All-Dipoto Acquisition Team, Mariners Edition: Infield

We continue our series that attempts to build the best possible team of Seattle Mariners who were acquired by current GM Jerry Dipoto. Today, we look at the infield.

Last week, we unveiled the Mariners starting rotation and bullpen, which means today we get to focus on our starting lineup. Similar to how our bullpen was constructed, we were looking to build an offense and defense to best compliment the rest of the team and the ballpark we play in.

But while we tried to stay true to the positions these acquisitions actually played in Seattle, but we arrived at a problem. Since Jerry Dipoto has become the GM of the Mariners, there has been 1 player who has overwhelmingly played a majority of games at third base for Seattle, that being Kyle Seager.

Well, Seager is one of the only players in the organization that pre-dates Dipoto as GM, so he is ineligible for this list. So that leaves us with a problem to fill: do we stick with one of the players like Tim Beckham or Ryon Healy who played a small amount at the hot corner, or do we instead look for a creative way to get the best players in the lineup and take some liberties along the way?

We opted for the latter for two reasons. First, this article is about celebrating and identifying the very best move Dipoto has made as the GM. So leaving off a very good addition by Dipoto just to force Healy to be the third baseman doesn’t make sense. And second, this is our series and we can do whatever we want. Okay, but really, I think when you guys see what we did, you’ll agree it was the right decision to make.

But every spot in the infield was pretty heavily debated and all 4 spots had honorable mentions battling for the spot in the lineup. But at the end of the debate, these were the players left standing. But before we get to the infield, we need to crown our starting catcher, who like it or not, we consider to be an infielder. Let’s get started.

Starting Catcher: Tom Murphy

This probably isn’t much of a shock to you. There was a brief debate between Murphy and one other catcher (whom you’ll see when we discuss the bench) and we agreed that Murphy and the other catcher (seriously, you know who it is) would be a part of a tandem rather than a clear 1A vs 1B. But Murphy’s defense gave him the overall edge in this debate, so he will start in our 7-game series.

Murphy is one of Dipoto’s best overall finds for the Seattle Mariners. A former top prospect turned AAAA player was acquired by Dipoto via trade on March 29th of last season. And while he has only appeared in 75 games, it can be argued that he had the best single-season for a Mariners’ catcher in club history.

He hit .273/.324/.535 in 281 plate appearances, with 18 home runs and 40 RBI. On top of his stellar offensive output, Murphy also showed great framing skills and the ability to work with both veterans and young guns alike. Murphy is also well above-average in blocking and calls a quality game.

The ability to earn your pitcher’s trust comes from putting in the work behind the scenes and nobody works harder than Murphy. In addition, Murphy is actually a great athlete, which can’t hurt. Sure, he doesn’t have the strongest arm or quickest release, but the power and framing are both well above-average, so we will take what we can get. Overall, having a catcher who is an above-average framer is a plus, and having one who can provide any offensive value is another.

It isn’t hard to imagine how Murphy put up a 2.8 bWAR in just half a season. The question for 2020 and beyond is whether or not he can do it again? But since we only have the 75 game sample size with the Mariners, this was a no-brainer for us to put him on the squad.

Shortstop: J.P. Crawford

Yeah, we can feel you roll your eyes. But as you may recall, we did say that Segura would have been the shortstop if we had a better option at third base. But we didn’t and Crawford is a better defender here, so he gets the nod at short.

Crawford flashed every tool in his arsenal in his first season with the Mariners. He even put them all together for the entire month of June when he hit .338/.413/.569 in 16 games. Now, this was just a hot streak and not a reasonable expectation for Crawford going forward, but we saw everything the young shortstop had to offer in that stretch, so it is important.

In those 16 games, Crawford hit 5 doubles, 2 triples, and 2 home runs, showing off the pop he has. He also posted 9 walks to 13 strikeouts, showing off his plate discipline and mature approach at the plate. He also made several of his best defensive plays in 2019 during this 16 game stretch, showing an above-average glove at the position.

Crawford faded hard down the stretch, leading the Mariners to ask him to bulk up some and improve his conditioning, something the young shortstop took seriously last winter. He will most certainly be “the guy” whenever we get to see baseball in 2020 and will almost assuredly get all of 2021 to show what he can do.

But for now, he is a good defensive shortstop and base-runner, with plenty of pop in his bat and a strong ability to draw plenty of walks. While that isn’t an exciting, multiple years All-Star, that is a perfectly fine #8 or #9 bat who can be in your lineup every day. Crawford is a perfect complement to our team and continues the trend of young and athletic bats in our everyday lineup.

Second Base: Tim Lopes

This is probably the most shocking selection if I had to guess. I’m sure most of you were expecting to see Dee Gordon in this spot and right up until the end, we did have Gordon penciled in here. But when you really look at Gordon’s tenure with the Mariners, it just hasn’t been a good one. To put Dee on this team would be factoring in his time in Miami, and we just can’t do that.

And Robinson Cano is ineligible for the list, so we can’t choose him. There was a pretty good debate between Lopes, Gordon, and Shed Long. We even toyed with Segura at second and Long at third. But ultimately, we had to pick one guy and we went with the most athletic of the group, Tim Lopes.

What is interesting about Lopes’s inclusion on this list is that he was actually traded away by Dipoto and then re-acquired a year later which technically makes him eligible for the list. On top of the issues with Gordon, Lopes was also really good in 2019, posting a 0.9 bWAR in just 41 games while slashing .270/.359/.360 and stealing 6 bases.

Lopes also brings us a lot of versatility. He can play second base, shortstop, and the outfield. In fact, for hardly playing any outfield in the minor leagues, Lopes was quite good in LF for the Mariners in 2019. Lopes was on track to be the utility man on Opening Day 2020 before the shutdown and was absolutely killing it at spring training.

Lopes has big-time speed and his sprint speed ranked in the 85th percentile last season. With a good glove up the middle, positional flexibility, great speed, and ability to take walks, make consistent contact, and steal bases, Lopes is everything Gordon was supposed to be for the Mariners.

And there is the true difference between Gordon and Lopes and why Lopes ultimately got the nod. Lopes produced and Gordon didn’t. And if you’re worried about Lopes as a starting second baseman, wait until you see what we did with the bench before you decide how we did. But now, let’s move on to first base.

First base: Evan White

So we have our second starter with zero big-league experience under his belt. First was Logan Gilbert, who landed the 5th spot in our rotation. Now, we come to Evan White who was supposed to be the Opening Day first baseman this year. Although, I suppose if we have a season this year, he will still be the Opening Day starter, so… yeah.

But why did we pick Evan White? There were actually some other candidates discussed, including Daniel Vogelbach, Edwin Encarnacion, Jay Bruce, Dae-Ho Lee, and Ryon Healy to name a few. And one of those players did find their way into our starting lineup as the DH, but there really wasn’t much of a debate. Both Ty and I quickly gave the nod to Evan White.

And while White was one of the first players we decided to take, it actually ended up fitting quite well into our theme of building an athletic defense that values both versatility and speed. By now you surely know that White is a great athlete, especially when compared to other first basemen in the league. But White is such a good athlete, he can actually hold is own in center field if he was asked.

As it stands right now, White is the best defensive first basemen in baseball with above-average speed. We think White is a safe bet to hit for average and produce at least 20 home runs a season, on top of the plus defensive and base-running value he provides. If White can ultimately be a consistent 25-30 home run bat with the good batting average we are expecting, he will make multiple All-Star teams.

But even if the power doesn’t quite click like we are hoping, he is still going to be a solid 2 WAR player for years to come. With a starting staff devoid of an ace, you need a plus defense and great bullpen to help you prevent runs. And thus far, we have built the best possible defensive unit and bullpen with the options given to us, so we like our strategy as we head to the outfield next time on the All-Dipoto Acquisition team.