I Believe the Mariners are Doing the Right Thing (Plus a Condensed Version of my 2019 MLB Predictions)

The Mariners head into the 2019 MLB season having gone through a lot of changes.  Significant players gone are James Paxton, Mike Zunino, Jean Segura, Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, and Ben Gamel.  And those are just the players who were traded.  In exchange the Mariners received a mix of prospects and a couple veterans.  And to be totally and completely honest, I think general manager Jerry Dipoto and the Mariners organization as a whole are doing the right thing.  Even if the Mariners were going to win with the core of players above, they weren't going to go very far.  They were decent, but not great.  We need to strive for great to finally break this long playoff drought.

As Mariners fans, we've almost become numb to losing and disappointment.  It's not expected, but it's never a surprise, either.  Just like the rain we so often get in the Puget Sound area, it's never welcomed but always a reason for gloominess.  So this 2019 season, the Mariners are not expected to do a ton of winning.  And I am content with that.  This is a transition year.  Mostly, I'm excited to see how new faces do, and see how the youngsters do if and when they're called up from the minors. 

So I thought it would be fun to make a team that may be the core of this roster some day.  It might not look exactly like this, but it will be fun to see how close I come to getting it right. 

C: Nazvaez/Trade Acquisition/Raleigh
1B: White/Healy
2B: Shed Long
SS: JP Crawford
3B: Seager/Trade Acquisition
OF: Some combination of Haniger, Smith, Kelenic, Rodriguez, Bishop, and Lewis.

SP: Sheffield, Kikuchi, Gonzalez, Carlson, Gilbert, FA/Trade
RP: Dunn, Festa, Mills, Rumbelow, Tuivailala, FA/Trade

The could be the roster come 2021 or so.  We'll see.  But having acquired a group of talented youngsters, I'm finally excited for the future of the Seattle Mariners. 

So onto my predictions for 2019.  As I'm not too excited for this baseball season as a whole, I'm just predicting the playoff teams and division winners.  As for the Mariners, I'll predict their record to be 73-89.  Just barely missing 90 losses. 

AL Division Winners: Astros, Twins (you heard it here first), Yankees
Wild Cards: Red Sox and Indians

NL Division Winners: Dodgers, Cardinals, and Phillies
Wild Cards: Cubs and Nationals

Wild Card Winners: Red Sox and Cubs

AL Divisional Matchups:
Yankees vs. Red Sox (What a matchup!): Yankees win... The-e-e-e-e Yankees win!
Twins vs. Astros: Astros win

NL Divisional Matchups:
Dodgers vs. Cubs: Dodgers win
Phillies vs. Cardinals: Cardinals win

ALCS: Yankees beat Astros
NLCS: Dodgers beat Cardinals

World Series: Yankees in six games

So, there you have it, the Yankees winning the World Series.  Just like old times.  Good for James Paxton if that does indeed happen.  As for the Mariners, they will play spoiler and knock the Athletics out of the Wild Card race in the final series of the season.  :)