I'm pretty sure that if Hamilton were to sign here, he'd be the highest profile free agent hitter (still in his prime) to sign with the Mariners in the history of the franchise. At $20-25 million a year, however, he'd also be the riskiest free agent the M's have ever signed. The questions about his personal life are going to follow him everywhere he goes and the team that signs him are going to have to be prepared to handle that. Committing that much money to him, even if it's a fairly short-term deal, is just going to increase the scrutiny.

A three year deal would be smart in the sense that, if it blows up in our face, we're not stuck with a mammoth contract for very long. The bigger problem could be what a contract of that size does to our ability to spend on other needs over the course of that contract. I guess that all depends on how much they had budgeted for the next few years beforehand. Or this could not happen at all. Who knows.