After the Naylor signing at the very outset of free agency, the Mariners went uncomfortably quiet until the buzzer-beater Brendan Donovan deal yesterday. While we’ll get into more specific breakdowns of the AL
West rosters over spring training, we were curious: with this latest move, how do you feel about the Mariners lineup (or team as a whole) compared to the rest of the AL West? As a jumping-off point, here’s what we’re imagining for the Mariners starting nine:
- Brendan Donovan
- Julio Rodríguez
- Cal Raleigh
- Josh Naylor
- Randy Arozarena
- Dominic Canzone/Rob Refsnyder
- Luke Raley/Victor Robles
- Cole Young (Colt Emerson?)
- J.P. Crawford
Feels a lot better than when we were trying to work Ben Williamson’s name into that, right? Spoken as a Ben Williamson truther.
Meanwhile, the now- Semienless Rangers look to line up like this:
- Brandon Nimmo
- Wyatt Langford
- Corey Seager
- Jake Burger
- Josh Smith
- Jac Pederson
- Evan Carter
- Kyle Higashioka
- Josh Jung
The A’s lineup, featuring longtime Mariners fantasy trade target Jeff McNeil:
- Nick Kurtz
- Shea Langeliers
- Tyler Soderstrom
- Brent Rooker
- Jeff McNeil
- Jacob Wilson
- Lawrence Butler
- Max Muncy
- Denzel Clarke
The oops-all-infield Astros:
- Jeremy Peña
- Yordan Álvarez
- José Altuve
- Carlos Correa
- Isaac Paredes
- Christian Walker
- Yainer Díaz
- Cam Smith
- Jake Meyers
And the Angels:
- Zach Neto
- Nolan Schanuel
- Mike Trout
- Jo Adell
- Yoan Moncada
- Josh Lowe
- Jorge Soler
- Logan O’Hoppe
- Christian Moore
I was listening to a Cardinals fan podcast and one of the hosts said, “if Brendan Donovan is the fifth or sixth best player on your team, you are a legitimate World Series contender” and was trying to think of which of these squads Donovan would be the “fifth or sixth best” player. While I’m not crazy about the right field mecha-platoon, I think the Mariners still check that box. I might put the A’s into that conversation too, if pitching wasn’t also a thing when considering World Series contenders. What do you think?
