At least Mariners' dreadful offense has nothing to do with 2 key departures

It's been ugly so far for the Mariners lineup, who enter Wednesday's series finale with the Rangers ranked 29th in team OPS and dead last in batting average. This is turn might have some fans wishing Eugenio Suárez and Jorge Polanco were still around, but this would be misguided.

As much as the Mariners entered this season with a roster capable of reaching the World Series, there were still those who wondered how they would do without the services of Suárez and Polanco. Despite not always being at their best during their respective tenures in Seattle, they both also had moments which helped make them become popular with fans.

As such, the spring training buzz surrounding the duo led to an understandable fear of missing out within the Mariners fanbase. And with Suárez setting lofty (but also conceivable) home run targets and the Mets practically trolling about Polanco's progress in Florida, this only intensified the need for the M's to have a good season in Seattle.

Mariners lineup might be even worse WITH Geno and Polo

Well, a 4-8 record certainly doesn't represent a positive start, and it's made even worse by the Mariners' "Big 3" of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor collectively going just 19-for-139 at the plate. However, in keeping with this Twilight Zone alternate reality turn of events, the lineup would conceivably be even worse if Suárez and/or Polanco were still around.

The expectation surrounding Suárez was that away from the cavernous T-Mobile Park, he would return to being more like the hitter who had a .897 OPS last season prior to his trade from the Diamondbacks. This expectation was only reinforced by getting to hit regularly for the Reds at Great American Ball Park, which is often referred to as a bandbox.

Well, early on it hasn't gone to plan for Suárez with him hitting 8-for-41, which translates to a .195 batting average, along with a .591 OPS and 62 OPS+ that would all be career lows if projected over an entire season. By extension the Reds' lineup is producing poorly as a whole and actually ranks last in the majors in scoring. (Although they do sit tied-first in the NL Central with a 8-3 record.)

Meanwhile over in New York it's been little better for Polanco, with him going 8-for-36 for a .222 batting average, with a .623 OPS and 78 OPS+ which would both also project to career lows. It also turns out the move to first base hasn't panned out so far, with him making mistakes and limited to only two games there despite Mets manager Carlos Mendoza saying he just needs more reps.

Replacements in Seattle have actually been two of the early success stories this season

At the same time back in Seattle, as much as the Mariners lineup has struggled overall, two of their best hitters have been Brendan Donovan and Cole Young. This is relevant because they were effectively Suárez and Polanco's replacements and both have been pretty damn good, with Donovan leading the team with a 1.110 OPS and Young developing into a confident hitter and a tough out.

Look, there's no denying things have been disappointing with the Mariners, but it would have been even more painful if Donovan and Young were struggling while Suárez and Polanco were being hot elsewhere. Instead, at least for now you can bookmark this as one of those occasions when the fear of missing out was both unnecessary and exaggerated.