In a trade with Tampa Bay Friday, the Mariners turned Robinson Cano's suspension into a  veteran outfielder and a veteran relief pitcher. The most remarkable aspect of the deal is that it cost only two minor leaguers from a farm system believed nearly bereft of trade-worthy major-league prospects.

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If the NFL owners thought they came up with a solution this week that will make disappear the issue of players' game-day protests, the billionaires are dumber than the inventors of the adobe submarine.

In the benign NFL calendar period of organized team activities, when it's all about hope and fluffy spring clouds, the owners' new anthem policy inflamed all sides anew.

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The Mariners' injury travail, a runaway train in 2017, is picking up speed again. This time, it's leadoff hitter Dee Gordon, likely out several weeks with a fractured big toe. He's been the early season MVP for the 27-19 club, hitting .304, leading the American League in stolen bases (16) and playing good defense in center field. He returned Friday to play second base, his original MLB position.

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We interrupt the Seattle hoo-hah around reaching a season-high eight games above .500 (27-19), following a 3-2, walk-off win in 11 innings over Detroit Sunday at Safeco Field, with three words of greater significance for the Mariners season: Wade Bleeping LeBlanc.

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For Russian hackers streaming the Safeco Field game Wednesday on their favorite U.S. propaganda tool, Facebook, the Mariners countered with some clever disinformation. In the ninth inning, trailing 1-0, Seattle gave the Texas Rangers six outs instead of the standard three. As a cyber-strategy, it was brilliant -- the Russians who thought they knew American baseball were totally discombobulated.

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The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has a "wallet card" of substances for athletes who compete in sports that ban performance-enhancers and masking agents. This link shows the PDF of one used by UFC athletes. In the third category of masking agents is furosemide, often commercially known as the diuretic Lasix, the substance Mariners 2B Robinson Cano admits to using.

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The Mariners had a bad weekend in soggy Detroit, losing two of three to the shorthanded  Tigers, as well as 2B Robinson Cano, who has a broken fifth metacarpal bone in his right hand after being struck by a pitch Sunday afternoon at Comerica Park.

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A no-hitter speaks for itself. Actually, it sings like Pavarotti. Mariners 3B Kyle Seager, however, spoke to the tastiest part of the moment.

"Sixteen strikeouts in one game and a no-hitter the next?" he said incredulously. "How does anybody do that?"

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Entertaining as they have been for five weeks, the Mariners, along with the Angels, Sunday demonstrated two things that were known at the outset of spring training: Starting pitching is the separator, and general manager Jerry Dipoto's professional lust for Japanese star Shohei Ohtani was not misplaced, even if his landing in MLB was.

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It sure beats driving away in the middle of night while telling no one, as did Ken Griffey Jr.  did with the Mariners in 2010, ending unceremoniously his second tour of duty. But it was definitely not as poignant and dramatic as Marshawn Lynch tweeting a photo of his cleats hanging from a wire during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl in 2016, symbolizing his retirement from the Seahawks (but not, as it turns out, from football).

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The Mariners' ties to Japan will be reinforced again when they join the Oakland A's in the Tokyo Dome for two games to open the 2019 regular season, the club announced Tuesday. The Mariners will be the road team, preserving their 81-game home schedule, and will leave spring training March 15 to play two exhibition games March 17-18 against Japanese teams before the A's games March 20-21.

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The Mariners Thursday activated 1B Ryon Healy from the disabled list and sent down 1B Dan Vogelbach to AAA Tacoma. Healy was available in Cleveland, where the Mariners (13-10), who have won series against the Rangers and White Sox on this road trip, were to begin a four-game series against the AL Central Division-leading Indians (13-9) at 3:10 p.m. PT.

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Short on lefty relievers, the Mariners re-acquired Roenis Elias, 29, from the Boston Red Sox Monday for a player to be chosen later or cash, and was assigned to AAA Tacoma. Elias was part of the Mariners' starting rotation in 2014-15, making a combined 49 starts, before being traded to Boston Dec. 7, 2015 along with reliever Carson Smith for pitchers Wade Miley and Jonathan Aro.

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Erasmo Ramirez will make his first start of the season at 12:05 p.m. PT Sunday when the Mariners pursue a three-game sweep of the Rangers in Arlington, TX. But in a surprising move, the Mariners made roster room by sending down LF Guillermo Heredia to AAA Tacoma despite the fact that he's hitting .310 with two home runs.

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C Mike Zunino has returned and will  hit seventh in his regular-season debut at 5:05 p.m. Friday in Texas when the Mariners (9-8) begin a 10-game trip with three against the struggling Rangers (7-13) at Globe Life Park. He'll catch Felix Hernandez, who has given up 12 hits and 11 runs in a combined 9.2 innings his two road starts this season.

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In need of a fifth starting pitcher for the first time this season, the Mariners (9-5) called up LHP Ariel Miranda from AAA Tacoma to start Tuesday's 7:10 p.m. game against the Astros (10-7) at Safeco Field. To make roster room, utility player Taylor Motter was sent down to the Rainiers.

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Ken Griffey Jr., who starred for the Mariners from 1989-99 and entered the Baseball Hall of Fame two years ago, Monday was named to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, along with seven others: Washington State University football coach Mike Price, WSU running back Reuben Mayes, Sonics coach George Karl, jockey Alfred Johnson, Olympic heptathlete Kelly Blair LaBounty, softball pitcher Louise Mazzuca and Seattle baseball pioneer Dan Dugdale.

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It's hard to make a claim that a starting pitcher with more than 2,500 major league  innings can have a breakthrough moment in his 32nd year. But there was an episode in the sixth inning Sunday at Safeco when Felix Hernandez demonstrated some comfort with his elder professional self that the Mariners have been aching to see.

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The Mariners called up relief pitcher Chasen Bradford Monday to fill a roster spot vacated by the injured 1B Ryon Healy, who is on the 10-day disabled list after another episode of clubhouse health wackiness -- he sprained his right ankle during a weight-room workout after the Mariners' 11-4 win in Minnesota Saturday.

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At the Safeco Field workout preceding the Mariners season opener, I asked Ichiro how much harder the game is at 44 than it was years ago. He offered a classic Ichiro deflection that was true, but also averted answering question truthfully.

"It was difficult when I started, and difficult today," he said. "It's never been easy, never will be easy."

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