"You can wait too long sometimes and nothing ever happens," he said, sitting in the team's suite high above the Vegas strip, a view of the Bellagio Hotel's famed cascading fountains beneath him. "You can wait for the perfect, ideal deal and something falls apart. I think that when all is said and done, you have to do something that the parties involved all feel good about."

And Zduriencik felt good about his first winter meetings as a GM.

"Well, we didn't come away with Mays or Mantle," he said with a shrug and smile. "But they weren't available. Yeah, I think we accomplished our goals. We've upgraded significantly in the outfield and made our team better."

The Mariners spent far more time fielding offers for Putz than for Adrian Beltre, another highly coveted trade commodity. One reason is that the Minnesota Twins, in need of a third baseman, were added by Beltre to his limited no-trade clause at season's end.

Players will often make such a move as a negotiating ploy if they know a team has interest, which the Twins did last summer. Sources close to the situation said it has complicated any Twins-Mariners talks on Beltre but is not an insurmountable barrier.

Zduriencik selected three players in Thursday's Rule 5 draft, using the second overall pick on New York Yankees infield prospect Reegie Corona, 22, to possibly fill the utility-man role vacated by free agent Willie Bloomquist. Zduriencik then traded cash to the Kansas City Royals for left-handed reliever Jose Lugo, 24, who had been plucked from Minnesota with the 11th choice.

In the Class AAA portion of the draft, Zduriencik nabbed reliever Patrick Ryan, 25, from the Milwaukee Brewers.

Any players taken in the major-league portion of the draft must be kept on a team's 25-man roster for an entire season or returned to their former squad. Zduriencik had said beforehand that he wasn't targeting specific positions, just the best talent available. But the trade for Lugo suggests he's trying to add bullpen depth following the loss of Green.

Zduriencik may be in his first season as a GM. But the 57-year-old spent decades working in Baseball front offices, observing how the best deal-makers went about their business.

And in orchestrating the Putz deal, which brought Indians outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, Mets pitcher Aaron Heilman, Mets outfielder Endy Chavez and four minor-leaguers to Seattle, Zduriencik employed the same personality traits that made him so respected for years in scouting circles.

Zduriencik was able to do some give-and-take with Minaya. And in the end, when Zduriencik needed it, Minaya stepped up.

It was Minaya who telephoned Indians GM Mark Shapiro and got him to include Gutierrez in what became a three-team trade. Minaya would later add Chavez to the package to help Zduriencik get over some of the backup outfielder versatility he was giving up with Reed.

And when Shapiro got on the phone with Zduriencik, there was little time wasted haggling over players.

Shapiro knew he was giving up a major-league ready player in Gutierrez. He wanted an infielder who was a lot closer to the majors than the cross-your-fingers prospects littering the Class A and AA landscapes.

Several scouts think Valbuena's glove is ready for the majors right now and that his bat will come around quickly in AAA as he matures.

"Jack was familiar with our players already," Shapiro said. "It was a very natural conversation. Very straightforward. The conversation was direct, and that's how constructive conversations happen."

Shapiro, who called it "a great trade for everyone," broke into Baseball scouting at a time when Zduriencik was already established. When the time came to deal, Shapiro knew Zduriencik wouldn't be pulling any fast ones.

Minaya suggested that the deal eventually put together, encompassing 12 players from three teams, was a throwback to the days before eight- and nine-figure contracts made GMs gun-shy about taking risks.

"The best thing I can say about this trade is that it's an old-fashioned trade," Minaya said. "Here we are, in the year 2008, and we're talking about millions of dollars, but this is how trades were done. Just a pure, Baseball trade."

And Zduriencik thinks it might not be the last time that happens.

"I think a professional approach and a mutual degree of honesty will create relationships that will go beyond a particular deal," he said. "They'll go into deal B, C and D as you move forward. And not only this year but maybe in years to come.

"But if you're dishonest, or not forthright with certain things, then people are not going to forget that. And they're going to be less apt to deal with you. So honesty, in my opinion, and fairness is your best policy when you're talking about exchanging players."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners