It wasn’t all that surprising when the news came down that Ken Griffey Jr. was going to be returning to the Mariners for his 22nd season (!) in the bigs – for all the hand-wringing about the Griffey experiment last year, it, much like the rest of the Seattle season, turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

We all know that Griffey is a shell of his former self, and as the season progressed, even the most ardent of Junior fans knew that the lightning-quick bat of The Kid had slowed quite a bit. And so, no one will be going into the 2010 campaign expecting Junior to be anything more than a situational player, and that’s the way it should be.

Nineteen homers is nothing to sneeze at, but the offensively challenged Mariners can’t hide his .214 average in the lineup anymore, so expect Griffey to get a fraction of the at-bats he saw last season.

I was one of the people who was unsure about the Griffey situation heading into last year, but he proved his worth, especially off the field, where he must have been giving “Kumbaya” lessons to help repair the fractured Mariners clubhouse.

Last year, I think everyone was hoping to see that one magical Griffey moment, myself included. I was lucky enough to be at the Arizona game where Junior blasted one of his prototypical line-drive homers to tie the game, and seeing as it was the first time I ever saw Griffey play with the Mariners in Seattle (I moved up here in the fall of ’99), I felt like I had gotten my money’s worth out of the deal.

Essentially, the M’s will have another coach at their disposal in Griffey, who’s been around long enough to have seen everything. He worked wonders with Seattle’s young players last year, and with another influx expected in 2010, he should be in full teacher mode once again.

However, the Griffey signing does raise larger questions about the Mariners’ approach to the upcoming season. Last season’s success was so stunning and so welcome, it’s easy to overlook the fact that Seattle still has a lot of holes.

The Mariners wound up getting outscored last year, and the last time that happened when they had a winning record, they cratered the next year. So, finding offense should be of paramount concern for the Seattle brass heading into the hot stove league.

Already Russell Branyan has turned down the Mariners’ one-year offer, looking for a two-year contract. If Branyan hadn’t hurt his back down the stretch, this would have been a no-brainer, but now Seattle has to worry about whether Big Russ’ numbers were simply a one-year aberration.

You’ve gotta figure that Adrian Beltre is gone, and that Jack Wilson is a huge question mark. Branyan would seem to be DH-only if they re-sign him, so first is now open. Michael Saunders played OK in his time in left, but again, the Mariners have been searching for a power-hitting outfielder forever.

It just feels like the M’s are going to be all-pitch, no-hit once again, and I don’t think that’s enough to get past the Angels (I’m going to say that Texas had a fluke year that likely will not be duplicated). I have faith in Jackie Z to pull off something between now and spring training, but for now, M’s fans will have to be satisfied with the chance to see Griffey’s sweet swing one more time.