The Seattle Mariners have a long history of being pioneers in Major League Baseball.
From a tugboat to bringing in relief pitchers to fried crickets, the team has never been afraid to innovate.
This year, they will once again attempt to disrupt the baseball paradigm by fine-tuning a concept they have been dabbling with for years.
One of the features of the American League since 1973 has been the Designated Hitter. The player, typically a slugger who is less than capable in the field, bats in place of the pitcher. Major League Baseball grew so tired of the majority of pitchers pitifully striking out or nearly injuring their multi-million-dollar arms attempting to swing a bat that they adopted the rule across both the American and National Leagues in 2022.
The Edgar Martinez Award for the best DH is named for the Mariners Hall of Famer, who excelled in the 1990s and early 2000s. After injuries forced him to give up playing third base regularly, Martinez excelled as a designated hitter, finishing with a career .312 batting average, hitting 309 home runs, and a career 147 WPS. He was elected to the Major League Hall of Fame in 2019.
Since Martinez retired in 2004, the Mariners have struggled to fill his shoes for the past two decades. This year, they are going all in on an idea they have dabbled with in the past. Everyone expects Designated Hitters to be in the mold of Martinez: a player with power who can get on base, a fearsome middle-of-the-order bat. After all, “Hitter” is literally in the position’s name. But the Mariners are looking outside the box to ask the big-brain question, “What if we use a Designated Hitter who can’t hit.” Not content to experiment with just one such player, in a revolutionary tactic, the Mariners may deploy three such players to be their designated “hitter” this year.
Mitch Garver, Mitch Hanniger, and Rowdy Tellez all could see time at DH this year for the Mariners. All of them have several things in common: they are old, slow, often injured, have no real defensive value, and none of them can hit with any sort of consistency.
Haniger has been injured for much of spring training, has been significantly below average for the past two years, and turns 34 this season. Garver, who has at least shown signs of life this spring, was supposed to be the team’s primary designated hitter last season but found himself demoted to part-time catcher as he spiraled through a lost season that saw him hit .172 with an Ops+ of 85. Tellez, one of the team’s biggest offseason acquisitions, was brought in on a minor-league contract just before spring training. Somehow, he had the best 2024 of the bunch, for whatever it is worth. He hit .243 with 13 home runs and an OPS+ of 91. Compared to Haniger and Garver, he’s a hitting machine, striking out only 21% of the times he went to the plater in 2024, compared to 30% each for the Mitch platoon.
The Mariners will soon face a choice on which of their designated non-hitters will be on the team opening day. Haniger hasn’t played in several weeks, and Tellez has an opt-out on his minor league contract at the end of the weekend. He could walk if the Mariners don’t add him to the major league roster.
Essentially, the Mariners are counting on a group of castoffs who may not find a spot on any other major league roster to hold down one of the most critical spots in the lineup. And it’s a critical spot in a lineup that is not very good overall. The Mariners led the league in strikeouts last year, had the second-lowest batting average, and finished in the middle of the American League in offensive win probability added. The team likely would have made the playoffs with even a slightly above-average offense. Instead of making significant additions this offseason, the team trolled through the castoff bin and doubled down on last season’s players to bounce back.
If the Mariners are going to make the playoffs this year, they will again need at least an above-average offense to go along with an excellent pitching staff. Hitters up and down the lineup will have to produce at something resembling a major league level. With their experiment of collecting Designated Hitters who can’t hit, as novel as the concept may be, about to meet regular season reality, things don’t appear to be off to a great start.
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