"I remember Kaelyn would always say after she'd wake up from her nap and say, 'Can we go to Daddy's work?' " Putz said after learning he had been traded to the New York Mets. "I don't know how to tell the girls. Do I say, 'Good morning, girls. Seattle is history'? "

Putz was the centerpiece of Wednesday's three-team, 12-player trade that livened up what had been an otherwise ho-hum winter meetings to that point.

Putz and his wife, Kelsey, are expecting their first son March 6. When Putz was pitching for the Mariners and living just a few minutes from the club's spring training complex in Peoria, Ariz., things were simpler.

Now, he's going to be in Florida with the Mets, and Kelsey will be in Arizona.

"I've already talked to (Mets general manager) Omar Minaya about it," Putz said. "He said it would be no problem for me to leave. I don't know, maybe we'll call him Apple."

And then there are the memories.

"I don't know that it's sunk in yet," he said. "Seattle has been such a big part of our lives since we've been married. For us, leaving Seattle is really hard. We have a lot of friends that we met throughout the years. So it's strange.

"It's exciting because we're going to a great city and a team that is built to win right now. And there are the other two guys (reliever Sean Green and center fielder Jeremy Reed). They're going to make it easier to be there."

RULE 5 DRAFT: The Mariners completed the winter meetings by adding two players to the 40-man roster in the Rule 5 draft.

They took shortstop Reegie Corona from the Yankees in the draft of players not on a 40-man roster, then traded with the Kansas City Royals for left-handed pitcher Jose Lugo after the Royals selected him from the Minnesota Twins' roster.

General manager Jack Zduriencik said Corona can play all around the infield and could perform the same role Willie Bloomquist did as a utility man.

"You need to have players like that, and they aren't that easy to come by," Zduriencik said.

Corona hit .274 with three homers and 27 doubles for Double-A Trenton last season and is a career .264 hitter in the minor leagues.

Lugo, acquired for cash considerations, went 2-6 with a 4.04 ERA for Class A Fort Myers.

"It's hard to find good left-handed pitchers," Zduriencik said. "We'll give him a chance and see what he can do."

Players chosen in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft must remain in the majors for the entire season. Before being able to option a Rule 5 draftee to the minor leagues, the team must first offer him back to his original team for $25,000, half of the claiming fee.

In the first round of the Triple-A portion of the minor league Rule 5 draft, the Mariners picked up right-handed pitcher Patrick Ryan from the Milwaukee Brewers. He was 5-5 with a 2.52 ERA in relief for Double-A Huntsville.

The Mariners did not lose any players in the major league portion of the draft, but did lose right-handed pitcher Miguel Marquez to the Boston Red Sox and right-handed pitcher Gerardo Esparza to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Triple-A phase and lost right-handed pitcher Andrew Barb to the Baltimore Orioles in the Double-A phase.