Geno explains why he wanted out

[Donn Beach]

Dates are interesting, originally signed 1958. O'Brien seems earlier than 1990 to me, Edgar signed in 1982.

The Mariners made O'Brien, 31, their highest-paid player despite his declining offensive production in each of the past three seasons

Typical Mariners

[Captain 97]

Did some digging. The M’s First official Free agent signing was reliever Byron McLauglin on January 8 1977. He was more of a minor league signing though. He had been pitching in Mexico and only made one appearance for the M’s in 1977. Everyone else on the 1977 team was either drafted in the expansion draft or “purchased” from other teams.

The First established Major Leaguer they signed as a free agent was First Baseman Bob Robertson on November 11, 1977. He had not played in 1977 though so I am not sure that should really count either. What I would consider the first “real” free agent signing was Bruce Bochte on December 20, 1977. He had hit .301 the previous year. Bochte spent 5 years in Seattle slashing .290/.370/.429/.799 and racking up 10.1 WAR.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/team ... ions.shtml

[D-train]

Dates are interesting, originally signed 1958. O'Brien seems earlier than 1990 to me, Edgar signed in 1982.

The Mariners made O'Brien, 31, their highest-paid player despite his declining offensive production in each of the past three seasons

Typical Mariners

Yep and then he was stuck with the Giants for 13 years because of no FA yet.

[D-train]

Just looked and it was a four year deal for Bochte for $126k a year. lol 28k as a rookie ha

Screenshot 2025-04-11 11.08.12 AM.png (22.06 KiB) Viewed 103 times

[Captain 97]

Just looked and it was a four year deal for Bochte for $126k a year. lol 28k as a rookie ha



Screenshot 2025-04-11 11.08.12 AM.png

Yeah that's crazy. Even with inflation that 126k per year would be less than rookie minimum today. If Bocthe hit the market today coming off a 2.1 WAR season at age 26 he would get 15 Million per year minimum.

[Nwadventure]

I stalked Bocthe after a Ms game once- Followed him out to his car in the Kingdome parking lot while he was eating a popsicle- School night like 10pm alone downtown as like a 12 year old. Cool guy, no idea what I ever did with the autograph.

[Donn Beach]

Bruce Bochte is an interesting guy. He quit baseball for a year in the middle of his career, was tired of the business side of it. His thing is cosmology, the study of the universe, he was studying in his hotel room after games. Larry stone wrote a piece about just recently
https://www.ciis.edu/news/1979-mariners ... omplicated