Let's talk about Cal Raleigh's backup
The Mariners need a backup catcher, folks
This year, catcher Cal Raleigh was as valuable to the Mariners as an elite starting quarterback in the NFL. Much like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, Raleigh was the best and most irreplaceable player on his team.
There’s another similarity Raleigh shares with many NFL starting quarterbacks. Their team's backup situation is tenuous, at best. Losing a starting QB to an injury can derail a season. The same could be true for Seattle if its Platinum Glove catcher were lost for an extended period next year.
Think I’m being dramatic? Let’s revisit the seasons of the Mariners’ two backup catchers.
Seattle began the 2024 campaign with journeyman Seby Zavala serving as Raleigh’s backup. Zavala appeared in just 18 games (14 starts). When he did play, the 31-year-old produced a .193 AVG/.270 OBP/.322 SLG with a suboptimal 68 wRC+.
Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) quantifies how a hitter’s total offensive value compares with the league average after adjusting for park effects. League-average is always 100. Therefore, a wRC+ of 150 means a hitter was 50-percent more productive than the average player. An 80 wRC+ would be 20-percent below average.
Zavala had just 43 plate appearances with the Mariners this year. Assessing his offensive value with such a small sample would be wrong to do. That said, the Texan has a very similar 70 wRC+ over five big-league seasons and 547 career plate appearances.
Granted, offense shouldn’t necessarily be the barometer used to gauge catchers by. League-wide, backstops posted the lowest OPS (.678) of any position group. But an offensively-challenged team, such as the Mariners, could ill-afford to give away plate appearances whenever Raleigh needed a break from donning the tools of ignorance.
By June, Zavala was designated for assignment and subsequently outrighted off the 40-man roster and assigned to Class-AAA Tacoma. From there, the Mariners turned to veteran Mitch Garver to augment Raleigh.
Garver signed a two-year/$24 million contract with Seattle last winter with the expectation that he’d serve as the team’s first full-time designated hitter since Nelson Cruz in 2018. But when the University of New Mexico alum didn’t produce at an acceptable level, the Mariners transitioned him into the backup catcher spot formerly held by Zavala.
And how bad was Garver’s season at the plate? This year, 207 hitters made 400 plate appearances. With the exception of walk rate, the 2019 Silver Slugger ranked in the bottom 20-percent in every category listed below and was dead last in AVG.
Garver’s 2024 Stats (and MLB Rankings)
30.9 SO% (196th of 207)
12.3 BB% (10th)
.172 AVG (207th)
.286 OBP (181st)
.341 SLG (193rd)
.281 wOBA (191st)
88 wRC+ (168th)
Garver’s troubles at the plate are not my biggest concern heading into next season. There’s always a chance an offensive rebound occurs. The issue I grapple with most is he’ll be entering his age-34 season having dealt with availability challenges throughout his big-league career.
Ironically, in his first year as a Mariner, Garver didn’t spend time on the IL, as he had in six previous seasons. The ninth round pick of the Twins in 2013 actually set career highs with Seattle in games played (114) and plate appearances (430). But do you feel confident about Garver repeating this level of availability in 2025?
I don’t.
Garver is currently the lone catcher, other than Raleigh, on Seattle’s 40-man roster. Not addressing this situation over the winter could potentially have disastrous consequences in 2025. Especially, when there are no clear-cut alternatives waiting in the wings.
The name of catching prospect Harry Ford is often bandied about by Seattle fans. MLB Pipeline ranks Ford as its 49th-best prospect. Great news in the long run or perhaps for the trade market. But when the 12th overall draft pick in 2021 will be ready for big-league action remains unclear.
With Ford not seeming like a realistic option for 2025, the Mariners should be in the market for a short-term answer to supplement Raleigh. Perhaps doing so would slightly reduce his workload behind the plate and keep him a bit fresher. The former Florida State Seminole caught 1,122 innings this year - more than any backstop in the majors. Dating back to 2022, Raleigh has caught 378 games, which is thirteen more than the next closest player, three-time All-Star J.T. Realmuto.
I’m confident the Mariners aren’t going to accept advice from this nerdy blogger. Why should they? Then again, scoffing at the possibility of Raleigh missing significant time due to injury just because he’s been so resilient would be a mistake in judgement.
A player who is always available is considered durable until he gets hurt. A broken bone or a serious injury to a knee or ankle can happen in an instant and sideline the toughest of the tough. Then what?
Consider the turmoil next summer if Raleigh did go down for a month. Imagine the hindsight that would be unleashed via social media and over the airwaves. Why not preemptively mitigate the issue by upgrading the backup catcher spot before Opening Day?
My Oh My…
I say ride Garver as backup til he gets injured, DFA'd, or actually proves he's an MLB DH.
It's risky since Zavala is a free agent. I guess M's back-fill Tacoma catchers to step up if Garver gets hurt?
'25 M's are in a terrible way: flushed $30 mil for 2 X 30+ y.o. "Mitches" w/combined minus 1 fWAR.
And maybe re-sign 40+ y.o. Justin Turner to show "superstar" Julio & co. how to take balls & swing at strikes?
Look at the offensive quality of the rest of the 40-man roster. Except for the retooled OF trio & Cal, where are the "every-day guys"??? It's mostly utility & platoon hitters unable to be high-WAR MLB full-timers. But M's had to use them as every day guys and came in 2nd as usual.
With $30 mil already burnt, is any money left for a 1st tier IF and at least one other "better than Polanco" IF?
The search continues for the 2025 fading retread 2B "due for a bounce back". How about JP?
JP is and always should have been M's 2B; if M's had loosened up to sign Corey Seager or other 1st tier FA SS available that same year.
The saying goes "ya buy cheap, ya get cheap".
Based on ownership refusal to spend for 1st tier position players, Dipoto/Hollander are forced to "reach" & "project" (like Garver's mythical projected full season DH), or pick up 1st tier team discards, like Turner.
The game is always unpredictable, hopefully so in a more positive sense for the '25 M's.
But the failure & hangover of '24 off-season moves into '25 looms large. 1st tier teams, have 1st tier budgets and spend themselves out of the unexpected; Mets, Yanks, Dodgers, Phils, etc.
That's not the M's, sorry to say.
What do you do with Garver? He's way too expensive at $12M to be a backup catcher, but you're paying that almost no matter what. Might as well try to get something out of him (I'm hopeful he'll be better than 2024). Sign a catcher or two to minor league deals and keep them stashed, yes, but are they going to be better than Garver, esp if you have to eat all/most of that 12M?