Long before your first spring-training stretching session, your general manager says that this is going to be a “step back” season for your team. He wants fans to know that the roster overhaul is going to make 2019 a slog, but that it was necessary for success in future years.
This is understandable. Baseball teams do this all the time. Still, when you’re in the middle of it — when you’ve lost 30 of your last 41, as the Mariners have done — can you really accept that your last-place standing is all just part of the plan?