“Catcher” Mitch Garver Sets Sail to Seattle

The Mariners have made their first significant upgrade of the offseason, inking Mitch Garver to a two-year deal worth $24 million. Formerly a member of the Twins and Rangers, the soon-to-be 33-year-old Garver first made a name for himself in the peak of the juiced ball era, clubbing 31 homers in just 93 games while slugging .630 in his 2019 campaign. He hasn’t reached such heights since, but Garver has remained an offensive threat, even as he’s struggled to stay healthy and demonstrate his prowess over a full season.

Let’s take a look at the best-hitting catchers of 2023. In the modern era of lower catcher workloads and backstops moonlighting at first base, DH, and even in the outfield, you can define “best-hitting catcher” in many ways. But for now, I’ll just use primary catchers as defined by our leaderboards:

On the surface, Garver was the best offensive catcher in the league, along with former teammate Ryan Jeffers, who broke out in his first season as Minnesota’s “primary” backstop (his 82 starts behind the plate were barely a majority). Michael Baumann pointed out last month that Garver is masterful at waiting for his pitch and then pulling it out of the yard. Those pitches are usually fastballs, which he’s crushed with authority throughout his career to the tune of a +51 run value. Over time, pitchers have picked up on his tendencies, throwing him breaking balls at a 98th-percentile rate. And while 2023 marked an improvement in his results against bendy stuff, Garver’s success in spite of this has come thanks to his selective aggression, patiently waiting for heaters in his wheelhouse.

But it would be disingenuous for me to keep referring to Garver as a catcher, because there are a few reasons Garver won’t be doing all that much catching in Seattle. First, there’s the injury component. I sneakily set the plate appearance minimum on my catcher wRC+ leaderboard to 300 to include Garver, who had just 344 plate appearances last year and has only reached 350 in a season once. His career injury history looks like an occupational health poster plastered in a workplace break room, with arrows pointing towards each body part.

Second, unlike other names on the catcher leaderboard like Murphy, Rutschman, and the brothers Contreras, Garver isn’t a plus defender at the position. He’s graded out below average by Statcast in each of framing, throwing, and blocking, and has been worth -9.7 runs per 1,000 innings behind the plate. Now, that number may be exaggerated by an atrocious 2018, his full big league season. Since then, his defense sits at a more palatable -4.2 runs/1,000. If Garver cost his team four or nine runs a year from being a statue in the field, it’d probably still be worth it thanks to his tremendous offensive skills for the position. But luckily, he doesn’t have to catch. The Mariners already have a capable starting catcher in Cal Raleigh, a gifted home run hitter with excellent framing skills. And after losing former reserve backstop Tom Murphy in free agency, they traded for the out-of-options Seby Zavala, who looks to have a secure roster spot despite limited offensive skills.

Last season, the Rangers employed this exact logic in their use of Garver, who made two-thirds of his appearances as a DH after a knee injury wiped out his April and May. Instead, they relied heavily on starter Jonah Heim, especially down the stretch — he caught 26 of his team’s final 29 regular season games. And when Heim had the day off, trade deadline acquisition Austin Hedges took over, even with a measly 24 wRC+. Despite only catching 567 innings, Hedges accrued the second-highest framing value in baseball, and fittingly joined 2014 José Molina as the only player in history with a positive WAR value despite hitting so poorly. The Heim/Hedges tandem left Garver to focus on his skills with the bat, where he thrived in his first season of regular DH duty. On the hitting leaderboard for designated hitters, Garver’s 2023 wRC+ ranked fourth behind Shohei Ohtani, Bryce Harper, and Marcell Ozuna – not bad company to have.

Garver will likely spend most of his time at DH with his new team as well, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he hardly ever dons catching gear with Mariners branding. In addition to the stable presence of Raleigh and Zavala, Garver fills a significant hole at the DH position that has gone unaddressed for the past half decade. Last season, 14 Mariners swung the stick as a designated hitter, led by the recently non-tendered Mike Ford and his 210 plate appearances. Other than a few rest days from other starting position players, the rest of the playing time was taken by players you really don’t want DHing for a contending team. In 2022, no one surpassed Carlos Santana’s 154 plate appearances at DH; before that, Luis Torrens supplemented catching duties with 59 games as a hitter only. Garver is certainly a welcome addition at a position that hasn’t had consistency since the days of Nelson Cruz in 2015-18.

Garver’s signing represents the Mariners’ first addition after an uninspiring (to say the least) beginning of the offseason. Jerry Dipoto’s October comments about building a roster to “win 54% of the time” weren’t the first time his high-turnover style of roster construction has come under fire, nor was it the first time that Mariners brass has created an absolute nightmare for their PR staff. Given those words, it wasn’t surprising when they spent the first month of the offseason trading players away in the name of “financial flexibility” and “sustainability.”

Garver’s is the first major league contract issued by the Mariners this winter; in fact, it’s Dipoto’s first multi-year hitter signing of his tenure heading up Seattle’s baseball operations group. But this one signing is far from enough to declare the team ready for another 88-win season. Let’s consider the changes they’ve made to their position player group thus far:

Of these swaps, Garver is the only one that can be truly called an upgrade. Some – like Zavala’s capture of the backup catcher slot – appear to be the exact opposite, a clear step down in production (and salary). Perhaps more concerning is the outfield situation, where their current plans seem to have Marlowe and Canzone, with a combined 282 big league plate appearances, immediately taking over the corner spots. With the Juan Soto market closed until November and no big fish imminently available in trade, any immediate additions will have to come from the current crop of free agents, a group lacking in star power. Outside of Cody Bellinger, no unsigned outfielder projects to amass more than 2 WAR. And while the likes of Jorge Soler or Joc Pederson would be welcome additions to the lineup, they shouldn’t be your biggest moves the winter after reaching the cusp of the postseason.

With Garver’s contract on the books, the Mariners now sit within $12 million of their 2023 payroll figure, a number that Dipoto claims will increase in the coming season. But even with added cash to spend, it’ll be difficult for Seattle to make meaningful upgrades in needed areas, especially the outfield. The Mariners have their work cut out for them if they want to build for a successful season – however you define it. At the very least, though, Garver is a solid start.