Seattle Mariners: Predicting 2019 Destinations of 6 M’s Players

OF MITCH HANIGER

This one may actually be tougher to project than Díaz. After being acquired on the eve of Thanksgiving along with Jean Segura in 2016, Mitch Haniger bursted onto the scene out of nowhere and has been nothing short of an MVP caliber player for the Mariners. While I cannot envision Seattle dealing Haniger, it makes a lot of sense for them to at least be open to the possibility of dealing their young All-Star.

At 27-years-old, Haniger is entering the final pre-arbitration season of his rookie deal. He absolutely fits Seattle’s new window for success and would play a big role in helping them achieve their goals, but the kind of package he could command may be too much to pass up on, especially for a player no one expected to be this good. But living without Haniger would be a lot harder than it would with Díaz, and while the M’s have a significant amount of promising young outfielders at the top of their farm system, almost all of them carry heavy question marks.

What it boils down to is whether or not Seattle thinks Haniger has hit his ceiling and is heading towards a huge cliff. They may be setting themselves up for a good ol’ “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation, where they may choose to believe in Haniger and witness him hit a brick wall, or part with him only to lose a potentially huge piece in their rebuild and see him continue his success elsewhere.

My bet is that they believe in him, or don’t receive an offer for him that absolutely blows them away. Either way, I’m about 95% sure that Haniger will remain a Seattle Mariner going into 2019 and beyond. But hey, anything can happen this offseason.

Possible destinations: Braves, Athletics, Indians, Nationals, Dodgers

Prediction: Mariners