Seattle Mariners All-Dipoto Acquisition Team: Bench

The final entry in our All-Dipoto Acquisition team is here as we round out the roster with five more names.

Up to this point, we’ve gone through 21 names: the team’s 13 pitchers and its eight starting infielders and outfielders. Some have been obvious additions, while others have come as a surprise, even to us, and some have even have even slightly bent the rules of this experiment to crack the roster.

Outside of those 21 names, however, is an abundance of players we had to comb through to complete this exercise. Jerry Dipoto‘s brought in a lot of guys to Seattle who have contributed in some form or fashion and trimming our decision down to five players wasn’t as easy as one may think.

Some fairly big names were excluded from this list. Fan-favorites, quality role players, and everything in between, these were pretty tough decisions to make. Eventually, we landed on the five names that made sense for our roster, if we were going to actually field this team to play in 2020 (if sports could be played under regular circumstances, of course).

EDWIN ENCARNACIÓN

As the decade progresses, Edwin Encarnación’s time in Seattle will be no more than a quirky bit of a trivia. Honestly, we’re probably at that stage already. Nevertheless, when Encarnación was acquired from the Cleveland Indians along with a Competitive Balance Round B pick in the 2019 MLB Draft for Carlos Santana, there was no doubt that his Mariners career would be short-lived.

Prior to being traded to the Yankees last June, just a little over two-and-a-half months since donning the navy and teal for the first time, Encarnación filled in for the recently departed Nelson Cruz quite nicely as the Mariners’ designated hitter. Getting on base at a .356 clip, Encarnación walked in 19% of his 289 plate appearances, crushing 21 home runs to the tune of a 1.6 fWAR.

For the All-Dipoto Acquisition Team roster, Encarnación will serve as our primary designated hitter. This decision, as well as the one to make Evan White our starting first baseman, ultimately means that Daniel Vogelbach will not make that cut. And if the Encarnación inclusion didn’t make that clear enough, maybe the next player will.

OMAR NARVÁEZ

As bad as Omar Narváez is behind the dish, he put on the best offensive season of any Mariners catcher in recent memory. In fact, he and Tom Murphy may have combined to be the best catching duo in team history, at least from an offensive standpoint, which makes it all the more sad that it only lasted a single season.

But Narváez’s defense is a problem because he doesn’t have an alternative home to shift to on the field. Some have speculated an eventual move to first base for him, but that hasn’t been acted on as of yet. For now, Narváez’s abilities would be best suited for a full-time designated hitter with opportunities to catch here and there in a backup role, severely downgrading his value to many teams, which ultimately led to a lack of interest on the trade market this offseason before he was finally shipped off to Milwaukee.

Still, the bat is too good to simply leave Narváez off the roster entirely. He wouldn’t have a chance to play absolutely everyday with the presence of Encarnación and Murphy, even though that was the case in the real world last season. Knowing what we know now, the defense is just too much of a liability for us to comfortably say that Narváez is an everyday player for this team.

Honestly, this decision was less based on who would be the team’s backup catcher and more so Narváez vs. Vogelbach as the team’s de facto pinch hitter. While Vogelbach certainly carries more firepower in his bat, Narváez is the overall better hitter and still can put one over the wall if you need him to. This isn’t to say Narváez would never catch for this team, but with the next player on this list, it makes it all the more unlikely.

AUSTIN NOLA

Austin Nola was very close to being this team’s starting second baseman, but we felt more comfortable in not restricting him to one confined role and allowing him to roam freely amongst the many positions he can play. So while Nola may be listed as a bench piece on this roster, consider him to be a pseudo-regular.

The career Minor Leaguer finally made his MLB debut at the age of 29 last year and never looked back. Primarily serving as the team’s first baseman, Nola only committed one error while logging innings at every position minus pitcher and shortstop, and slashed .269/.342/.454 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs to boot.

With Nola in line to take on more responsibilities behind the plate whenever the 2020 season finally gets underway, we view him as more of the backup catcher than Narváez. As mentioned, however, Nola would play a ton all over the place with the way we constructed this roster, so Narváez would get the opportunity to catch here and there.

SHED LONG JR.

And finally, we’re here at our last spot on the roster: the 26th man, Shed Long Jr. We could have gone a few different ways at this spot, but wanted to prioritize youth and versatility first and foremost. Long was under consideration for starting second baseman along with Tim Lopes and Austin Nola, so we feel confident in saying he could eventually push himself into that role.

Long appeared in 42 games in his first taste of MLB action last year, slashing .263/.333/.454 with five home runs and 15 RBIs. He ended the 2019 season on a high note, putting up a 128 wRC+ while playing almost every day in the month of September, further helping his cause to be the Mariners’ second baseman of the future.

Long is still figuring things out from a defensive standpoint after converting from catcher in the middle of the decade, but has great athleticism that should help him translate to a super-utility if starting at second base ultimately doesn’t pan out for him. For this roster, he would be a utility player at first with the chance to break into the starting lineup at second base.