The initial power rankings are out for 2024, and MLB.com is already disrespecting the Mariners

Now that the 2023-24 offseason has concluded, spring training is in full swing. With that, we get to see all of our new players join the familiar faces to see how the ball club will look this year. For Mariners fans there is a lot of new faces after Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander completely revamped this roster (which was definitely needed).

As we near the end of spring training, we start to see power rankings come out. Fans clamor over them and discuss how awful the rankings are, how their team is too low or too high, how did such and such team make the top 10 right now? Well, guess what? That's exactly what we're going to do here, as MLB.com has released their first 2024 MLB Power Rankings and Mariners fans will be surprised to learn that they were left off.

In this list, I agree with the top four, those teams are really good teams that should be in serious contention for the World Series this year. When you get to number five, I am very surprised that the Texas Rangers are as high as number five. The GM, Chris Young, has come out and said that they look to be done in free agency, so they won't be bringing back Jordan Montgomery.

Not only that, but staff ace, Max Scherzer, isn't expected back until June or July, while one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy (Jacob deGrom) isn't expected back until August. I know this team just won the World Series, but they got some insane seasons out of a few position players and have lost three starting pitchers to either free agency or injury.

The East Coast bias is real as we look at number seven as well. The 82-80 New York Yankees added Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Marcus Stroman, and Trent Grisham. That alone isn't enough to put them inside the top 10, but add in the fact that Cy Young winner, Gerrit Cole, is out with what seems like a significant arm injury, and the team is constantly overhyped with the trend continuing.

The Blue Jays are a team that just snuck into the playoffs last year, beating the Mariners out by one game. This offseason didn't go as planned; they lost out on the big fish (Ohtani) and also missed on Cody Bellinger. On top of that, they lost Matt Chapman to the Giants (Chapman posted the 2nd highest WAR for the Blue Jays in 2023), Whit Merrifield to the Phillies, and a big bat in Brandon Belt. They have replaced those names with Davis Schneider at second base, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa at third base, and Justin Turner at DH. I don't know if you can confidently say that any of those are actually upgrades.

I know the Mariners didn't go out and have this great free agency like the Dodgers did. When you look at the positions that they have changed, I am not sure where you can point to a team that didn't get a lot better. They are going from Kolten Wong to Jorge Polanco, Teoscar Hernandez, and Jarred Kelenic to Mitch Haniger, Luke Raley and Dominic Canzone, a DH of Tommy La Stella to one of the best in the game, Mitch Garver. They also added one of the best young relievers in baseball, Gregory Santos.

The Mariners lineup has a lot fewer question marks than the 2023 squad, including a smaller number of strikeouts. They also have a top-three rotation in baseball and one of the better bullpens in baseball. It baffles me that the Mariners didn't make the top 10 in the power rankings right now, but the power rankings don't determine the playoffs, and I hope this team proves everyone wrong this year.