That feeling may no longer exist in the front office. For one thing, Fontaine was part of the old regime that was swept out after a 101-loss season. For another, Fields didn't sign and hasn't pitched competitively since June, so it's going to take some time before he's back at his best level. And if Fields doesn't sign, the Mariners get the 22nd pick in the 2009 draft, so they won't leave the talks empty-handed if no deal is consummated. Fields was originally selected by the Atlanta Braves in the second round (69th overall) in the 2007 June draft, but choose to return to school.

The Mariners were hoping to sign Fields for something in the range of $1.5 million. Fields and Boras were looking for something closer to $2 million.

In the past, Boras has been willing to have his clients play in one of the independent leagues, hoping either to force a signing or to enable the client to go back into the draft.

"Those kinds of conversations have not begun," said Boras, noting that independent leagues don't start play until May, just a month before the next draft. "Josh is getting ready to go to spring training. We'll just have to see how it goes."

P-I reporter John Hickey can be reached at 206-448-8004 or johnhickey@seattlepi.com Read his Mariners blog at blog.seattlepi.com/Baseball.

In the end, it's not just about pitching, it's about pitching depth.

We know that more than $300 million of pitching found its way onto the disabled list last season. Injuries to pitchers devastated the Braves, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Indians, Tigers, Yankees, and Mariners, to name a few. And pitching depth elevated the Red Sox, Angels, Cubs, and Rays.

So when looking at all the fancy new lineups and new acquisitions, which teams did the best job of adding a cushion to their pitching staffs? Well, at the top of that list would be the Red Sox.

That was the consensus of five Baseball officials we asked.

The Sox added padding, if you will, in the form of John Smoltz, whom they likely will hold back until late May, knowing they have youngsters Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden ready to step in should there be an injury to Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, and/or Brad Penny.

They have Justin Masterson, who could protect them as a starter and a late-inning reliever. And general manager Theo Epstein added the same kind of padding by acquiring Wes Littleton from Texas, Ramon Ramirez from Kansas City, and free agent Takashi Saito.