[Hendu Style]

Our story begins at the 2018 MLB Winter Meetings. The Mariners have executed a series of daring offseason moves, dumping burdensome salaries and casting off fan favorites and replacing them with a combination of prospects and more club-friendly contracts. Up until this point - December 13th, 2018 - our remains in-line with every single move that General Manager Jerry Dipoto has made in the real world.

The first domino fell just ten days after the 2018 World Series, when former #3 overall pick Mike Zunino was traded to Tampa Bay to start the offseason.

Not even two weeks later, James Paxton, who dazzled fans with a no-hitter in his native Canada and drew chants of "Eh! Eh!" in the so-called "Maple Grove" at Safeco Field, was gone in a New York minute to the Yankees.

Edwin Diaz, he of the electrifying 100 mile an hour fastball and the second-most saves in MLB history, was shipped off to the Mets along with Robinson Cano, who just five years earlier had arrived as the savior of the franchise.

Shortstop Jean Segura, who had competed for the AL Batting Crown while stringing together back-to-back .300 seasons in Seattle, packed his bags for Philadelphia in a swap with the Phillies.

Our dynasty diverges from the real world from there.

News hit this morning - December 13th, 2018 - that the Mariners had traded Carlos Santana to the Cleveland Indians for Edwin Encarnacion.

We will dare to do better.

We will carry on the roster tear down that began Dipoto's first swing of the ax on Zunino, and continued with the rolling heads of Paxton, Diaz, Cano, and Segura. They were the first, but they will not be the last. We will slash payroll and restock a long-neglected farm system. We will position ourselves to sign some of MLB's most coveted and most expensive free agents. And we will do it all against the toughest A.I. that Out of the Park can throw at us.

Welcome to "Down to the Studs."