Which remaining free agents can excel at T-Mobile Park?
Mitch Garver is onboard, but who is next and who can best cut through the Mariner Layer. You'd be surprised who made the cut.
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Major League Baseball insider Joe Doyle had an interesting X post on Christmas Eve, shortly after the Mitch Garver signing. It was a list of all the bats in this free agent class ranked by their ability to produce at T-Mobile Park. As you know, the home of the Seattle Mariners is one of the notoriously pitcher-friendly parks that wreaks havoc on most power bats. We've seen the park suppress above-league-average players (at least 100wRC+): Adrian Beltre, AJ Pollock, Jesse Winker, Kolten Wong, Richie Sexton, and the list goes on. For context, old friends, Pollock and Wong are in the bottom ten of the list.
So which free agents actually CAN hit at T-Mobile Park? (Min. 24 PA)
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) November 8, 2023
"tOPS" is a ballpark split relative to a player's total career OPS across all parks. 100 means T-Mobile plays exactly average to player's career. pic.twitter.com/3V9PywrpK2
Newly-minted Mariner, Mitch Garver is at the bottom of Doyle's list, going hitless in 33 at bats. The sample size is small, and that's probably what Jerry Dipoto, the Mariners' President of Baseball Operations thought when he dished out a 2 year $24M deal for the designated hitter/catcher.
The one thing Garver has going for him is he hits the ball extemely hard (EV 90.0) and barrels at a high rate (83rd percentile). The Mariners needed someone to replace the power production of Teoscar Hernandez, chances are Garver is probably who Scott Servais pencils in the cleanup spot.
Dipoto and Hollander both mentioned the need for at least 1 1/2 bats to replace the production lost from trading Eugenio Suarez and Jarred Kelenic. If the front office is factoring the park in their offseason plan you'd think they would be in on the power bat of Jorge Soler or to a lesser degree Jared Walsh. They could go the high contact route by pursuing the ageless wonder, Donovan Solano or the guy on the wrong end of 2023's best punch, Tim Anderson. For now, just bask in the glow of a Christmas Eve present who may or may not be able to solve a three decade long riddle that is T-Mobile Park.