By Brittany Wisner, edited by Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - Last offseason, the Mariners signed Mitch Garver to a two-year, $24 million dollar contract – the largest free agent contract for a position player in the Jerry Dipoto era. The 33-year-old was coming off a great 2023 season in which he batted .270 with a .870 OPS, playing a key role for the Texas Rangers on their path to a World Series Championship, and Seattle was hoping that he would be a consistent designated hitter presence for them as that spot had been a revolving door in years since Nelson Cruz left the ballclub.

Garver’s first season with Seattle fell significantly short of expectations. In 114 games, he recorded a .172 batting average, .286 on-base percentage and a .341 slugging percentage. All were career lows* for the six-year veteran.

Early on, it was suspected that perhaps the catcher-turned-DH was having trouble adjusting to his new role. After hitting a walk-off home run in late April – the first real success he had seen in a northwest green uniform – Garver was transparent in stating “I’ve played the most mentally-intensive position for the majority of my career and to leave that position and become a DH, it’s challenging.”

Weeks later, Garver was moved into the backup catcher role, a move made both out of necessity and also in a hopeful attempt to get his bat going. Unfortunately, the shakeup didn’t pan out and a disappointing season somehow seemed to get worse for Garver. Frustrations were vocalized loudly and sometimes inappropriately by fans. It is fair to say no one was more frustrated than Garver himself.

Now, aiming to turn the page, he comes into this year’s Spring Training equipped with a new batting stance and refreshed mentality. If Garver is to bounce back in 2025, there are some key areas in which he’ll need to flip the script.

Seattle Mariners designated hitter/catcher Mitch Garver at T-Mobile Park throughout the 2024 MLB season. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)

Better Pitch Selection

Garver regressed from a solid 2023 season in nearly every category, painting a picture of a hitter unsure of himself and pressing for results.

Garver had historically made good swing decisions throughout his career. That shifted in 2024. Garver swung at more pitches outside of the zone (O-Swing) and less pitches in the zone (Zone Swing). Additionally, when he swung at pitches outside the zone he was making contact (O-Contact) at a significantly decreased rate, dropping a whopping 18.9% from his O-Contact rate in 2023.

To oversimplify it, he swung less at good pitches and more at bad pitches. For whatever reason – be it mechanics, age, mental approach, etc – he was unable to make contact with bad pitches as frequently as he had in the past. In the end, this saw Garver’s overall contact rate drop from 79.5% in 2023 to 71.9% in 2024. Garver should see increased success at the plate in 2025 if he can manage better swing decisions that ideally result in better contact rates and pitch outcomes.

Greater Success With Breaking Pitches, High Velo

When examining his performance against specific pitch types, we see significant regression against both fastballs and breaking pitches.

It was the breaking ball that gave Garver the most trouble last year. A pitch he had hit relatively well in 2023, Garver batted just .108 and slugged .187 against it in 2024.

Against fastballs, it was somewhat of a mixed bag. While the batting average was underwhelming, Garver actually saw his greatest success in the box when hitting 4-seam fastballs, slugging an impressive .536 off them. This is reflected in his overall slug rate against fastballs. However, he struggled mightily with high velocity, batting just .083 and slugging .125 on pitches 96 mph or greater (credit to FanGraphs' Michael Rosen for bringing this to my attention).

While he did see more success hitting offspeed pitches in 2024, those only accounted for 12% of the pitches he saw. This trend is likely to continue and Garver will need to prove he can handle breaking pitches and higher velocity before pitchers begin to approach him differently.

Seattle Mariners designated hitter/catcher Mitch Garver during the teams late August series against the Tampa Bay Rays at T-Mobile Park. (Photos by Kevin Ng for Circling Seattle Sports)

Figuring Out Righties

In addition to the “stuff” they throw him, Garver will also need to handle right-handed pitchers better. In 2024, Garver posted a .549 OPS in 274 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers and a .763 OPS in 156 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers. Yes, it is common for right-handed hitters to perform better against lefties – but a .214 point difference is extreme.

It is encouraging to see how well Garver ended up hitting left-handed pitchers last year. However, with there being nearly four times as many right-handed pitchers in the league as there are left-handed, Garver will inevitably need to improve those numbers against righties in order to see more overall success.

Seattle Mariners designated hitter/catcher Mitch Garver’s walk off homer against the Atlanta Braves early into the season, which was something that many hoped would be a turning point in his season. (Photos by Liz Wolter for Circling Seattle Sports)

Reasons For Optimism?

Speaking of splits, there has been significant offseason discourse around T-Mobile Park and the nightmare it has become for hitters. Most players see significantly deflated stats when hitting in Seattle and one could logically assume that Mitch Garver followed this trend, the ballpark playing part in his disappointing season. However, his home/road splits actually indicate he had slightly greater success at T-Mobile Park last year, recording a .644 OPS at home versus a .614 OPS on the road. While this isn’t necessarily predictive of future performance, it does positively imply that the environment was not the cause of his underperformance, a legitimate concern for most hitters, especially those new to the pacific northwest ballpark.

Another valid concern for the now 34-year-old would be the potential impact his age is having on his offensive abilities. One of the ways we see this most prominently displayed is in the steep decline in bat speed that most players experience after the age of 31.

A decline in bat speed means a decline in exit velocity and overall power. Now, it should be noted that not all of baseball’s best hitters have elite bat speed – Luis Arraez and Steven Kwan have two of the slowest bat speeds in the league. The difference is Arraez and Kwan succeed on a contact-heavy approach driven by speed on the basepaths (Kwan) and bat control (Arraez). For sluggers who rely on power and exit velocity, good bat speed is a must.

The good news for Mitch Garver – a player whose offensive profile relies on power – is that this phenomenon of decreased bat speed appears to have not affected him quite yet. His bat speed actually measured slightly faster in 2024 than it was in 2023, indicating the sources of his struggles lie elsewhere.

With noticeable changes to his batting stance, it appears that Garver is proactively trying to address last year’s struggles. So far in Spring Training, we have seen him set up differently in the batter’s box, lowering his hands quite significantly from where they were in 2024.

A look at Mitch Garver’s batting stance on April 1st, 2024 (Photos by Chris Lu for Circling Seattle Sports) versus Spring Training 2025

His new hand placement is actually reminiscent of what he looked like in 2023, where he held his hands closer to his ear rather than above his head.

A batter lowering his hands can allow him a shorter and quicker path to the ball with increased bat control, frequently helping to improve contact with higher pitch velocities. It can also help ease mid-swing adjustments to different pitch types.

This adjustment could be one that Garver is making himself; however, it seems more likely that this adjustment has come from Seattle’s new hitting coach, Kevin Seitzer.

Seitzer, who had previously been with the Atlanta Braves since 2015, has been known to make this specific adjustment with many of the hitters he coaches. Most notably, Seitzer lowered the hands of Michael Harris II in 2022 and Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2018, with both players seeing career-altering success after the adjustment. When discussing why he made the specific change with Harris, Seitzer explained “Because he was up high, and then in the game he’d get higher, and he’d twist and turn and wrap (the bat behind him), and then get real steep to the ball.”

Sounds familiar.

What’s Next?

Given the state of the Mariners’ roster and the lack of moves made this offseason, Seattle will hope desperately for a bounce back year from Mitch Garver. Garver was brought in and paid to be a foundational piece in the middle of Seattle’s lineup and his absence was felt exponentially when he failed to perform even remotely close to the back of his baseball card. A 2025 bounce back would not need to look like 2023; rather, if Garver can provide a level of offense somewhat close to his career average, it would provide an invaluable boost to a lineup that is full of more question marks than proven pieces.

Upcoming Spring Training schedule, week of March 3rd:

March 3, 12:10pm vs. Cleveland – watch: MLB Video
March 5, 5:05pm @ Kansas City – listen: KIRO 710
March 6, 5:40pm split squad
- vs. Los Angeles Angels – watch: MLB.TV/listen: KIRO 710
- @ Arizona – watch: Root Sports NW
March 7, 5:40pm vs Los Angeles Dodgers – watch: Root Sports NW

*excludes the shortened 2020 season

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Check out our previous Seattle Mariners articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing by Brittany Wisner here.
Check out our previous articles with photos by Rio Giancarlo here, and his portfolio here.

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