Mariners should sense Stephen Vogt-style opportunity after Mitch Garver's retirement

Mitch Garver has decided to call it a career after 10 major league seasons. If all he wants to do is ride off into the sunset and enjoy a post-baseball life, that'd be just fine. He's earned it.

Garver was a ninth-round pick in 2013, so he had beaten the odds well before he joined the Seattle Mariners for the first of three seasons in 2024. His time in Seattle wasn't productive, consisting of 0.1 rWAR over 251 games. He nonetheless leaves behind some good memories, and nobody will ever take his other accomplishments away from him. He was a Silver Slugger with the Minnesota Twins in 2019 and a World Series champion with the Texas Rangers in 2023.

If Garver would rather transition into coaching in lieu of hitting the links or whatever, the Mariners should be the first team to call him about a gig. And per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com, it sounds like there could indeed be an opening:

It wouldn't be the Mariners' first time hiring a respected big league catcher in the immediate wake of his retirement as a player. It's how they landed Stephen Vogt as their bullpen coach in 2023. Cut to three years later, and he's now a two-time Manager of the Year winner and the guy pretty much everyone wants to be skippering the Mariners in 2027.

Is this implying that Garver is the next hot manager commodity? Nah, not quite. It's just that Vogt wouldn't be where he is now if he hadn't proved himself as a coach with the Mariners, and one simply suspects that Garver could be a similarly valuable asset. Specifically, in working with pitchers.

Mitch Garver brought more to the Mariners than his results can ever indicate

Think of how Garver's time with the Mariners evolved. When they signed him to a two-year, $24 million contract after the 2024 season, he was meant to be their everyday DH. When that experiment yielded just an 85 OPS+ that year, he ended up catching more than DH'ing in 2025 and 2026.

Even though he had only been brought back on a minor league deal, it was in part because of Garver's rapport with the pitching staff that he ended up beating out Andrew Knizner to be Cal Raleigh's backup this past spring. If you're a believer in catcher ERA, it shows in the numbers:

Maybe it's just coincidence. But then again, you can say the same about how the Mariners' fortunes on the mound changed from before (3.47 ERA) and after (5.23 ERA) they released Garver in August. When different coincidences share a center of gravity, it's only natural to wonder if there's actually a common element.

Garver's notable work with George Kirby, specifically, offers a helpful window into how he operates. He started talking to Kirby one-on-one during games in 2024, going over the hitters the righty was about to face and how to approach them. That's a good catcher right there, and it's nothing Garver couldn't have done if he'd been a member of the coaching staff instead.

Given all their talk about pursuing a culture change under a new manager, one does wonder if the Mariners would be wary of the connective tissue to the Scott Servais-Dan Wilson regimes that would come with hiring Garver. But then again, they have already extended a vote of confidence to the coaches on the pitching side of things. Those guys were all spared the axe at the end of the season.

Garver makes his home in Colorado, so he is unlike Vogt in that he doesn't have a home base in Washington. Some things are nonetheless worth shooting a shot, and Garver as a Mariners coach is one of them.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow