57 Quotes by Bill Bavasi

We believe he is already among the top-tier starters in the game, and poised to join a truly elite group. He has electric stuff.

When somebody first brings the name up, there are a lot of reservations. As with every player you look into everything very closely, and we're satisfied its a one-time deal.

There is a lot of interest in Reed from other clubs, including us.

This was a pretty high priority for us in the off-season. The signing for us is terrific because there's so few real quality left or switch-hitters that can operate in the middle of the lineup and be as consistent as Raul. We wanted to lock him up.

We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the Mateo family. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Seattle organization are with Julio and his family as they deal with this tragic accident.

We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the Mateo family.

We felt good about his season and we feel good about him as a person. The one voice you hear in there now is his. It would be nice if we could clone his approach and give it to other guys. So that was important to us.

At the start of this off-season, our goals were to acquire a high-quality starting pitcher, add offense, re-sign Jamie Moyer and, ideally, upgrade our catching. Today's announcement marks the final, and perhaps most important, in that off-season list of goals.

And we had no surplus, no one in development, to come along if we had created holes. Serious trade possibilities for pitching did not avail themselves, and we did not shop those guys.