Miguel Olivo and Chone Figgins Both Gone, What Now?

The Mariners haven't been a good team in close to ten years and they haven't made the playoffs since 2001. This chronic failure on the baseball field has brought down the interest levels of many fans. Those fans that still exist have grown frustrated and pessimistic. Well now, the main targets for the mariner fanbase's collective frustration have now been let go. This offseason the team announced that both Miguel Olivo and Chone Figgins will not be back next year. 

This is great news for the team's chances of actually winning games. Removing Olivo from the roster keeps Eric Wedge from playing the offensively limited and defensive liable Olivo over the much more talented John Jaso. Removing Chone Figgins from the ends the self inflicted handicap the Mariners were playing with last year. In 2013 they will actually have 25 men on the roster that they can use, instead of wasting a spot to let Figgins say he is a major leaguer. It will be hard, although not impossible, for the Mariners to not find upgrades for these two roster spots.

The question that must now be answered is what will we as fans do with all our frustration? We will have to find a new outlet for venting. My guess is we chose a new player to target, most likely Justin Smoak. The Smoakamotive has been a huge disappointment since he was acquired from Texas for Cliff Lee. In his two plus season he has hit .227/.304/.382 good for a about a 90 wRC+. As a first basemen he has been a detriment to the team, far from the potential allstar the M's thought they were getting. That right there is enough to warrant fan frustration  However, there is more, the stellar defense that we were promised has also been absent during his Seattle career. For his fragile psyche's sake I hope the fans go a little easy on him; he is only 26.

Before we throw too much of our disgruntled comments in Smoak's directions, let's remember the important thing, Miguel Olivo and Chone Figgins are gone. We wont have to watch endless K, passed balls and frowny donkey faces (at least from those two) ever again. Celebrate the change and try not to worry about the future.