You know how testy we get when people make comments about how awesome our <fill in unit of team> could be in <insert range> years? Remember the Nageotte/Blackley/Meche/Anderson rotations, Clement/Johjima/Johnson/Moore catching caches and Ichiro/Gutierrez/Saunders/Ackley outfields? We do our best to try and keep people grounded on these types of issues because, as it turns out, the future is incredibly hard to predict and a hell of a lot of things change in a very short period of time.
Here is a hopefully good example of what we mean. The following is a list of every player used by the 2008 Mariners:
Kenji Johjima -- Opted out
Richie Sexson -- Released
Jose Lopez --
Yuniesky Betancourt -- Traded
Adrian Beltre -- Contract expired
Raul Ibanez -- Contract expired
Jeremy Reed -- Traded
Ichiro Suzuki --
Jose Vidro -- Released
Wladimir Balentien -- Traded
Miguel Cairo -- Contract expired
Jeff Clement -- Traded
Willie Bloomquist -- Contract expired
Bryan LaHair -- Demoted
Jamie Burke -- Traded
Brad Wilkerson -- Released
Tug Hulett -- Designated for assignment
Luis Valbuena -- Traded
Matt Tuiasosopo --
Rob Johnson --
Greg Norton -- Traded
Mike Morse -- Traded
Charlton Jimerson -- Released
Felix Hernandez --
Jarrod Washburn -- Traded
Carlos Silva --
Erik Bedard -- Contract expired
J.J. Putz -- Traded
Ryan Rowland-Smith --
Sean Green -- Traded
Roy Corcoran -- Designated for assignment
Mark Lowe --
Miguel Batista -- Contract expired
R.A. Dickey -- Contract expired
Brandon Morrow --
Ryan Feierabend -- Injured
Cesar Jimenez -- Demoted
Cha Seung Baek -- Traded
Arthur Rhodes -- Traded
Jake Woods -- Designated for assignment
Randy Messenger --
Eric O'Flaherty -- Waived
Jared Wells -- Demoted
Justin Thomas -- Demoted
Number of players used: 44
Number of players remaining: 10
Number of players traded: 13
A single year later and under a quarter of the players used still remain with the team. That's two seasons of play and one offseason of moves. A lot changes and it changes quickly. This is why you don't draft for positional need and you should not concern yourself too much with what the roster might look like two or three years down the road. It's nice to keep a general idea, but I wouldn't get too worked up over exact names when looking that far down the line.