Mitch

Garver

Garver’s home run was his 15th of the year. He hit a solo shot off JP Sears in the second inning. Garver’s 113 games played this year were a career-high, but he had his worst season since the abbreviated 2020 season. Garver had a 30 percent strikeout percentage and hit .172 with a .169 ISO.

Garver’s last three appearances, which have taken place over a 12-day span, have seen him knock in a total of nine runs. The Mariners haven’t done much lineup tweaking of late, but maybe they’ll start getting Garver more time to see if he can stay hot. It’s especially likely to happen if Victor Robles is sidelined for any length of time.

Raleigh will get a break Sunday with Mitch Garver serving as George Kirby’s personal backstop again. Mitch Haniger will be the designated hitter Sunday with Luke Raley sitting against southpaw Andrew Heaney.

Garver got the scoring started in Seattle’s offensive explosion on Wednesday with a double to plate two runs in the second inning. He singled in the fourth to drive in a third run before scoring on a double by Luis Urías. Garver later brought in a fourth run on a groundout in the eighth. The 33-year-old slugger is hitting just .167/.287/.324 with 12 homers and 44 RBI across 397 plate appearances.

Raleigh has been dealing with a ton of bumps and bruises that have accumulated over the course of the year, so he’s getting a break on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh with left Bailey Falter on the mound for the Pirates. It’ll be veteran Mitch Garver handling the catching duties.

Raleigh will take a seat even after hitting two homers and driving in five runs against the Mets on Sunday. Mitch Garver has become George Kirby’s personal catcher so he’ll be behind the plate, and Justin Turner will be the designated hitter while Big Dumper rests.

Turner brings a .254/.349/.371 line with him to Seattle. Odds are that he’ll fare a little worse while playing half of his games in arguably baseball’s toughest ballpark for hitters, but we’ll see. He’ll serve as a first baseman and DH for the Mariners. Jason Vosler, Tyler Locklear and Mitch Garver might all have to fight it out for time the other spot. That’s bad for Garver, but he will remain the team’s backup catcher.

Garver also drew two walks. The 33-year-old was able to double in a run in the first inning and came around to score on a three-run blast by Josh Rojas. Garver has been unplayable in 2024 with a .177/.296/.353 slash and hasn’t been a regular for Seattle as of late. Maybe this jump starts him for the final 50-plus games of 2024.

Garver socked his 407-foot (102.8 mph EV) three-run shot off of Jose Berrios in the fifth inning, giving the Mariners a 4-1 lead. That would wind up being the extent of their offense. The 33-year-old backstop finished the day 2-for-5 plus a walk and is now hitting .179/.293/.371 with 12 homers and 36 RBI on the season.

We’re going to safely assume that Garver’s right wrist is feeling better after watching him sock a no-doubter to left-center field off Orioles reliever Keegan Akin in the seventh inning of this one. It was his 11th big fly of the season and third time he’s gone deep in eight games since June 24. The 33-year-old veteran backstop was back in Seattle’s lineup at designated hitter on Thursday after missing a pair of games earlier this week due to a right wrist contusion that he suffered when he was hit by a pitch last weekend. It doesn’t look like a massive concern anymore.