"Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik loves the idea of having flexibility on the field with players he can use at multiple positions.

He demonstrated it last season by acquiring utilitymen Bill Hall and Jack Hannahan, continued this winter by working out No. 1 draft pick Dustin Ackley at second base, and should keep on doing it with the expected acquisition of Chone Figgins, a multitalented third baseman and outfielder.

But it's the kind of flexibility Zduriencik has bought himself off the field that could help make him the star of the annual baseball winter meetings in Indianapolis this week.

Zduriencik's entourage begins heading to the meetings today with a Mariners roster completely revamped from the one it inherited. Throw in an enviable cash surplus, not encumbered by a horde of long-term commitments, and Zduriencik has the flexibility to bolster his team that fellow GMs can only dream about.

"Whether it's dollar-wise or [with] players you have to go out and get," Zduriencik said, "if you have flexibility ... that opens other doors that maybe it wouldn't."

Zduriencik has transformed the Mariners team that opened the 2008 season with playoff hopes but lost 101 games, ensuring the firing of GM Bill Bavasi. Only two position players, Ichiro and Jose Lopez, remain from the 2008 opening-day roster, and Felix Hernandez, Brandon Morrow, Mark Lowe and Carlos Silva are the lone arms still here.

Free-agent third baseman Adrian Beltre is expected to be the next to leave, though he has until Monday to accept or reject the team's offer of arbitration. Seattle was expected to sign Figgins to a four-year, $36 million deal to replace Beltre and bolster a team on-base percentage that was the American League's worst last season.

Figgins would become one of only a handful of Mariners with contracts running beyond next season.

The Mariners ended the 2009 campaign with only Ichiro, Lopez and Silva on the books beyond the 2010 campaign. Zduriencik then went out and negotiated an extension with shortstop Jack Wilson, tearing up an $8.4 million option for 2010 and negotiating a more club-friendly two-year, $10 million deal."