Two Mitches and a Luke. Or, "Am I On Crazy Pills?"

So... let's take a look at the Mariners roster right now. The only player who has more than 50 MLB starts at either 2B or 3B is Dylan Moore. Yet all the off-season talk has been about securing the weak half of a First Base platoon? Are we losing our minds?

Let's look at Luke Raley. Tall. Rangy. Put up a 142wRC+ vs righties last year. So, just pencil him in for 120 starts at 1B. He doesn't need to play the OF unless one of Robles, Arozarena or Julio gets hurt. Those dudes should each play 150+ games and Julio and Robles in particular bring huge defensive value. Speaking of value, Raley is pre-arb and makes $750k. That's value!

But, what of Raley's struggles vs lefties? Well - Mitch Garver in an atrocious offensive season last year still managed a 125 wRC+ vs southpaws. For his career he's abused lefties to the tune of a tidy 136 wRC+. He's played a limited amount of 1B in his career but he's an amazing athlete. Albuquerque High School male athlete of the year for 2009! Half kidding, but also not... He's not going to be Evan White, but he would do just fine. "But he's the backup catcher," you say! Big deal. Big Dumper is gonna catch 110 games. Garver can catch 50 games AND play 40 games at 1B. That's not an unfathomable feat.

And... failing that, the Mariners have a Mitch Haniger problem. No one is taking on his $17M unless they bundle him in a salary dump with, like, Lazaro Montes. And please don't!! He has no real role in the OF on this roster as he's markedly declined defensively. Well, old righfielders move to 1B. And, guess what - Haniger has a career 115 wRC+ vs lefties. So, if Garver can truly only catch and DH, give the other Mitch an opportunity to fill a productive role by mixing time at DH and 1B.

Basically, what I'm saying is, if the team literally has $12M to $15M to spend, for the love of all that is holy, get a 3rd baseman. Hmmm. You know who makes almost exactly that amount and is a tremendously charming human? Eugenio Suarez. But, unfortunately the Mariners traded him for a catcher's mitt.