The Athletic sends a message Mariners fans desperately wanted to hear

The offseason is functionally over for the Seattle Mariners, and the general consensus seems to be that it was a very good one. Heck, they even gotten an "A+" grade from one outlet.

There's nothing wrong with healthy skepticism, however. Both Jorge Polanco and Eugenio Suárez are gone, after all, and those losses could end up hurting in 2026. And even among the players the Mariners added, there are real question marks.

So with respect to the aforementioned A+ from Anthony Dubbundo of The Ringer, it would be nice to get a more authoritative endorsement of what the Mariners did with their winter. Like, for example, if people within baseball could give Jerry Dipoto and company a good review.

See where we're going with this?

The Athletic's poll reveals praise for Mariners' Brendan Donovan and Josh Naylor deals

Last Friday, Jayson Stark of The Athletic unveiled his annual spring training survey, consisting of a variety of questions put to a collection of 36 executives, former executives, managers, coaches and scouts. Among them: What was the best trade of the winter, and what was the best free-agent bargain?

For the first, the Mariners' trade for Brendan Donovan was the favorite. Not only that, specifically the Mariners' end of it was overwhelmingly favored as the best part.

“He fits so much of what Seattle needed,” one voter told Stark, “and adds grit and grind to the lineup, too.”

You love to hear it, and it echoes what is already being said about Donovan around Peoria. And while the Mariners' plan for the 29-year-old All-Star and Gold Glover is perhaps overly ambitious, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which he's a negative on the team's aspirations for this season.

As for the best free-agent bargain, it was a tie between Suárez's one-year, $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds and the five-year, $92.5 million deal that kept Josh Naylor in Seattle. As one voter called it: “A productive 1B/DH for five years and under 100 mil!"

Again, you love to hear it. And this one probably would have been a no-brainer even if Pete Alonso's five-year, $155 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles wasn't there as a point of comparison. Naylor was a rock star after he joined the Mariners last summer, and it took him no time at all to prove his worth as a glue guy in the clubhouse.

Mind you, time will be the ultimate arbiter on the Mariners' 2025-26 offseason. As much as it feels like a big swing, well, big swings sometimes prove to be big swings-and-misses. And from a certain angle, you can look at this swing and reason that it actually should have been bigger.

Even so, there's a line between healthy skepticism and straight-up concern trolling. And with the Mariners projected as a World Series contender at FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus, it's hard to cross that line with anything resembling good faith.