The Mariners will sign Mitch Garver.

The Mariners will sign Mitch Garver.

Jeff Passan of ESPN (via X) says that the Mariners along with Mitch Garver are committed to a $24 million, two-year deal. Garver will have to pass a physical before the deal is official. ISE Baseball stands for Garver.

While Cal Raleigh continues to be Seattle’s best stopper, Garver gets the Mariners a strong hitter who can play both catcher and designated hitter when needed.

Last season, Garver did a great job in this role for the Rangers. He hit.270/.370/.500 with 19 home runs in 344 plate trips while mostly replacing All-Star Jonah Heim at third base.

During the playoffs, Garver was the only first-choice DH for the Rangers. He hit.226/.317/.434 via three home runs in 60 PA and helped Texas win its first World Series.

Garver’s platform season wasn’t perfect, though, because he missed almost two months beginning with the season because of a sprained left knee.

The Mariners were a great fit, and Raleigh has become the team’s top catcher and a major power driver over the last two years.

Garver has been hurt a lot over the course of his career. Since the beginning of the 2020 season, he has only played in 232 of the 546 games that could have been played.

Because of these health problems, Garver has been playing catching less and less. Switching to DH should help himself stay on the field a bit more often.

Because of this, Garver had a bit of a rough start to his free agency. He was the best catcher on the market, but teams wouldn’t have wanted to depend on him for more than a split at the position.

While writing for MLBTR in October, Nick Deeds said that Garver might do best with “a team with another good catching option, so Garver would have an easy transition to DH playing time and face fewer demands to regularly suit up behind the plate.”

Raleigh, who hits both right-handed and left-handed, does much better against right-handed pitchers than against left-handed pitchers. This fits well with Garver’s ability to smash left-handed pitchers.

It looks like the best attacking catcher on the free agent market has signed, but he probably won’t catch much.

Several news sources say that Mitch Garver signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Sea Mariners on Sunday.

Garver, who will be 33 in January, hits hard with his right hand. Last season, he hit 19 home runs in 87 appearances for the Texas Rangers, who won the World Series. For his career, he has a.483 slugging percentage.

Garver’s bat was good enough to get him ranked 22nd on The Athletic’s Big Board of free agents. He was the only pitcher to make the top 40.

This is the fifth straight season that Mitch Garver hasn’t been able to play in more than 100 games, which has caused some worry.

This was Garver’s great year, but on May 14, 2019, he sprained his left high ankle when he collided alongside Angels DH Shohei Ohtani at home plate.

The Twins led 4-3 after Garver’s catch at home. After Garver left the game, the Twins put him on the 10-day injury list.

When Garver’s right flexor tendon tore in July 2022, he had surgery to fix it. He missed all of the season. Garver has done well at the plate, though, when he is fit.

Last year, Garver was the Texas Rangers’ playoff star. He helped the team win the World Series. The 32-year-old hit three home runs or drove in 14 runs and missed the Rangers’ Wild Card Series.

At this point, Garver is mostly a bat. After the playoffs, he hadn’t caught in a game since September 2, which was 28 games ago. In 2022, he only caught 14 times.

There is usually three people on a team: the starting catcher, the backup catcher, and someone else who can catch in case of an emergency.

That’s in which the World Series-winning Rangers put him last year, and going forward, Garver should be used as a designated hitter and backup catcher.