The names Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnacion remind me of a very particular part of the 2019 Season—the Good Part. A time when the team hit dingers at an alarming rate, beat down the Red Sox, slashed through our meager expectations, and gave us a taste of the impossible. They were two men who embodied this errant and beautiful time, both beneficiaries and victims of the same molting roster, both acquired to be given away, and both, despite this, left an indelible impression upon the 2019 Mariner season.
First, before we stroll down Memories of Dingers Past, let us first look at Edwin and Jay from the chilly perspective of baseball as business.