The Mariners and catcher Mitch Garver have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. The ISE Baseball client will arrive in camp tomorrow to undergo his physical and will be paid at a $2.25MM rate if he cracks the MLB roster, reports Daniel Kramer of MLB.com.
Garver, 35, returns to the club he has spent the past two years with. The Mariners signed him to a $24MM deal for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. At that time, Garver had the reputation of being injury prone but one of the league’s best offensive catchers when on the field. From 2018 to 2023, he only played 428 games over those six seasons but slashed .254/.343/.488 for a 126 wRC+. Among primary catchers with at least 40 plate appearances in that span, only Adley Rutschman and Will Smith barely outperformed him, with Rutschman having a 129 wRC+ and Smith 128.
The Mariners were hoping Garver could add a potent bat to the lineup via the designated hitter spot while also serving as Cal Raleigh‘s backup behind the plate. It didn’t really work out they had hoped. Over the past two years, Garver stepped to the plate 720 times for Seattle. He hit 24 home runs and drew walks at an 11.5% clip but struck out in 29.6% of his plate appearances, leading to a .187/.290/.341 batting line and 88 wRC+.
That production wasn’t disastrous, as catchers are usually about 10% below league average on the whole. For a backup catcher to be in that range isn’t too shabby in a vacuum but the Mariners don’t usually spend on free agent bats and were surely hoping for more, especially since his defense isn’t especially well rated. At the time of the Garver deal, that was actually the biggest guarantee given to a free agent hitter in the tenure of Jerry Dipoto, who started leading the front office in September of 2015. The recent signing of Josh Naylor has since broken that record.
Despite the underwhelming return on that investment, there’s little harm in trying again with this pact. Garver isn’t even guaranteed a roster spot at this point and presumably wouldn’t make a huge salary if he does eventually get a spot.
The M’s have Raleigh signed for years to come but the backup gig is somewhat open. The Mariners traded Harry Ford to the Nationals as part of the trade which brought reliever Jose A. Ferrer to Seattle. Andrew Knizner was signed to a one-year deal worth $1MM in December but doesn’t have the same ceiling as Garver. Jhonny Pereda is also on the 40-man roster but he has just 50 big league games under his belt and can still be optioned to the minors.
With Pereda likely ticketed for Triple-A, Garver will try to push Knizner for the backup job. If Garver doesn’t get it, the Mariners would presumably like him to head to Triple-A as non-roster depth, but he would have some say in the matter.
Garver is an Article XX(b) free agent, which means a player with six years of service time who finished the previous season on an MLB roster. Those players who sign minor league deals at least 10 days before Opening Day have a trio of opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1. If the M’s don’t commit to Garver as camp is winding down, he could look for better opportunities elsewhere.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Wish the Twins could have got him back I really enjoyed watching him with us.
Don’t tell me you’re looking forward to Gio Urshela and Liam Hendricks too? At least Liam has a chance to be good but he never was in his original time here. Now Littell would be a nice return FA worthwhile after Pablo went down
I can’t believe he can’t do better than that
He’s horrendous
Keyboard warriors calling professional baseball players horrendous always surprises me. Probably shouldn’t at this point, but it does.
Guy has 106 home runs in the Major F’ing Leagues. Which, by the way, is 106 more than all of us combined.
Sure, he’s not going into the HOF. But he’s got a WS ring and has had a career playing pro baseball. Not everyone is Shohei Ohtani. Nonetheless, if you take a step back from the keyboard and think about it, it’s still impressive.
I wish more people would learn the wisdom of Rumi’s “3 gates”
In 2024-25 he fell off the cliff at the MLB level. He’s a good baseball player, way better than the millions of us who washed out way before he did. However in the majors where this s–t actually matters, he’s not good at all anymore.
I’d add that he was decent against LHPs, which was how he was how he was primarily used, and the pitching staff seemed comfortable with him.
He didn’t live up to expectations, but Seattle had initially asked him to handle a role he never had before (DH).
As just a backup catcher, especially with his previous history, this deal shouldn’t upset anyone.
Refsnyder has been better against LHPs and more recently though, now he’s the right handed platoon bat for the DH/pinch hitter spot. There’s just no reason to justify Garver’s struggles or give him the benefit of the doubt other than he’s a 35-36 y/o catcher with a history of injuries and inconsistency. He alternated between really good years and really bad ones. It just all came to a head that he was toast when he signed with the Mariners the first time. I don’t mind the signing today, in fact I like it for spring training purposes as they need bodies behind the plate while Cal plays in the WBC. However I have no delusions of grandeur with him. He isn’t going to beat out Knizner who’s already on a guaranteed deal. He might not even beat out Pereda’s superior defense.
Seattle initially had him in a regular role as their DH. That was a mistake.. But he has a higher ceiling than Knizner and the staff likes him.
I think people are reading into this too much. We’re talking about the backup catcher position. He’d see fewer PAs because they wouldn’t need him to DH, and of course, nothing is guaranteed. He’s an NRI.
He absolutely has a shot at making the team, though. Do you really think Knizner’s 1m guarantee makes him a lock? His projections certainly don’t. They could cut him loose and eat as little as 200k if another team picked him up.
That said, I don’t really care who gets the job.. I’ll trust the Mariners’ FO to make the right decision.
Yeah, everyone quit giving their opinions so sherm doesn’t lose his snot. Most people get off to their bad takes, so take your prophetic GM mind to the prophetic GM mind trade rumor page. Get a life sherm
The ceiling might be higher because Garver has proved he can hit MLB pitching once-upon-a-time, but his floor is much lower given his age and injury history. That said, as the extra guy in spring training the Mariners did well here. At least he knows the staff and can share that knowledge with the other catchers. I still think they take Knizner or Pereda instead, they’re a bit better defensively and theoretically have more gas in the tank because they’re 5 years younger.
Do we know if Knizer is DFA’d and rejects the assignment if his deal is still fully covered? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s like the deal the Dodgers signed with Andy Ibanez where they hoped to keep his as non-40 man depth as they assumed no one else would take him at above the minimum.
Knizer definitely starts Spring Training with the inside track, but at just above the minimum is far from a sure thing to stick on the roster all year long.
A Rumi take on this site is not something I thought I would ever see- but I love it
Knizner’s contract is guaranteed so if they cut him they have to pay him. Luckily it’s only like $1ish million. I think he sticks just because of the contract.
My question is slightly different. Ibanez’s deal is fully guaranteed too, but due to service time he wouldn’t get the full salary if he rejected an assignment to AAA (instead he’d only get the prorated portion of his deal). Most veterans would be able to reject the AAA assignment without losing any salary (e.g. if the Phillies tried to stash Castellanos in AAA).
obviously you’ve never seen Andrew Knizer play. Garver is better than Knizer, whose contract is not fully guaranteed – he can be cut loose in March and paid termination pay 20-30% of the minimum). Knizer has never hit well and he’s downright bad at throwing out baserunners!
wrong. its not fully guaranteed. they can release him in March with termination pay and only pay $200K
Yeah, you completely missed the point of that.
That’s only if there’s a termination clause and that seems unlikely, because there are performance bonuses in the contract based on total PAs. With such a low base salary as a free agent, it doesn’t really matter anyway.
Again, if they were to release him and another team were to sign him, which is certainly a possibility, the signing team would assumingly pay him league minimum, which is nearly 800k, hence suggesting Seattle might (keyword: might) only be on the hook for around 200k.
But there’s no way Seattle keeps him just because they might have to pay him between 200k and 1m. They’ll go with the player they believe will help them the most.
I don’t know if Knizner actually has the inside track. He played in 37 and 33 games the last two seasons. Seattle has around 50 day games this season. Asking him to play a lot more often doesn’t seem like a preferred choice.
Cal has started between 114-125 games at catcher over the past 3 years. I’d expect that trend to continue meaning that there will be ~45 starts for the backup catcher which is an amount any catcher could handle. The spot will go to whoever performs the best/has the best relationship with the staff (e.g. Garver being Kirby’s catcher).
It’s a low risk signing.
Other than the Naylor signing the M’s have stayed away from the FA money, which was predictable. They wren’t willing to sign Geno or Polanco like I said.
He tanked himself these last two seasons. Seemed done tbh.
I hope he enjoys Tacoma. That’s the only city he better be suiting up for..
I’d take him over Knizer…
Agreed plus he was well liked in the clubhouse
I think I agree
If he doesn’t make the team, I doubt the opt outs will be necessary. I bet he retires.
Ughh. Usually I’d say he can’t be much worse than our current backups. But this guy can be.
I had honestly forgot about Garver. It certainly can’t hurt to have him in camp. He at least knows the pitching staff well. Knizner isn’t good enough to be given a roster spot automatically so a little competition is healthy.
The hope is that if he makes the team, he can hit without having the pressure of getting the first sizable contract of his career. If that was even root of his issues.
Even the*
Knizner signed a guaranteed contract so he’ll get the opportunity at #2 behind Cal before Pereda and Garver do. More than anything the Mariners just need to carry 3 catchers this spring and Cal’s playing in the WBC. At least with Garver he knows the staff and could mentor the other two backups a bit.
Nice depth move
Has a player ever signed a minor league contract with a team fresh after the major league contract he was just in expires? I feel this is exceptionally rare? Usually if a player disappoints he seeks greener grass somewhere else.
Well maybe he feels he has something left to prove to Seattle. He wants to give whatever he has left to make up even a smidgen of value for the two lost years. Maybe a pride thing. ,
The fact that spring training has begun and he wasn’t signed should indicate there were no greener pastures to go to. For him, at least with the Mariners he gets to go to camp, presumably play with Cal going to the WBC and see if he can’t find something that hooks him on to the club or showcases himself to 29 other teams. Injuries happen and being active in camp only helps him.
Helleva easy guy to root for. His 2023 season in Texas was very beneficial for that team. Had some huge hits for a championship team. Then he came to Seattle and fell off the precipice face first.
Your last sentence is the story of most veteran players Seattle has ever signed or traded for over the last 25 years.
Like Mitch Haniger. C’mon let’s give him one more shot !!! You remember what he did in 2017 right?? That was awesome. What’s one measly little roster spot for a hometown hero like that?? I bet you can’t say No to his face!!!!.
I loved Haniger and it really bummed me out he couldn’t stay on the field long enough to have a great career.
He could be the best of the choices, assuming he doesn’t cost much.
I thought Cashman wanted the Yankees to get more right handed hitters. Do the Yankees have a right handed back up for Wells and I missed it?
Is this really the RH backup you wanted Cashman to sign?
No downside to minor league deals. Either he regains his form and forces his way back to the bigs or he’s likely cut loose for a better opportunity. Either way, it can’t hurt. I wouldn’t bank on him making an impact, but wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it back and performs admirably.
I think it also helps that there’s no pressure now. They have their DHs. He can focus on being a backup.
This is basically an audition with Seattle getting first shot at him.
Yep, I think this could be a very underrated move for us, but if not, oh well.
You are banned from Lookout Landing
We don’t want you there anyway.
Yeah happens to more players than thinkalot of them for various reasons were ineffective in the last year or last few months of their contract and noone has offered a majorleague deal…..
Wow I never thought I’d say it but I like this contracts if he makes the team. Kizer sp?! Has great arm and defense, with no bat. But damn Garver for $2.25m if he makes the team is a deal! $24m was a horrible signing. But I’ll take him to DH and provide Catcher backup to Raleigh. No Polanco means slip him into DH, and Kizer on the bench as defensive Catcher only.
By the end of last season, he was taking every first pitch and seemed to want to be anywhere but at bat, especially with runners on. Not a good two years. If he makes the squad over Knizner, does Knizner still make a million bucks to play for Tacoma, or is he just released like Castellano?
PS and he won’t be getting any DH days. PH, sure, but not DH.
*youth pastor voice* You know which Mariners hitter also never swung at the first pitch in an at-bat? Hint: he’s in the hall of fame.
Randy Johnson??
I like this no-risk, moderate-upside signing. Neither backup catcher currently in camp could hit their way out of a paper bag. Garver might be done, but even done he probably outhits Knizzner and Pereda.
If he made the team, it might mean a few more off days for Randy and Naylor and even Julio or Robles against lefties. (Garver catches, Cal DH, and Refsnyder plays 1st or LF or RF). Odds are nonzero this is a final spring before becoming a roving instructor for the team. All reports are that he’s a top-notch guy.
I met and got to watch him play a lot when he was in cedar rapids coming up through the system. Even got a signed ball. Super awesome nice guy. Very high baseball IQ.
Send it I saw him hit a walkoff hr. Pretty sure he’s still legit.
Well it’s all been decided, can’t believe with Garver familiar with the pitching staff that he doesn’t have an edge, besides I expect will see better of Garver performance this time around. Like the rest of you I also was a disappointed in his performance but the pressure to hit shouldn’t be a problem.
He’s 35 and has produced well below his career averages for 2 years in a row. He was available to every team all winter, and yet he could only get a camp invite from his most recent team that has 3 other catchers on their 40-man.
Once again count me as surprise if Garver does not ascend as the backup catcher. He still would need to prove himself. The question might become does he still have it, given father time works a little different for each of us, if that is a part of the equation here, otherwise if the glove does not fit you must equit.
Everyone who dumps on Garver is forgetting that sac fly RBI against Tarik Skubal in that pivotal game 5 of the ALDS. Without Garver, we would not have made it to the ALCS.