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
