The Mariners and Mitch Garver have agreed to a two-year, $24 million deal, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan (about X). The deal will become official if Garver passes a physical exam. Garver is represented by ISE Baseball.
While Cal Raleigh Since Garver is still Seattle's top backstop, he gives the Mariners an outstanding hitter who can serve as both a backup catcher and a regular hitter. That was the role Garver filled with aplomb for the Rangers last season, hitting .270/.370/.500 with 19 home runs in 344 plate appearances while primarily serving as a DH to make All-Star possible 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 home runs over 60 PA, helping Texas win its first World Series title.
It wasn't quite a perfect season for Garver, however, as he missed nearly two full months early in the season due to a sprained left knee. This continued a pattern of injuries that has plagued Garver throughout his career, as he has only played in 232 of a possible 546 games since the start of the 2020 season. These health issues (ranging from forearm surgery to an intercostal strain to knee, groin and back problems) have contributed to Garver being used less and less as a catcher, as the move to a DH role should help him somewhat to stay longer on the field regularity.
This created a difficult entry into free agency for Garver, because even though he was technically the top catcher on the market, it would have been risky for a team to rely on him for more than a timeshare on that one position would work. As MLBTR's Nick Deeds suggested back in October, Garver's ideal landing spot could be “a team with another reliable catching option so Garver has a clear path to DH playing time and less pressure to be behind the plate on a regular basis.”
The Mariners fit the bill perfectly, as Raleigh has established himself as a No. 1 catcher and major powerhouse over the last two seasons. The switch-hitting Raleigh has much better numbers against right-handed pitchers than against left-handed pitchers, which meshes well with the right-hander Garver's ability to crush left-handed pitches.
Tom Murphy signed with the Giants last week, though the M's appear to have prepared for that departure by acquiring the catcher Seby Zavala As part of the Eugenio Suárez Trade to the Diamondbacks. If Garver will be primarily a DH, the Mariners may still have room on the roster for Zavala to serve as more of a traditional backup catcher. This could avoid some roster maneuvering since Zavala has no minor league options, so the Mariners would have to designate him for assignment and put him on the waiver wire if they wanted to send him to the minor leagues.
It was known that Seattle was looking for a power hitter for their DH spot and particularly a right-handed hitter to balance the lineup. Such names like Jorge Soler, JD MartinezAnd Rhys Hoskins were reportedly on the Mariners' radar, but Garver will now join the roster on a two-year deal. That's slightly less than the three-year $39 million that MLBTR projected for Garver, although it's still a nice payday for a player who teams may have viewed as more of a pure DH than a regular backstop.
Adding a big hitter at any cost also helps change the narrative of what has been a troubling offseason for Mariners fans. The Mariners are set to take over the entire ROOT Sports Northwest regional sports network on Jan. 1, and the additional costs involved have reportedly limited the team's ability to spend money on player payroll. Jerry Dipoto, president of baseball operations, said in early December that the Mariners' payroll would increase by an estimated $140 million starting in 2023, but most of the club's moves before signing Garver were aimed at cutting costs. Trading Suarez took a big salary off the books, and Seattle then got rid of a lot more money in the five-player trade with the Braves, who saw it Jarred Kelenic essentially treated as a way to unload the contracts of Marco Gonzales And Evan White.
According to Roster Resource, the Mariners' projected 2024 payroll is now around $128.5 million with Garver's salary included. Given the $140 million figure starting in 2023, this still gives the M's some flexibility to address additional needs, such as an outfielder or infield help. Dipoto downplayed the idea of trading away from the team's young pitching depth, but that could be a more cost-effective way to get help from position players than by signing another free agent.
Signing Garver already represents a departure for Dipoto in some ways, as he doesn't often provide significant success in free agency. Notably, Garver is only the first position player free agent (and only the fourth free agent overall) that Dipoto has signed to a multi-year contract during his eight years leading the front office in Seattle. That could mean Garver could be the go-to player for the Mariners this winter when it comes to relatively notable free agent signings, or perhaps Dipoto will change his tactics and look for other free agents to further bolster the roster .
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