Mariners Notes: Garver, Arroyo, Miller
After the Mariners declined their end of Mitch Garver‘s $12MM mutual option last fall, Garver took his $1MM buyout and then sat through a “super slow offseason. Never really got any good offers or formal offers,” as the catcher told the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude. Garver’s long wait in free agency ended two days ago when he re-signed with the M’s on a minor league deal, and Garver credited his fellow backstop Cal Raleigh with helping get the ball rolling on the reunion.
Earlier this week, Garver said “Cal reached out and said, ‘Maybe you should try calling the Mariners.’ So we called Justin [Hollander, the Mariners’ GM]. Within 24 hours, we were able to work something out.” Reports from December indicated that Seattle had some interest in bringing Garver back, and though Andrew Knizner was signed to a one-year, $1MM guaranteed deal, Garver’s return gives the M’s some more depth behind the plate.
Raleigh made 38 starts at DH last season, as the Mariners wanted to give the slugger a break from catching duties while still keeping his power bat in the lineup. Since a fresh and productive Raleigh is critical to Seattle’s hopes, the team figures to use this same tactic again in 2026, opening the door for plenty of time for a backup catcher. It perhaps isn’t out of the question that both Garver and Knizner are on the 26-man roster, though the M’s are probably more likely to stick with Raleigh and one backup as the catching corps.
Elsewhere at the Mariners’ camp, Adam Divish of the Seattle Times writes that infield prospect Michael Arroyo will get some looks as a third baseman and left fielder once Arroyo returns from national team duty with Colombia during the World Baseball Classic. Arroyo has never played in the outfield as a pro, and played in a handful of games at the hot corner when playing with the Mariners’ Dominican Summer League team in 2022. Otherwise, Arroyo has played exclusively as a middle infielder, and was only a second baseman and DH in the minors in 2025.
Heading into 2026, Baseball Prospectus ranks Arroyo as the 36th-best minor leaguer in the sport, and The Athletic’s Keith Law (49th), ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (62nd), and MLB Pipeline (67th) all have Arroyo within their preseason top-100 rankings. The consensus on Arroyo’s defense is that he could end up as a decent big league second baseman, though between offseason acquisition Brendan Donovan and a bunch of other infield prospects, it makes sense that the Mariners would want to expand Arroyo’s versatility.
2027 is probably the likeliest date for Arroyo’s Major League debut. He just turned 21 last November, and had a modest .255/.376/.341 slash line over 250 PA with Double-A Arkansas in 2025. Arroyo’s approach at the plate is well-regarded by scouts, but he’ll need some bigger numbers in the minors (and probably an injury or two ahead of him on the depth chart) to get himself on the radar for a big league call-up this year.
In a longer piece from Ryan Divish, Bryce Miller reported good health and a normal offseason routine in the wake of an injury-plagued 2025 season. Miller was limited to 18 starts and 90 1/3 innings in 2025 due to a pair of stints on the injured list, as Miller battled bone spurs in his throwing elbow. Rather than a surgical option, Miller received a cortisone shot and a PRP shot to help his recovery, and he finished his tough year on the high note of a 2.51 ERA over three starts and 14 1/3 innings during Seattle’s postseason run.
Following the season, Miller said he got a Synvisc injection, which is “like a gel, like a joint lubricant.” This allowed him to proceed as normal this winter, and he may be able to avoid surgery altogether.
“[Dr. Keith] Meister was like, ‘Don’t touch it [Miller’s elbow]. If it feels good, don’t touch it’,” Miller said. ” ‘Now that we know kind of how to help it, if you feel anything in the offseason or anything in Spring Training or anything during the year, just get another injection, to get back rolling again now that we know how to fix it.’ He advised against doing anything until I feel something and I haven’t felt anything.”
Miller is already up to 98mph in his live batting-practice sessions, and he has added 15 pounds of muscle over the offseason. Now entering his fourth MLB season, Miller looked like a breakout star when he had a 2.94 ERA over 180 1/3 innings with the Mariners in 2024, before his bone spurs hampered his progress last year.
Mariners, Mitch Garver Agree To Minor League Deal
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
Mariners Open To Reunion With Mitch Garver
The Mariners traded catcher Harry Ford to the Nationals earlier today as part of a deal for lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer. In the wake of that move, the club is open to a reunion with free agent Mitch Garver, according to Adam Jude of the Seattle Times.
Garver, who turns 35 in January, just played out the final season of a two-year, $24MM deal originally signed in December 2023. At the time, the Mariners envisioned him as a primary DH and a backup to Cal Raleigh behind the plate. Garver did not live up to those expectations on offense, however, as he posted an 88 wRC+ in 720 plate appearances across 2024-25. His contract contained a $12MM mutual option for 2026, though the club unsurprisingly declined their end of the option last month, instead paying Garver a $1MM buyout and making him a free agent.
In 2025, Garver batted .209/.297/.343 with an 86 wRC+ in 290 plate appearances across 87 games. He shaved a few points off his strikeout rate, going from 30.9% last year to 27.6% this year, while his walk rate declined slightly from 12.3% to a still-above-average 10.3%. His offensive output was more or less a repeat of 2024, when he posted an 89 wRC+ in 430 plate appearances. That kind of production is not unreasonable for a backup catcher, although it’s not what the Mariners expected from Garver, who was considered a bat-first player at the time of his signing and was coming off a 2023 season with the Rangers in which he posted a 142 wRC+ with 19 home runs.
Defensively, Garver started 42 games behind the plate this year, covering 376 2/3 innings. While Raleigh was worth 2 Defensive Runs Saved this year and graded out as the third-best pitch framer among qualified catchers, Garver was worth -6 DRS and was considered a below-average framer. He also drew negative marks from Statcast on his blocking and caught stealing rates, while his average pop time was in just the 4th percentile. In truth, Garver has never been a strong defender. He last graded out positively by DRS in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. It’s unlikely that his defense will improve as he plays into his mid-30s.
At this point, any signing team would have to hope for an offensive rebound. That said, there are some encouraging signs in Garver’s offensive profile. He posted a hard-hit rate of 46.9% in 2025, a full six points above the league average of 40.9%. He also brought up his average exit velocity to 91.5 mph after sitting at 89.9 mph in 2024. For Garver, the key will be boosting his performance against four-seam fastballs. He posted a 163 wRC+ against the pitch in 2024 but just a 77 wRC+ against four-seamers this year. Some decline is natural for a player of his age, though it’s also fair to expect positive regression given his track record.
A reunion with Garver could make sense for the Mariners. With Ford now traded to the Nationals and catching prospects Luke Stevenson and Josh Caron only at Single-A, there is no clear backup to Raleigh on the roster. With the $12MM mutual option having been declined, he could be had for a one-year deal at a much lower salary. RosterResource currently pegs the Mariners for a $151MM payroll in 2026, with about $15MM to go before they match their 2025 spending.
Photo courtesy of Dan Hamilton, Imagn Images
Mariners Decline Mutual Option On Mitch Garver
Catcher Mitch Garver is headed into free agency after his mutual option with the Mariners was declined, according to an announcement by the Major League Baseball Players Association this morning. The union didn’t specify which side declined its half of the option, though MLBTR has confirmed that it was (rather unsurprisingly) the Mariners who turned down their half. Garver will be paid a $1MM buyout rather than a $12MM salary for 2026.
That the option was declined is hardly a surprise; mutual options are very rarely exercised to begin with, and the Mariners have long been expected to decline their end of the option. Garver initially signed in Seattle on a two-year, $24MM deal. That remains the club’s largest expenditure on a free agent hitter under president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, though they’ve invested significantly more than that on extensions for players like Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh.
Unfortunately, Garver’s deal with the Mariners did not go especially well. He slashed a lackluster .187/.290/.341 in 201 games as a Mariner, good for a wRC+ of just 88. While he did slug 24 homers in 720 plate appearances and walk at a healthy 11.5% clip, he struck out 29.6% of the time while posting a line drive rate well below his career norms. That combination of an elevated strikeout rate and deflated BABIP was simply too much for his power and discipline to overcome when it came to being an above-average hitter with Seattle.
While an 88 wRC+ is below average, it’s still generally acceptable offensive production from a backup catcher, which is the role Garver found himself in this year for the most part. He had not been paid as a backup, however, and the Mariners envisioned him as a primary DH who could also take occasional starts behind the plate at the time of the signing. There was some logic in signing Garver for that role, given that he had just put together an explosive 2023 season with the Rangers where he slashed .270/.370/.500 with 19 homers in just 87 games, but the results of that deal are undeniably disappointing.
Now entering his age-35 season, Garver returns to free agency in a very different spot than last time. No team is going to invest in a multi-year deal to make him their starting DH. That doesn’t mean a big league deal is off the table, however, and Garver should benefit substantially from a weak catching market. While Garver grades out as a below-average defender behind the plate across the board, the pop he’s displayed in his bat over the years could be enticing to a team that needs to add power to the lineup and has a hole behind the plate. The veteran is far from the first hitter to struggle in the pitching-friendly environment of T-Mobile Park, and teams might think that getting him out of Seattle could help him rebound somewhat offensively.
In a market with virtually no depth behind J.T. Realmuto, Danny Jansen, and Victor Caratini, it’s not at all hard to see a catching-hungry team bringing Garver into the fold. The Padres, Astros, and Rays are known to be in need of catching help, and they could be joined by teams like the Rangers and Red Sox depending on the decisions those clubs make on arbitration-level players who could be possible non-tender or trade candidates.
The Mariners Need To Shake Up Their Offense
Mariners fans entered the season with something of a sour outlook on the 2025 season. That's understandable, given an offseason in which the front office was clearly handcuffed by payroll limitations and a paper-thin trade market for big league hitters. Armed with a only a reported $15-16MM to patch over multiple needs in the infield, there wasn't a lot out there for president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and general manager Justin Hollander to realistically pursue.
Seattle wound up rolling the dice on a handful of cost-effective infield options. Jorge Polanco returned on a one-year deal with a conditional player option. Donovan Solano snagged a $3.5MM guarantee. Rowdy Tellez signed a minor league deal and made the team after a big spring showing (.298/.320/.574 in 50 plate appearances).
Frustration was understandable. The Mariners had made a big splash at the prior deadline, reeling in Randy Arozarena from the Rays, but fans hoping for a similarly bold strike in the offseason after another narrow playoff miss were left wanting.
That frustration likely faded for many as the Mariners raced out to a blistering start. On May 7, they sat with a 22-14 record, leading the American League West by a three-game margin and sporting a +31 run differential. One might imagine that the Mariners were again being carried by their brilliant rotation, but that wasn't the case -- at least not entirely. George Kirby has still yet to throw a pitch in 2025 as he recovers from some shoulder inflammation. Logan Gilbert hit the injured list on April 25 and remains there. Bryan Woo has been brilliant. Luis Castillo has been good. Gilbert was his typically excellent self prior to his flexor injury. But the Mariners' starting pitching, as a whole, has been a middle-of-the-pack unit.
Instead, Seattle's hot start was largely attributable to a surprisingly potent offense. Through that previously mentioned May 7 date, M's hitters were slashing .247/.340/.415, resulting in a 122 wRC+ that ranked third in the majors. They were fourth in home runs, seventh in runs scored, 12th in batting average, second in on-base percentage and ninth in slugging percentage.
In the week-plus since that time, the Mariners have lost five of six games and posted a collective .206/.259/.326 batting line (70 wRC+). Typically, there's little sense panicking over a week of poor results, but there was already reason to be a bit skeptical of Seattle's sudden offensive prowess. Good as Cal Raleigh is, he's not going to continue at a 50-homer pace. Polanco isn't going to keep his OPS north of 1.000. J.P. Crawford isn't sustaining a .410 OBP, nor will Leo Rivas keep hitting .341. Those timely early-season hot streaks buoyed the Seattle offense but can't all be sustained.
The Mariners seemingly recognize that some new blood is needed; they claimed Leody Taveras off waivers from the division-rival Rangers and took on about $3.7MM in salary to do so. That was an understandable move with both Victor Robles and Luke Raley on the injured list for the foreseeable future, but it shouldn't be the only one the Mariners consider.
Let's run through a few easy ways to bolster a lineup that is facing even more pressure than usual now that Bryce Miller has joined rotation-mates Kirby and Gilbert on the injured list...
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Looking Ahead To Club Options: AL West
Over the coming days, MLBTR will look at next offseason’s option class. Steve Adams highlighted the players who can opt out of their current deals, while we’ll take a division-by-division look at those whose contracts contain either team or mutual options. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.
We started with a look at the NL West yesterday. While every team in that division had at least one player whose deal contained a club or mutual option, its American League counterpart only has two teams that are slated to have any option decisions.
Athletics
- None
Houston Astros
- None
Los Angeles Angels
- Kevin Newman, SS ($2.5MM club option, $250K buyout)
The Angels brought in Newman on a $2.75MM contract early last offseason. The contact-hitting infielder was coming off a solid .278/.311/.375 slash over 111 games in a utility role in Arizona. He added necessary shortstop depth with Zach Neto opening the season on the injured list after last fall’s shoulder surgery. Newman had a rough Spring Training, though, and the Angels went with minor league signee Tim Anderson as their primary shortstop until Neto’s return tonight.
Newman’s cold spring has carried into his early regular season work. He has managed three hits, all singles, without taking a walk in 23 trips to the plate. Newman has never walked much or hit for any kind of power, but he generally puts the ball in play and can move around the infield. Neto’s return means he won’t get much playing time at shortstop, while Kyren Paris and Luis Rengifo are respectively getting the majority of work at second and third base.
Note: José Quijada and Evan White each have club options on their respective contracts. They’ve both been outrighted off the 40-man roster and are very likely to be bought out. If they’re added back to the 40-man, the Angels would control both players via arbitration even if they decline the options.
Seattle Mariners
- Mitch Garver, DH ($12MM mutual option, $2MM buyout)
Garver’s two-year, $24MM contract remains the only multi-year deal that the Mariners have awarded to a free agent hitter under Jerry Dipoto’s leadership. It hasn’t gone well. While Garver’s injury history made that a somewhat risky investment, he looked like a good bet to hit whenever he was on the field. Garver was coming off a .270/.370/.500 showing for the Rangers during their World Series season, and he brought a career .252/.342/.483 batting line to T-Mobile Park.
The 34-year-old’s production tanked almost immediately. He managed a career-high 430 plate appearances last season, but it came with easily his worst rate stats in a full season. Garver hit .172/.286/.341 while striking out at a 31% rate. It wasn’t simply a product of Seattle’s pitcher-friendly park. His .186/.290/.324 line on the road wasn’t any better than his .153/.281/.363 showing at home. He doesn’t look to be on the verge of a rebound. Garver has begun this season with four singles, six walks, and zero extra-base hits across 34 trips to the plate.
- Andrés Muñoz, RHP ($6MM club option)
The Mariners worked out an extension with the hard-throwing Muñoz during the 2021-22 offseason. He’d made all of one appearance in a Seattle uniform at the time. Muñoz had undergone Tommy John surgery while a member of the Padres in 2020. Seattle acquired him early in the rehab process. They believed he’d blossom into a late-game weapon. They were right.
Muñoz has rattled off three straight sub-3.00 ERA seasons since signing his extension. He has begun this year with 10 scoreless innings, recording 13 strikeouts with an AL-leading seven saves. He carries a 2.35 earned run average with a huge 34.7% strikeout rate over 184 frames in a Seattle uniform. This has quickly become one of the most team-friendly contracts in the game.
The option is essentially a lock unless he suffers a significant injury that’d cost him all of next season. The team has respective $8MM and $10MM options for 2027 and ’28, so they could keep him at below-market rates for three years. Next season’s option has a $6MM base value. It’d climb by $250K apiece if Muñoz finishes 20, 30, 40 and 45 games this year. He’s already at eight games finished and should get to 45 by season’s end. The option price will probably end up at $7MM, but it’s an easy call for the front office.
- Jorge Polanco, 3B ($8MM mutual option, $750K buyout)
Polanco’s option begins as an $8MM mutual provision, but he can convert it to a player option if he hits a vesting threshold. If he reaches 450 plate appearances this season and avoids a lower half injury that’d require him to begin next season on the injured list — which is protection for the team given his recent knee concerns — it’d become a $6MM player option. Getting to 550 plate appearances this year would push the player option price to $8MM.
If Polanco does not hit the vesting threshold, it’d remain an $8MM mutual option with a $750K buyout. He has been dinged up by knee and side discomfort that has limited him but not prevented him from playing. The switch-hitting Polanco is currently unable to play the infield or hit right-handed in games. He’s a lefty-swinging designated hitter for now. Yet he’s been on such a tear that the Mariners will happily live with the limitations.
Polanco has connected on three homers and a pair of doubles through 13 games. He’s hitting .378. That not only leads the team but ranks sixth in the majors among hitters with at least 40 plate appearances. He’s obviously not going to keep up this pace, but Polanco was fairly consistently an above-average hitter during his run as Minnesota’s second baseman. The Mariners felt that last year’s career-worst production was attributable to the knee injury through which he played a good chunk of the season. Polanco has done his best to prove that right so far.
Texas Rangers
- None
Mariners Notes: Bellinger, Hoerner, Payroll
The Mariners have been connected to a couple of Cubs recently, with recent rumors that they had discussed both infielder Nico Hoerner and first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times took a look at those talks and some other Mariner topics ahead of next week’s Winter Meetings.
Both players are sensible targets for the Mariners, who have infield vacancies and have been trying to cure their strikeout woes for a while. The club’s hitters were punched out at a 25.9% clip in 2023, with only the Twins having a higher rate that season. The M’s moved on from players like Teoscar Hernández, Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic in an attempt to improve this but the plan backfired. New additions like Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger and Jorge Polanco all struggled with strikeouts themselves, so the M’s actually saw the team-wide rate jump to 26.8% in 2024, tied with the Rockies for the highest in the majors.
Hoerner has only been punched out in 12% of his plate appearances thus far. Bellinger has a higher career strikeout rate of 21.1% but he’s finished each of the past two seasons at 15.6%. Beyond the contact stuff, both players could also fit Seattle’s need for infielders. They turned down a club option on Polanco and non-tendered Josh Rojas. They traded Ty France last year and Justin Turner became a free agent at season’s end.
They are reportedly looking to add at both corners, supplementing shortstop J.P. Crawford. At second base, they are reportedly content enough with using Dylan Moore and Ryan Bliss until prospect Cole Young forces his way into the picture.
Luke Raley could be part of the first base solution, though he struggles against lefties and would need to be platooned. He could also be moved to outfield if the M’s add an everyday first baseman. They have interest in re-signing Turner or reuniting with old friend Carlos Santana, but it makes sense that they would consider Bellinger with the Cubs reportedly determined to move either him or Seiya Suzuki and free up their position player mix.
However, pre Jude’s report, the financial components of a Bellinger trade are a factor. The Mariners are reportedly planning to increase payroll next year, but not by much. Jude pegs their spending range at $150-155MM and says they have about $15MM of room at the moment. Cot’s Baseball Contracts pegged the club’s Opening Day payroll at $140MM last year, so that range tracks as a modest bump. RosterResource currently projects the club for a $146MM payroll next year, which seems to be just a tad higher than what Jude is suggesting.
Bellinger’s current contract wouldn’t fit into those parameters. He’s slated to make $27.5MM this year and then will have to decide between a $5MM buyout or a $25MM salary for 2026. As such, Jude suggests that the Mariners would have to include Haniger or Garver in the deal to balance out the money a bit. The Cubs wouldn’t have much interest in Haniger, since they already have an outfield surplus. On top of that, he’s coming off a poor season and is going to make $15.5MM next year.
Garver is a better fit for the Cubs since his primary defensive position is catcher, a spot they are looking to upgrade. However, he’s been injured quite often and become more of a designated hitter over time. He’s also coming off a rough campaign and will make $11.5MM next year, plus a $1MM buyout on a 2026 mutual option.
Perhaps the contract situation will stand in the way of a deal coming together. There’s also Bellinger’s inconsistency and opt-out situation to consider. After some rough seasons where Bellinger was seemingly held back by injuries, he had a nice bounceback in 2023. He hit 26 home runs, slashed .307/.356/.525 and stole 20 bases, leading FanGraphs to credit him with 4.4 wins above replacement. But he couldn’t repeat that in 2024, producing a .266/.325/.426 line while stealing just nine bases and spending less time in center field due to the emergence of Pete Crow-Armstrong. His fWAR tally was just 2.2 this year, half of the prior year despite playing in the same number of games.
Bellinger declined to trigger an opt-out in his contract at the end of that middling season but has another opt-out next year. That makes him a tricky gamble for any acquiring club. The best case scenario is that you get him back in good form and he leaves after year one, but even that scenario costs $32.5MM. The downside is that he doesn’t get back to that level and sticks around as an overpaid part of the 2026 roster.
As for Hoerner, it was recently reported that the Mariners had discussed him with the Cubs, but it wasn’t clear how interested they were. Today, Jude says the M’s “covet” Hoerner, so it seems the interest is real from Seattle’s end.
He would be an interesting fit as he is mostly a glove-first player. He has hit .278/.338/.381 in his career for a 102 wRC+. But thanks to his excellent defense and baserunning, he was been worth roughly 4-5 fWAR in each of the past three seasons.
He came up as a shortstop but has been mostly playing second base in deference to Dansby Swanson. He’s generally perceived as capable of returning to shortstop on another club, but the Mariners already have Crawford. Unless the M’s have designs on moving Crawford, then it seems they view Hoerner as a good option to help with their uncertainty at third or perhaps second base.
In terms of salary, Hoerner is going to make $11.5MM next year and $12MM in 2026. That makes him a far better financial fit than Bellinger. Per Jude, the Cubs are looking for MLB-ready help whereas the Mariners would rather surrender prospects. There has been a lot of trade speculation around the Seattle rotation since it’s so strong but the depth is actually not great and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has said that surrendering a big league starter is “Plan Z”.
Mariners Notes: Garver, Santos, Speier
The Mariners had an injury scare this evening as catcher Mitch Garver was strike in the wrist by a pitch from Twins right-hander Joe Ryan during this afternoon’s game and exited with what Seattle termed a right wrist contusion. As noted by MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer, manager Scott Servais told reporters after the game that x-rays on Garver’s wrist came back negative, but that the club doesn’t plan on making a decision about next steps regarding the 33-year-old until Tuesday given the club has tomorrow off.
Garver came to the Mariners on a two-year, $26MM deal over the offseason. The longtime catcher had gradually seen more and more of his time come at DH during his tenure with the Rangers and joined Seattle ticketed for a regular role at DH while occasionally spelling Raleigh behind the plate as well. Things haven’t exactly gone according to plan for Garver half a season into his Mariners tenure, however, as he’s slashed just .172/.291/.353 in 71 games this year. While he’s hit for decent power and walked at an excellent 13.5% clip, the combination of a massive 30.9% strikeout rate and his deflated .214 BABIP have left him below average overall with a wRC+ of just 90. That’s certainly passable production from a catcher, but far more is to be expected from a player who is essentially being paid to be a full-time DH.
The potential injury comes as a particularly frustrating time for the Mariners as Garver had begun to heat up in the month of June. In 91 trips to the plate this month entering play tonight, Garver had slashed a much more palatable .187/.319/.453 with a 122 wRC+. That improved production is generally backed up by solid peripherals, as well; Garver’s strikeout rate, while still elevated, has dipped to a more manageable 28.6% this month, and he’s walked at an enormous 16.5% clip. A BABIP of just .200 suggests that further positive regression could be in store for Garver, though it now seems possible that will have to wait depending on how much his wrist heals in the coming days.
Even in the event that Garver requires only a few days off, it’s possible the Mariners will look to make some sort of short-term roster move. After all, he and Raleigh are the only two catchers on the club’s active roster, meaning the club could be forced into a tough situation if Raleigh were to get hurt while Garver is down. The Mariners have Seby Zavala and Michael Perez as depth catching options at Triple-A, though neither is currently on the club’s 40-man roster.
In more positive Mariners news, a pair of key relievers appear to be making their way towards a return to action. Adam Jude of The Seattle Times relayed recently that, according to GM Justin Hollander, right-hander Gregory Santos is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes that lefty Gabe Speier is set to throw a bullpen session that same day.
The impending return of the two hurlers is excellent news for the Mariners. Santos, in particular, figured to handle late-inning duties for the club alongside closer Andres Munoz and veteran set-up man Ryne Stanek after the club swung a trade with the White Sox to acquire him just before the start of Spring Training. Unfortunately, that deal has yet to bear fruit as Santos has been sidelined the entire season to this point after suffering a lat strain in mid-March. He could prove to be an impactful arm for the Mariners in leverage situations once healthy enough to take the mound in the big leagues, however, as shown by his 3.39 ERA and 2.65 FIP in 66 1/3 innings of work with Chicago last year.
As for Speier, the lefty has missed the past month with rotator cuff issues but was in the midst of a frustrating 2024 season prior to his injury. In 22 appearances with Seattle this year, the lefty has struggled to a 6.06 ERA in spite of peripheral numbers that remain mostly solid. Speier has struck out a strong 29.3% of batters faced this year but has dealt with some poor fortune on batted balls and sequencing, as demonstrated by an elevated .325 BABIP allowed and an unsustainable strand rate of just 61.3%, far below the typical 70-75% range for the average hurler.
Not all of Speier’s struggles have been self-inflicted, of course; the lefty has allowed free passes at a worrying 13.3% clip this year, a massive change from the 5.1% walk rate he posted with the Mariners last season when he posted a 3.79 ERA and 3.35 FIP in 69 games. The Mariners will surely be hoping that’s the version of Speier they get back once he’s healthy enough to return, which MLB.com suggests is unlikely to be until after the All Star break.
MLBTR Podcast: Yamamoto Fallout, the Sale/Grissom Trade and Transaction Roundup
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Anthony Franco of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Dodgers signing Yoshinobu Yamamoto and what’s next for the teams that missed (0:55)
- Red Sox agreed to terms with Lucas Giolito and then traded Chris Sale to the Braves for Vaughn Grissom (7:50)
- The Royals spreading money around to various players (16:10)
- The Blue Jays sign Kevin Kiermaier and Isiah Kiner-Falefa (20:25)
- Mariners sign Mitch Garver (26:05)
- Reds sign Frankie Montas (28:35)
Check out our past episodes!
- Tyler Glasnow, Jung Hoo Lee, D-Backs’ Signings and the Braves’ Confusing Moves – listen here
- Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Deferred Money – listen here
- Winter Meetings, Ohtani Secrecy, and the Mariners Shedding Salary – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Mariners Sign Mitch Garver
The Mariners announced the signing of Mitch Garver to a two-year contract on Thursday afternoon. The deal, which also includes a mutual option for 2026, reportedly guarantees the ISE Baseball client $24MM. Seattle’s 40-man roster count sits at 37.
While Cal Raleigh is still Seattle’s top backstop, Garver gives the Mariners a prominent bat who can act as both a backup catcher and a regular presence at designated hitter. This was the role Garver filled with aplomb for the Rangers last season, as he hit .270/.370/.500 with 19 homers over 344 plate appearances while mostly acting as a DH to allow All-Star Jonah Heim regular time behind the plate. Garver was then the exclusive first-choice DH for the Rangers’ postseason run, as he hit .226/.317/.434 with three homers over 60 PA to help Texas capture its first World Series title.
It wasn’t an entirely perfect platform season for Garver, however, as he missed close to two full months early in the season due to a left knee sprain. This continued a pattern of injuries that has plagued Garver throughout his career, as he has played in only 232 of a possible 546 games since the start of the 2020 season. These health issues (ranging from forearm surgery, an intercostal strain, and knee, groin, and back problems) have contributed to Garver’s increasingly limited usage at catcher, as the move to a DH role should help him stay on the field with a bit more regularity.
This led to something of a tricky entry into free agency for Garver, as while he was technically the top catcher on the market, it would’ve been risky for a team to rely on him for anything more than a timeshare at the position. As MLBTR’s Nick Deeds suggested back in October, Garver’s ideal landing spot might be “a team with another reliable catching option, so Garver could have a clear path to DH playing time and face less pressure to regularly suit up behind the plate.”
The Mariners fit the bill perfectly, with Raleigh establishing himself as the No. 1 catcher and a big power source over the last two seasons. The switch-hitting Raleigh has much better numbers against right-handers than against left-handers, which dovetails nicely with the right-handed hitting Garver’s ability to mash left-handed pitching.
Tom Murphy signed with the Giants last week, though the M’s seemingly prepared for that departure by acquiring catcher Seby Zavala as part of the Eugenio Suarez trade with the Diamondbacks. If Garver is going to primarily be a DH, the Mariners might still have room for Zavala on the roster to act as more of a traditional backup catcher. This could avoid some roster maneuverings since Zavala is out of minor league options, so the Mariners would have to designate him for assignment and expose him to the waiver wire if they wanted to send him to the minor leagues.
Seattle was known to be looking for a power bat for its DH spot, and a right-handed hitter in particular to help balance out the lineup. Such names as Jorge Soler, J.D. Martinez, and Rhys Hoskins were reportedly on the Mariners’ radar, but Garver will now join the roster on a two-year pact. It’s a little less than the three-year, $39MM that MLBTR projected for Garver, though it’s still a nice payday for a player teams might’ve seen as more of a pure DH than as a regular backstop.
Adding a big bat at any price also helps change the narrative of what has been a distressing offseason for Mariners fans. The Mariners are set to assume total ownership of the ROOT Sports Northwest regional sports network on January 1, and the related additional costs have reportedly limited the team’s ability to spend on player payroll. President of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto said in early December that the Mariners’ payroll would rise from its estimated $140MM figure from 2023, yet most of the club’s moves prior to the Garver signing were designed to cut costs. Suarez’s trade removed one big salary from the books, and Seattle then got rid of a lot more money in the five-player trade with the Braves that saw Jarred Kelenic dealt essentially as a manner of unloading the contracts of Marco Gonzales and Evan White.
As per Roster Resource, the Mariners’ projected 2024 payroll now sits at around $128.5MM with Garver’s salary added. With the $140MM number from 2023 in mind, this still gives the M’s some flexibility to pursue further needs, like an outfielder or infield help. Dipoto has downplayed the idea of trading from the team’s young pitching depth, yet that might be a more cost-effective way of obtaining position-player help than by signing another free agent.
Signing Garver already represents a departure for Dipoto in one sense, as he doesn’t often make notable splashes in free agency. Remarkably, Garver is only the first position-player free agent (and only the fourth free agent whatsoever) Dipoto has signed to a multi-year contract during his eight years running Seattle’s front office. This might imply that Garver could be it for the Mariners this winter as far as relatively notable free agent signings go, or perhaps Dipoto will change tactics and look at other free agents in order to further bolster the lineup.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Mariners and Garver had agreed to a two-year, $24MM contract.
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