If it's true that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make, a strange twist on that idea concerns the Seattle Mariners and Justin Turner. Only by letting him go could they get the kick in the pants they needed.
The Mariners did indeed want Turner back as a free agent last winter. He had been good for them at the tail end of the 2024 season, so it hurt when the Chicago Cubs landed him on a mere $6 million bid. And if that was the injury, the insult was Turner slamming the Mariners for, oh, let's call it ill-timed cheapskatery in an early-March interview with Bob Nightengale of USA Today.