Mariners actually aren't that far off from being competitive. They have good players to build around (King Felix, Iwakuma, Ramirez, Paxton, Seager, Farquhar, Franklin, Miller, Zunino, Montero and Almonte. Almonte especially really blossomed last year after the Yankees traded him. They have one of the top farm systems in baseball to make some trades and they have a ton of money to spend. Forbes lists them as the 12th most valuable MLB franchise and they only have ~$30 million committed to next year. They also recently paid of Safeco and got a new TV deal.