January and early February. Spring Training doesn't start until late February."