An optimist, a pessimist, and a realist walk into Safeco Field.

The 2018 Seattle Mariners season is already a crapshoot. Old players may fade, young stars may rise. Old players may reach back out of nowhere and have a career year, young players may underwhelm completely. Injuries are bound to happen, but so are walk-off dingers.

What's going to happen this year? Nobody knows. But below are three viewpoints that give you varying perspectives on what could happen this year. An optimist, a pessimist, and a realist walk into Safeco. Which do you most align with?

The Optimist:

It starts on an unseasonably warm summer night in June. The Mariners sit two games above .500 roughly 10 weeks into the season, tied with the Angels for second place and already seven games behind the Astros.

James Paxton was brilliant all night against the Red Sox but ran into trouble in the 8th inning, when the 1-0 lead over Chris Sale the Mariners took early off of Nelson Cruz’s bat disappears. Paxton is pulled with runners on the corners and one out, and Mark Rzepcynski walks Rafael Devers to load the bases before Jackie Bradley Jr. pokes through a seeing-eye single to give Boston the lead.

The Mariners are down to their last out against the great Craig Kimbrel and send their young catcher Mike Zunino to the plate. Zunino works a full count, fouls off two pitches and then takes a chance on a pitch near the outside corner and watches it. The umpire’s arm stays down. It’s a walk.

With Guillermo Heredia due up next, Scott Servais looks down the dugout. Near the water cooler, twirling a bat in his hands, he sees Ichiro. The 44-year-old legend is hitting just .220, but that includes an early Disabled List stint. If he was going to have any use to the team, why not now? Servais calls Ichiro over, pats him on the back, and sends him up to face Kimbrel.

Like he did nearly a decade ago against Mariano Rivera, Ichiro pulls one more arrow out of the quiver and pokes a 1-1 pitch over the right field fence. The Friday night crowd at Safeco comes unglued.

The walk-off launches the Ners on a winning streak that sees them pull within two of the Astros by the All-Star Break. James Paxton and Mike Zunino join Cruz and Cano at the All-Star Game in DC, and Zunino wins the home run derby.

Buoyed by a healthy Felix Hernandez and Marco Gonzales' changeup, the rotation survives initial struggles and rounds into form in the second half, bolstered by a refreshed Hisashi Iwakuma. Cruz somehow hits 40 home runs again, but not far behind are Zunino with 35 and Daniel Vogelbach (who has won the first base job from Ryon Healy), with 32.

The Mariners go to Houston a game out of first on Sept. 17, and take the first of a three game series. After Houston wins game two, Edwin Diaz blows a save in game 3, and the Ners fall permanently behind the Astros in the West.

Still, Servais rallies the troops, rights the ship, and the Mariners clinch the playoffs on Sept. 28 against the Rangers and secure the first Wild Card spot a day later in a 92-win season. That sends the Red Sox back to Seattle for the Wild Card game, but Sale is unavailable, having willed them into the playoffs on the final day, meaning Boston turns to an inconsistent Rick Porcello for the game.

Servais goes to a fresh Felix Hernandez instead of his Cy Young candidate Paxton on short rest, and The King delivers the playoff start he’s dreamed about his whole career, screaming his way through 8 innings before Edwin Diaz slams the door in the ninth.

The Mariners head to Houston in their first ALDS since 2001, but the Astros’ pitching is too much and the Ners lose in four. Still, Dipoto and Servais sign extensions, and the Mariners deliver Seattle a postseason berth for the first time in nearly two decades.

The Pessimist:

We’ve hit May, and the Mariners find themselves - incredibly - in first place of the AL West, leading the Astros by one game and rocketing ahead of the Angels, who are experiencing locker room issues between newcomers Shohei Otani and Ian Kinsler. The Seattle fanbase is excited, the team is vibing well, and King Felix appears to have returned to his 2010-form, starting the year at 4-1 with a 3.15 ERA.

But then comes his seventh start of the season: May 3, in a fairly meaningless Thursday night game against the A’s (who have only won 10 games at this point in the season). The King cruises through the first five frames, surrendering no hits and walking only two. The broadcasters begin to taunt the possibility of a no-no...and then, Felix feels something funky happen in his oblique.

Fearful of what yet another injury might mean for the future of his career (let alone giving up a chance at a no-hitter), he does not mention anything to manager Scott Servais. This decision only makes matters worse, continuing until Tuffy Gosewich (who is behind the plate since Felix rarely throws to Zunino) recognizes that something’s up and calls a mound visit an inning later. Then out come the Grim Reapers (wizened trainer Rick Griffin and his new side-kick), and the crowd utters a collective groan. We’ve seen this walk too many times before...and we hoped never to see it again.

Felix’ oblique strain sidelines him for two months, during which the team plummets completely. AL player-of-the month Jean Segura (who swats .338 and scores 19 runs in April) rolls his wrist diving for a ball and hits the 10-Day DL while still steaming. Mike Leake can’t find his end-of-2017 form and loses every single start in May, earning him a demotion to Tacoma in replace for an equally terrible Erasmo Ramirez. Robby Cano stops trying completely as he sees the team’s record slip further and further blow .500.

On June 1, Cano tries to pull an outside fastball and rolls it over, where it’s booted by whatever chum the Rays are starting at 1B – but Robby doesn’t hustle, and is still out despite the botched fielding effort. Servais benches him to make an example, and then loses control of the clubhouse completely.

By the time mid-July has come around, the Ners are up for sale. Cruz (who is still incredibly pushing .300 and has hit 28 dingers at this point) is traded back to the Orioles, who are making a surprising push for a Wild Card spot. Felix is dished to

the Twins for some BS prospect, as his injury status is still highly questionable but the M’s want to give him at least one shot at the playoffs before he turns to dust. Oh, and in a trade that actually brings tears to the eyes of Seattle, M’s fans wake up on July 28th to learn that Kyle Seager is now a Yankee.

All that’s left of the team’s promising start to 2018 is a handful of new-but-very-average prospects, a Robinson Cano contract that just keeps on draining the bank, and a couple of Ichiro bobbleheads remaining from when his promotional night failed to sell out. Dipoto gets the can at the end of the season, rumors that a new manager is needed begin yet again, Eric Wedge somehow pops up as a candidate for the post, and the team is suddenly back to where it was in the mid-2000s.

Fuck.

The Realist

The team starts out red hot and end April atop the AL West, completing the first month of play with a four game sweep of the Indians at Progressive Field. Marco Gonzales ends the series with a complete game shutout, as his glorious changeup dances past Lindor, Encarnacion and company all night and Mike Zunino goes deep twice. Jerry looks like a genius.

The offense scrapes by early in the season and relies on the speed of Dee Gordon and Jean Segura at the top of the lineup. Dee and Jean both end April hitting above .350 and steal ten bases combined. The bats of Cruz, Cano, and Seager manage only five home runs between them in April but the rotation manages to carry the team into May.

Summer comes with the Ners in second place, only a few back of the Astros. But holes start to emerge: Felix misses a few weeks with a hamstring strain, home run problems continue to dog Ariel Miranda, Erasmo Ramirez, and Marco Gonzales, Jean Segura and Robbie Cano both go through long slumps, and Dee Gordon looks lost at times in Centerfield.

Nevertheless, Servais gets aggressive with the very effective bullpen, and Mike Zunino and Ryon Healy have both 20 dingers apiece by mid-July. The Ners hang around the Wild Card chase and are only four back going into September; there is some optimism in the blogosphere, as the September roster expansions bring lineup flexibility and some welcome relief to the overly taxed bullpen arms.

The team starts September with a big seven game winning streak, propelled by Ian Miller, Gordon, and Segura, who swipe any and all bases they can. Felix regains his form from April and the team starts to make a run up the Wild Card standings. Going into a six-game stretch against Anaheim and Houston, the Ners sit tied for the second Wild Card spot with the Blue Jays, and the Angels linger one game them. We split the first two games. Paxton delivers an absolute gem and strikes out Mike Trout three times in the first, but Mike Leake gets knocked around by Albert Pujols in the second. This sets up a huge final game, Marco Gonzales vs. Shohei Ohtani.

Marco cruises through the Angels lineup the first time through, but the second time brings trouble. Justin Upton misses a dinger by three feet and ends up with a double, Albert Pujols hits one into the corner, and then Mariner killer Kole Calhoun goes yard on the first pitch. Before Servais can get anyone up in the bullpen, the Ners are down three.

A combination of Nicasio, Vincent, and Wade LeBlanc stop anymore bleeding but the damage is done. Ohtani is unhittable the whole game apart from leaving a fastball over the middle of the plate to Robbie, who promptly parks it for a solo shot. The Angels take the series and move into a three way tie in the wild card race.

The Ners then run into a Houston Astros buzz saw and get swept, sending them on a miserable two-week slide to six games back in the Wild Card hunt. Despite a final surge in the last week of the season, they miss the postseason by three games and are once again watching baseball in October instead of playing it.

#Opinion #TeamOverview