Here is our 2018 off-season plan in stream form for your perusal. This should make it easy for you, dear reader, to quickly locate our predictions and just laugh, and laugh, and laugh when Jerry trades the entire Tacoma Rainiers team to Tampa Bay (including their front office staff—sorry, Brett and Casey, hope you like humidity).
So far we’ve already taken one major hit at the 1B position, where we thought the Mariners would spend thanks to a deep free-agent class; others are sure to follow. What we are most proud of as a staff, however, is not the specific predictions, but the comprehensive nature of this plan, which addresses everything from upgrades at the utility position to building depth at the minors. While each of us have our personal hobbyhorses we championed throughout the process [pause to genuflect to picture of Tyler Chatwood propped up on my desk], in the end we compromised on a plan that we think will deliver the most short-term upgrades without sacrificing the future of the team. The names might change but hopefully the broad-brush ideas (spend money on pitching, stay athletic and relatively inexpensive in center field, don’t give 300 plate appearances to a negative-WAR utility player when you’re trying to rest starters) will mostly hold true.
A lot of work went into this and we are—justifiably, I think—very proud of the result. We hope you’ve found as much enjoyment in this series as we found in creating it. Let us know what you think!
Go Mariners.