The South Florida Sun-Sentinel offered up this little blurb in regards to Florida Marlins first baseman Mike Jacobs yesterday:

While the Marlins and Royals have had serious talks regarding Jacobs, a source that had been briefed on their progress described them as “not close” to fruition. The Mariners and Blue Jays are believed to have expressed interest as well, and the Indians are another possible landing spot for a player coming off a career-best 32 home runs.

This one is a little hard to decipher.  When did Seattle express interest?  GM Jack Zduriencik has only been on the job for about a week; has he really made a point to contact the Marlins about Jacobs? 

I doubt it.  Zduriencik is still assembling his scouting staff and has yet to get to other priorities such as appointing a manager.  I would assume that any interest from our end came while negotiating the trade that sent Arthur Rhodes to Miami at the deadline, or at some other time.

It’s hard to say if Seattle is still interested in Jacobs, but let’s take a look at him anyway.

A Jacobs acquisition would fill at least two holes for Seattle.  He would fill one of the vacancies at either first base or DH.  He would also give Seattle one of the left-handed power bats they need to balance the lineup, take advantage of Safeco Field’s dimensions and make up for the expected loss of Raul Ibanez.

Jacobs’ biggest asset is perhaps his raw power.  His ISO in 2008 was a staggering .266, which went for ninth best in all of baseball and was 75 points higher than Adrian Beltre, Seattle’s top performer in Isolated Power. 

Jacobs mashed a career high 32 homers this past season, pulling almost all of them to right/right-center.  14 of those home runs came at Dolphin Stadium where the right field wall is 345 feet away and right-center is 373, compared to Safeco Field’s more lefty-friendly dimensions of 326 to right and 365 in the gap (according to Clem’s).  Jacobs would certainly provide Seattle with great power and would benefit from Safeco’s dimensions the way Ibanez has been able to over the years.

Unfortunately, that raw power is about all Jacobs has to offer.  This past season he hit just .247 with an embarrassing .299 OBP.   He hit in the .260s during his first two full MLB seasons, and the low average could be blamed partially on bad luck (.260 BABIP compared to .299 and .312 in 2006-2007), so there is reason to think that his average could trend upward.  That said, his OBP has always been low and he wouldn’t help Seattle add much needed plate discipline.

Defensively he’s always been a liability but had his worst season by far in 2008.  He was a -27 fielder according to the plus/minus system, which has him nearly three times as bad as anyone Seattle fielded at first this past season.  He was especially bad at balls hit to his right (-11), which puts the second baseman’s range and defense at more of a premium.  If you want to use other stats and metrics, Jacobs had the worst RZR among MLB first basemen, was in the bottom half in OOZ, and tied with Ryan Howard for the worst fielding percentage.  It’s safe to say that Jacobs is arguably the worst defensive first baseman in baseball, meaning Seattle should strongly consider him as their full-time DH if they are seriously thinking about acquiring him.

I’m already spending too much time on this guy considering how vague the rumor is, so let’s cut to the chase.  Jacobs is just entering his arbitration years and could be a nice year-to-year stopgap for Seattle until he’s eligible for free agency, and he should be fairly affordable (probably around $3-4M in 2009).  If he can be had from the Marlins for the right price, then he could be worth it.

That said, the Marlins are going to be looking for real value for him in the form of one or more prospects, and it’s hard to say what caliber of guy they’d want.  One of the players the Royals were reportedly offering for Jacobs was Carlos Rosa, but the deal fell through because of injury concerns.  I’m not sure Seattle has anyone directly comparable to Rosa in their system (young starter, near MLB ready, ~C+ rated).  Ryan Feierabend’s value has dropped off quite a bit thanks to another horrendous MLB stint, and other AAA starters such as Andrew Baldwin, Robert Rohrbaugh, Joe Woerman, Sean White and others probably aren’t going to get anyone’s attention.

The farther away from the Majors, the more it will take to get a guy like Jacobs.  Would it be worth it to give up someone like a Juan Ramirez?  Not at all.  With that, Seattle would have to go with another position.  The Marlins could use some catching depth; would Rob Johnson be enough to pry the one-dimensional hitter from the fish?  Would that be too much?

I’m not a big Jacobs fan, and if he costs anything worthwhile then I am fine with Zduriencik passing up on him.  However, if he turns out to be “cheap,” then I am willing to give him a chance.

What do you all think of Jacobs?  Is the raw power worth the deficiencies in other aspects of the game?  Who would you be willing to give up for him?