Seattle Mariners: Offseason Trade Grades, Part 1

No team has been busier than the Seattle Mariners this offseason, and for good reason. You can’t rebuild with a ton of dead weight tugging at your ankles, and the M’s have successfully shed some the past month.

It’s been a bittersweet Winter to say the least. Aside from the joy and excitement brought by the Mariners finally acknowledging their place as a middle-of-the-road organization and putting a plan in place to ascend that, fans of the team have had to witness many of their favorite players head off elsewhere.

It’s a tough pill to swallow having to witness the departures of Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz, but ripping off the band-aid is never painless. It makes it even harder considering this team’s history, especially when they were on the brink of ending the longest playoff drought in major professional sports.

For better or worse, this offseason has stung in ways while delivering hope in others. Some trades have hurt more than others, and some have been absolute home runs on paper.

Today, we’re going to look at the first half of deals made by Jerry Dipoto and company this offseason, grading them individually. Later on in the week, we’ll take a look at the latter half of deals, including the most recent Edwin Encarnación for Carlos Santana swap.