Seattle Mariners' Top Executive Comments on the Signing of Slugger Mitch Garver
The Seattle Mariners made the signing of designated hitter/catcher Mitch Garver official on Thursday and President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto has issued a comment on the signing:
Per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times:
"Mitch is a hitter we had targeted from the start of the offseason. He's a proven winner who brings a strong combination of zone discipline, on-base skills, and power to the middle of our lineup, while also adding tough to find depth at key positions."
Seattle is aiming to make much more contact in 2024, having moved on from Eugenio Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez, and Garver's bat-to-ball skills should help. He's coming off a year in which he just won a World Series with the Texas Rangers.
The 32-year-old hit .270 for the Rangers with 19 home runs in just 296 at-bats. If he's able to play a full season, he has 30 home run potential for Seattle, but he's only ever played more than 100 games once in seven major league seasons (one being the COVID year when only 60 games were played). He hit 31 homers for the Twins back in 2019 in just 93 games.
Garver will pair with slugging catcher Cal Raleigh and superstar Julio Rodriguez as power threats in the Mariners' lineup. The team could absolutely stand to add another power bat to the lineup, which is why they've been heavily connected to slugger Jorge Soler throughout the offseason.
The M's went 88-74 last season and missed the playoffs in the American League by 1.0 game.
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