It's all perfectly rational behavior. The Mariners last season won 86 games and remained in contention until the final day of the regular season. For 2017, they return a playoff-worthy core, so it follows that they'd be among the most active teams this offseason. Indeed, GM Gerry Dipoto on Friday swung two mid-level trades of note -- one that landed right-hander Yovani Gallardo from the Orioles and another that brought in outfielder Jarrod Dyson in a deal with the Royals. Those swaps come not long after Dipoto acquired Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger in a major trade with the Diamondbacks.

These moves probably make the Mariners better in 2017, but they've come at a cost to the current roster. To wit, the M's in those three trades parted with Taijuan Walker, Ketel Marte, Seth Smith, and Nate Karns. Absent this trio of deals, those players are rostered contributors in 2017. All of this was necessary because the Mariners have one of the worst farm systems in baseball. Normally, when contenders make trades they part with long-term assets for improvements in the short run. Dipoto, though, took over an organization with very few long-term assets, so when he makes trades to better the team in the here and now he has to claw out improvements at the margins where he can. Treacherous shoals, those.

If it appears that Dipoto is undertaking these moves with some level urgency, that's because he probably is. The Mariners, you see, are probably looking at a two-year window of contention before it's time to pivot toward a rebuild. That playoff-worthy core mentioned above? Consider what becomes of it after the 2018 season ...

  • Robinson Cano will be going into his age-36 season.
  • Felix Hernandez, already showing strong signs of decline, will be going into his age-33 season and likely within range of 3,000 career innings.
  • Kyle Seager will be on the wrong side of age 30.
  • Nelson Cruz, Hisashi Iwakuma, Leonys Martin, and Segura will all be free agents.

Making predictions two years out in a sport like baseball is akin to unscrambling an egg. However, the Mariners stand to lose a lot of current value to free agency and most of all to age-related skills loss. It also seems unlikely that, insofar as replacing that value goes, internal solutions will be hard to come by. Very sensibly, Dipoto is doing all he can to get his team into the postseason while that core is intact and in reasonable proximity to its collective prime. This, after all, is the less than proud owner of the longest current playoff drought in MLB.

To be sure, it won't be easy for Seattle. The Astros are probably a starting pitcher away from being one of the AL's leading powers, and the Rangers will surely be relevant again after winning back-to-back AL West titles. While the Angels struggled in 2016, starting your 25-man with the likes of Mike Trout gives any team the potential to contend, especially in the 10-playoff team era.

As for those moves, they will likely help. Segura may be a stretch defensively at short, but he'll surely upgrade a position that gave the M's a .613 OPS in 2016. Gallardo is no one's ace or even No. 2 man, but power-suppressing Safeco should help him be a potential stabilizer for Seattle. Dyson gives them plus fielding at all three outfield positions and needle-moving speed on the bases. As mentioned, though, some givebacks were involved.

Considering the M's were so close to playoff position last season and backed up their good record with a similarly solid run differential and BaseRuns record. (BaseRuns, available at FanGraphs, is a measure of how good a team is at controlling the fundamental outcomes of the batter-pitcher encounter. It yields what a team's record should be based on those core skills.) Those indicators of strength, plus that core, plus the modest upgrades of note mean that the Mariners should be relevant once again and strongly in the mix for one of the two AL wild card berths. As some recent squads have shown us, wild card status and can indeed yield the belt and the title.

It's all of that -- the weak base of young talent, the good-but-not-great current roster, and the slowly closing window for contention -- that's putting Dipoto in such a tough spot. He has to go for it, but the most he can do is tidy up the roster. So, no, the M's will surely not be among the powers of baseball in 2017, but sometimes it's the quiet ones who get you.