Seattle Mariners (-16)
Well, this shouldn’t be shocking, right? The Mariners did make some intriguing moves for Yusei Kikuchi and Justus Sheffield, but both are unproven at the big-league level. Plus, one of them arrived at the expense of the club’s ace, James Paxton.
Marco Gonzales has the makings of a dark horse Cy Young candidate if he can continue on his current trajectory. However, Mike Leake‘s best quality is that he can eat up innings, and Felix Hernandez is still attempting to rediscover himself and revitalize his career.
For a team taking a step back like Seattle, watching King Felix recapture at least some of the magic he’s lost over the years would be a wonderful sight. It’s going to be a tall task for the veteran right-hander, but he’s in now-or-never mode. With the way free agency has worked out for some of the game’s best players, it’ll be awfully hard for Hernandez to find a job next winter as a 34-year-old if something doesn’t change.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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