The worst might be yet to come for Mariners. So when will things turn for the better?

You know it had to have killed Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto to be a benign observer to the most active winter meetings in recent memory.

Dipoto is an inveterate trader and tinkerer, as we all know. Yet the fact the Mariners sat this one out entirely, save for the Rule 5 draft — and have made only a handful of relatively minor moves this offseason — should serve as a warning.

It’s going to be a rough go, again, in 2020.

If Seattle’s master plan works, the struggles will be worth it in the end, and the Mariners will turn the corner at some point in the year. I remain a proponent of their teardown strategy, and I think they finally have the nucleus of young players to give it a solid…