2 Mariners that should play more, 2 that should play less

Mitch Garver Should Get Less Time...For Now

When a player is getting paid $12 million a year, it can be hard to consider benching them, but it's happened before. Just last year, Javier Báez was benched for an ice-cold start to the season despite getting paid $22 million so it's not the end of the world.

Garver was signed to be an imposing force at DH and it simply hasn't seemed to click yet. He's slashing .156/.250/.222 so far over 45 plate appearances with a 30.8% strikeout rate. He's whiffing a lot, hitting a ton of pop-ups, and simply not delivering on what is expected from of a player of his caliber. He seems to be getting particularly beat on the slider, a pitch against which he's batting .091 and striking out at a 50% clip. A chart of every slider he's seen so far this season shows just how frequently he's getting beat on it.

Oh, he's also struggling immensely against the sinker as well. Long story short, Garver has some work to do but is known to be a great hitter so expect him to warm up...eventually.