If the 2025-26 MLB offseason had ended on Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners could have counted themselves as one of the biggest winners of it. Sure, they lost Jorge Polanco, but they retained Josh Naylor and added Rob Refnsyder, Jose. A Ferrer and Andrew Knizner.
Meanwhile, no other team in the AL West had really put itself in a position to rebel against the Mariners' status as the division's defending champs. Really the only two teams that could have done so were the two Texas clubs, and both seemed more "stuck" than "aggressive."
Yet it seems that the arrival of 2026 on Thursday jolted some life into the Astros.