According to MLbtraderumors, the Yankees and Mariners have annouced a trade with James Paxton going to New York and Justus Sheffield and two other minor leaguers going to the Mariners.

This seems to set up that only about 7 teams intend to compete next year with all the rest in reset or rebuild mode.

Good news is that the Yankees will probably only sign one more starter, so some ot the competiton will be less, bad news is that the Yankees will be a very good to great ballclub next year.

This seems to be more of a reset for Seattle to line up a run a couple of years later.

Final analysis will depend on Paxton's health over the next two years and whether Justus Sheffield is as good as advertised.

Interesting first piece to the offseason.