Felix ready for baseball after eventful offseason

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Felix Hernandez is enjoying his team's new clubhouse and facilities at the Peoria Sports Complex, the team's Spring Training home, but the Mariners ace is less thrilled about having to find a new house back in the Seattle area this offseason.

Hernandez's 5,100-square foot house in Bellevue, Wash., was heavily damaged in a fire in November, and he and his wife and two children had to move to a rental home while awaiting completion of a new house in the same area.

"The whole house is smoke damaged," Hernandez said Friday before heading out to the second day of pitchers and catchers workouts. "It's all lost. I was building another one, so I'll just sell it. I was going to keep it, but not now."

The five-bedroom, four-bath home was valued at $2.85 million, according to King County public records. Hernandez and his wife, Sandra, were vacationing in Napa, Calif., when they got a call saying there was a fire at their house, with three fire departments responding.

His two children were at home with his mother-in-law and a nanny at the time, but had gone to a shopping mall when the blaze broke out.

How much did Hernandez freak out when he heard about the fire?

"A lot," he said. "We just got on a plane and said, 'Let's get out of here.' Thankfully the kids were OK."

The house, however, remains on the disabled list along with many of the family's belongings.

"They still don't know what's going on," Hernandez said. "It's not fun. It was not a good offseason. But the baseball is good. I'm excited to get going."