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Seattle Mariners

Mariners position analysis: Two familiar faces in the mix at DH

Designated hitter Mitch Garver struggled in his first season in Seattle, finishing with the lowest batting average (.172) among 207 MLB hitters with at least 400 plate appearances.  (Tribune News Service)
By Adam Jude Seattle Times

At the outset of the offseason, Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto was transparent about one specific area of need for the club’s roster going into 2025.

Clubhouse leadership, Dipoto said, is a priority this offseason.

And he mentioned two names – Justin Turner and Carlos Santana – as potential options to supplement the club’s position-player core of Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh and J.P. Crawford.

“We have (over the past few years) fielded one of the younger teams in our league,” Dipoto said on Sept. 28. “Now our younger players are starting to gain experience. They’re moving into their late 20s. They’ve become good-to-star-level players in the league, from our pitchers to Julio, Cal and J.P.

“And (it’s been important) to have someone like Justin Turner, or back in 2022 a Carlos Santana. Depth hasn’t been a constant with us, and we need more than just a two-month cameo of that type of player to really help this team continue to do the things that we’ve done for the last month.”

Turner and Santana are both free agents, and the Mariners have expressed interest in re-signing them – so much so that a reunion with one of them is considered a likelihood, multiple industry sources told the Seattle Times.

The Mariners have a need for a part-time first baseman and a part-time designated hitter, and Turner and Santana both fit that profile neatly.

Both have proven that they fit neatly in the Mariners clubhouse, too.

Turner was everything the Mariners hoped he would be after the club acquired him in a July trade from Toronto.

In 48 games with Seattle, Turner turned in a 1.2 WAR, posting a .264/.363/.403 (.766 OPS) with five homers, seven doubles and 24 RBI in 190 plate appearances.

Just as notable, Turner became an important voice in the Mariners’ clubhouse, serving as something of a player-coach and helping to fill a leadership void.

Turner, entering his 17th season in 2025, turns 40 this Saturday. He played last season on a one-year, $13 million contract.

Santana served a similar role after the Mariners acquired him in a trade midway through the 2022 season. Santana is repped by the same agency as fellow Dominican Julio Rodriguez; they had trained together in Florida during the previous offseason and grew closer during Santana’s time in Seattle.

In 79 games with the Mariners in ’22, Santana was a 0.5 WAR player, posting a .192/.293/.400 (.693 OPS) slash line with 15 homers, eight doubles and 39 RBI in 294 plate appearances and helping the Mariners reach the playoffs.

Santana is coming off a strong 2024 season with the Minnesota Twins, posting a 2.5 WAR with 23 homers, 26 doubles and slashing .238/.328/.420 (.749 OSP) in 150 games. He also won his first Gold Glove for his work at first base. And after a slow April, he had a slash line of .253/.342/.460 (.802 OPS) over his final 514 plate appearances.

Santana, entering his 16th season in 2025, turns 39 on April 8. He played last season on a one-year, $5.25 million deal with Minnesota.

A look at a few other options in the DH mix for the Mariners:

Depth chart

Mitch Garver, Mitch Haniger, Luke Raley, Austin Shenton

Key number

.199 – the combined batting average from Seattle’s DHs in 650 plate appearances in 2024, the lowest batting average at the position in franchise history.

Key offseason question

Will both Mitches be back in 2025?

Key quote

“I’ve never quit anything. Certainly not going to quit this. They’re gonna have to rip the jersey off my back. That’s fine. That’s an easy way out. I could happily retire right now, go home and live a great life with my family. That’s not what I do. I made a two-year commitment to this team. They believe in me, my teammates believe in me. So it’s a matter of just making it click and when it does, good things will happen.” – Mitch Garver in July

Overview

Garver had a challenging year in his first season in Seattle, finishing with the lowest batting average (.172) among 207 MLB hitters with at least 400 plate appearances.

Signed to a two-year, $24 million deal to be the Mariners’ full-time DH, Garver ended up losing a regular role after the July trade for Turner. Garver was mostly limited to backup-catcher duties over the season’s final two months. He finished with 15 homers, 51 RBIs, a .627 OPS and a 30.9% strikeout rate. (There were some encouraging signs late in the season, as Garver hit three homers and drove in 11 runs with a .773 OPS in 39 at-bats in September.)

The season played out in similar fashion for Mitch Haniger, a longtime fan favorite in Seattle.

Because of injuries elsewhere, Haniger was the regular right fielder early in the season, but his playing time diminished as the season wore on, and he had just 43 at-bats in the final 34 games once Dan Wilson took over as manager.

Garver and Haniger are both under contract for 2025. Whether both end up on the opening day roster remains to be seen.

Garver is entering his age-34 season in 2025.

Haniger is also entering his age-34 season, and earlier this month he picked up a player option worth $15.5 million for 2025, an expected move after the Mariners traded former Cy Young winner Robbie Ray to San Francisco for Haniger last winter. Ray, limited to 30 innings with the Giants this year, is owed $50 million through the 2026 season.