5 Tweaks the Mariners Must Make ASAP

The Mariners and their fans are quickly watching their season evaporate before their eyes. The team can no longer consider the long game, and therefore must make changes to their roster.

However, the idea of a player magically walking through the door and fixing the Mariners is a bit farfetched. The team is adding the best player available to its roster in less than a week. Yet expecting Robinson Cano to just be an elite hitter rolling off his couch is an absurd expectation.

There aren’t a lot of places the Mariners can actually improve in August outside of the rotation. The team could use a utility man and an upgrade at first base. Both of those needs could be alleviated by the return of Cano.

The bullpen has been bad since the trade deadline, but opportunities to improve via trade waivers are minimal. The bullpen is better is better than they have shown the last week, but the Mariners are out of time to wait and hope.

So what can the Mariners do? In truth, Jerry Dipoto can do very little in his capacity as GM. He couldn’t really afford the massive rotation upgrade he needed. Short of taking on a massive contract to add a decent arm, he is stuck.

Now, the burden falls on the players and manager Scott Servais. Obviously, the players will ultimately be responsible for the success or failure of 2018. However, this does not mean that Scott Servais cannot help them out.

It is the job of the manager to put his team in a position to win games. To do that, you have to utilize the players in a way that gives them the best chance to succeed.

Now, our social media followers should be familiar with this writers stance on Scott Servais. I don’t think he is very good, particularly with the actual Xs and O’s of baseball. So, I am here to help. Here are 5 tweaks Scott Servais can make to optimize the Mariners opportunity to win games.

Tweak 1: Mariners Need To Move Dee Down

We all love Dee Gordon. The fans love him. The team loves him. Most importantly, the players love him. But there is no logical reason for him to get the first AB of the game for the Mariners. None. Anybody who tries to tell you otherwise is either a fool or simply uninformed.

Dee Gordon’s OBP this season is .300. He is making an out 7 out of every 10 PAs. This is bad. In fact, it’s about 20 points below-average. Gordon also has a wRC+ of 78, 22 percent below an average hitter.

Gordon isn’t getting on base. He has no power. And he is getting the most plate appearances of any Mariners hitter on a nightly basis. Wow.

Yes, he is fast. But remember the old saying, you can’t steal first base. This is really elementary baseball. The guy who hit’s leadoff gets the most chances to hit. Therefore, in theory, shouldn’t the guy who makes the fewest outs get the most AB’s? It really is that simple.

Dee Gordon has the 7th best OBP on the Mariners right now. Add in Ben Gamel and Robinson Cano, which the Mariners will do within the next week, and Gordon is 9th. By wRC+, Gordon is the 11th best hitter on the current roster. He is beating only Andrew Romine. Again, that doesn’t even count Cano and Gamel.

The evidence is overwhelming. Dee Gordon is, at best, the 7th or 8th best hitter on the 25 man roster. The Mariners are giving him the most opportunities to hit. Why? Because he is fast? Because when he does get on base, it’s only in the first inning?

When the Mariners were winning, you could get away with this. Now, with the team losing and the offense slumping, every game featuring Dee Gordon at the leadoff spot is one where the Mariners aren’t doing all they can to score runs.

Everything the average fan loves seeing Dee Gordon do, he can do from the nine spot, including hitting ahead of Segura.

Tweak 2: More At-Bats for The Best Hitter

Quick, how many everyday players have a higher wRC+ than Denard Span? On the Mariners, just 2, Nelson Cruz and Mitch Haniger. So why, until recently, has Span been hitting 6th or 7th? It doesn’t make sense.

Seattle is giving one of their worst hitters significantly more opportunities to hit than one of their best. Just say that out loud. Or better yet, think about when you played. If the coach asked you if you would rather have one of your best hitters get 5 plate appearances a game, or an inferior hitter who runs fast, you are going to take the hitter. Even a little leaguer could tell you that.

Span should not be hitting any lower than 5th for the rest of the year. In fact, if he is in the lineup, hitting him third might be the best spot for him. But certainly not 6th or 7th. Span is slashing .287/.330/.454 as a Mariner, and .265/.346/.423 overall.

Span hits both LHP and RHP well enough that you shouldn’t worry too much about a platoon partner either. Assuming the Mariners don’t go full lineup maximization, Span still fits the mold of a solid 5th hitter. He has some pop, gets on base, and can even swipe a bag or two if needed.

Personally, the everyday lineup should look something like this going forward:

1. Mitch Haniger
2. Jean Segura
3. Robinson Cano
4. Nelson Cruz
5.  Denard Span

The rest of the lineup can go by matchups and availability but would, on most nights go with Kyle Seager or Mike Zunino in the 6th and/or 7th spot, with Cameron Maybin and Dee Gordon flipping between 8 and 9.

If you hit Maybin/Gamel 9th, this lineup configuration would give the Mariners 6 best hitters (by wRC+) consecutive at-bats (9-5), while using your 6-8 spots on your streakiest hitters. This configuration gives the most chances to your best hitters, which is the whole purpose of the lineup anyways.

This would take some getting used to. But in the grand scheme of things, it might give the Mariners an edge they currently don’t have. Anything is better than what we have seen lately right?

Tweak 3: Upgrade the Bench

When the Seattle Mariners sent down Ben Gamel to make room for Cameron Maybin, fans were not happy. After all, Ben Gamel has consistently been one of the best bats for the Mariners. Guillermo Heredia has been quite bad at the plate since June 1.

The idea of having a defense first 4th outfielder makes some sense on paper. But Heredia isn’t significantly better than Dee Gordon in CF, and Span and Gamel can handle a corner spot well enough that Heredia just doesn’t make sense.

Add on top of that the recent struggles of the Mariners offense, and you’ve got no reason to be sitting on one of your better bats in AAA Tacoma.

Ben Gamel needs to be back on the big league roster, and it needs to happen sooner or later. Even if you believe that Denard Span should get a majority of the time in LF (like I do), there is no question having Gamel as a pinch-hitting option is an upgrade over Heredia. In addition, Gamel is actually a better base-runner than Heredia.

The simple truth is, you don’t need a 4th outfielder like Heredia. And after the return of Robinson Cano, the right-handed bat off the bench is likely going to be Ryon Healy. Heredia has 2 options left, so you can bring him back up in September.

Heredia is a nice player and does have some value to the team going forward. However, he was exposed as an everyday player, and Ben Gamel is just unequivocally better. Make the swap ASAP.

Tweak 5: Stop With Innings Based Usage

I don’t think Scott Servais is a particularly good manager. I’ve made no effort to hide that fact. I think he is a good guy. I think he has done a nice job of building a solid culture. But I also think he is a poor field manager who trusts his rotation too much and doesn’t properly leverage his relievers most of the time.

My newest gripe with Servais is his stubborn refusal to use relievers in a creative way. Edwin Diaz never enters the game before the ninth, regardless of the situation. He will not pitch in extra innings unless it is a save situation.

Until Monday, he refused to use Alex Colome in obvious high-leverage spots, instead opting for Juan Nicasio. Why? Because it was the 7th inning, not the 8th. In this series, we saw Servais try to use Adam Warren and Zach Duke to get through the 7th until he was forced to go to Colome.

The fact that it worked and Colome was able to get 5 outs and his arm didn’t fall off, might be enough to get Servais to do it again. But to have any faith in that happening is foolish.

It is really quite simple. If you trust Colome to pitch the 8th, you should trust him to pitch in the 7th or 9th as well. Not using Edwin Diaz sooner has cost this team at least a win or two.

While it’s easier to just say the 7th belongs to Warren and Duke, the 8th to Colome and the ninth to Diaz, it is also inherently stupid. Managers aren’t supposed to make the easy decisions. No, they are supposed to make the right ones.

Playing the long game with Diaz made sense in April. But now, with less than 50 games to go, it is all hands on deck. And if you are really concerned about overusing Diaz, stop asking him to get 3 outs with a 3 run lead. Anybody in the bullpen can do that.

In conclusion, Scott Servais is quite bad at bullpen management. This is disappointing to me, especially since he arrived and vowed to do things differently. He was supposed to use the bullpen creatively. He wasn’t supposed to bunt. And he wasn’t supposed to write the lineup like a manager from 1977.

Use Diaz and Colome earlier, and worry about the rest when you get there. It really isn’t that difficult. Do the right thing Scott, win more games.