Jerry DiPoto has been in the center of virtually every trade this offseason. Today, the Seattle Mariners GM upped his game by making two trades in a little over an hour.
There is no questioning that Jerry DiPoto is completely remaking the Seattle Mariners in his image. He came in with a gameplan, and has executed that to the fullest. Virtually no one on his roster is safe from being shipped elsewhere, and even those players who come back in return could be headed away from Seattle, as Mallex Smith found out.
While free agency may be relatively quiet, the trade market has been very active. In a way, DiPoto has spurred that action onwards, having been a part of nine trades heading into today. Well, now that the dust has cleared, that number is up to eleven. And, quite frankly, DiPoto may not be done.
But what have all of these moves meant to the Seattle Mariners? Are they a contending franchise now, capable of winning the American League West? Or are they simply spinning their wheels, having just put a fresh coat of paint on the same tired franchise?
Let us try to make sense of the trades from yesterday, and see how these moves will impact those franchises going forward. In some cases, these trades may not be fully understood for years to come.