Monday Morning Mariber is a collection of thoughts on the Mariners week that was, with a focus on the weekend games. This week we are exploring the here and now, because the past is too heavy and the future too potentially like the past.

Today’s It, Y’all

I suppose there are a fair number from which to choose, but perhaps my least favorite thing about the Mariners not making the playoffs for two decades is the way it makes the daily game’s happenings feel so small. There is a burden around this franchise that will exist until they play a postseason game, and it drags down the daily, rhythmic joys of our nine innings a day habit.

Of course, this is simply modern sports fandom. The ability to instantly and robustly quantify, measure, and historically-research practically any baseball thought that enters our head means we are increasingly-aware of just how non-unique practically everything and everyone can be if we break it all down to numbers. We are, in essence, Ecclesiastes 1:9-ing ourselves as baseball and Mariner fans. We are craving something new under the sun, and all that could be new under our sun is the Mariners playing in the playoffs. 

In light of this, I’d like to offer encouragement away from this obsession with success. The Mariners are 20-28. Per publicly available data their playoff odds are somewhere between 9% and 15%. Any real team success is going to require a deeply flawed roster to catch lightning in a bottle. This is the way it always is. Perhaps it is the way it will always be. Regardless, the 2022 Mariners are going to play 114 more baseball games. 

The Mariners’ past puts an inordinate focus on their future. This lines up nicely with the sport’s broader moment, as baseball statistics veer ever further from “what is or has been” to “what should or could be.” But the abstraction is never a guarantee. The Mariners may never make the playoffs. They may never improve. What is real is that they play tonight in Baltimore. First pitch 4:05 PT, with George Kirby on the bump. 

I hope they win today, because that’s all we get.

Three Up

A Man Worth Following

In the seventh inning of Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Astros, Scott Servais had Adam Frazier sacrifice bunt runners to 2nd and 3rd, allowing Rafael Montero to face Mike Ford and Luis Torrens. Montero, who is very good this year after being very bad in Seattle last year, quickly struck both men out, ending the Mariners’ threat. It was a bad idea to bunt, and with the team well below .500 the steady build of pressure on Servias’ job continued apace. As unfair as that may be, it’s also the way the job has worked for literally more than a century. The manager takes the fall. I get it. I’m sure Servais does too.

The day before the loss Servais, who has always come across as a man who wants nothing more out of life than to simply be in a baseball clubhouse and think about baseball and talk about baseball and then, preferably after a cold one and a burger, dream about baseball, stepped outside of that comfort zone to offer commentary on gun violence in America:

““You want to be respectful, and I get the moment of silence, but the moment of silence is very empty,” Servais said. “It’s time for people around the country and legislators to do something about it. So that’s what Scott Servais thinks. I certainly respect what others think, but it’s time.”

Scott Servais speaking out about the failure of leadership that allows school children to be gunned down en masse isn’t going to change anything in America, and I’m sure he knows that. As a baseball manager he is probably used to having his impacts be muted and difficult to measure. But as a leader he has a voice, and there is no better use of a voice than to advocate for the voiceless. There are 19 voices missing in Uvalde, TX. They could and should so easily still be heard. In a functioning society that cares for each other they would be. 

Servais did what he could. He’s trying. He’s being a leader. That’s the real job.

Starring Ty France as the Human Torch

The Mariners’ trading Austin Nola, Austin Adams, and Dan Altavilla for Andres Munoz, Ty France, Taylor Trammell, and Luis Torrens is arguably Jerry Dipoto’s finest hour in Seattle. That Torrens is a deeply flawed player, Munoz has yet to fully fulfill his potential, and Trammell’s future murky at best are deeply irrelevant. If the Mariners had only received Ty France back in that deal it would still be the best moment of the Dipoto Era.

You can look at the numbers, and they are very nice: A little .342/.414/.505 triple slash, served with a healthy and prime 175 wRC+, topped off with a garnish of 2.0 fWAR (twice the number of the next-highest AL 1B). France has dropped his already-low 2021 K% nearly a third and, at 11.2%, is the 10th hardest strikeout in all of MLB. 

The numbers nicely buttress the Ty France Viewing Experience, which is watching some of the best bat control in the game, and probably the best in Seattle since Prime Ichiro. His offense has grown so potent that any regression from last year’s newly-found defensive excellence is largely irrelevant. Do you want to pretend like Evan White’s glove offsets a wRC+ as high as a lead submarine, or do you want to see screaming doubles in the gap with runners at the corners?

Ty France is the truth. At this exact moment he is the best Seattle Mariner (although I’ll bet Julio Rodriguez takes that title by end of year). He’s a true, honest-to-god building block. What a treat.

Healing Through Dingers

/In my best Stephen A. Smith voice

TAke a look, y’all:

What has happened to Kyle Lewis is unfair. He should be starting his third season in centerfield. He should be a franchise cornerstone. He should be one of the most exciting players in the division. 

Instead, thanks to the spectacularly poor luck of running into a Single A catcher determined to earn his father’s love through redassery and plate blocking, he’s a part-time DH. Watching him move is like watching someone learning how to use their body for the first time and that’s because that is exactly what it is. The body Kyle Lewis had, the one that got him drafted in the first round and won the 2020 Rookie of the Year, is gone. He’s now living with a different one with new rules and regulations, and will do so for the rest of his life. 

That part all sucks, and sucks real bad. What he can do with a bat in his hands? That’s the world tossing a drop of justice into a barren ocean, but it’s way better than nothing. Every game we get with him in a Mariners uniform is special. I hope there are hundreds more to come.

Three Down

What Would You Say, You Do Here?

Like the team writ large, Luis Torrens was a fun and improbable story in 2021. Despite being moved off of catcher due to what some are calling “being real bad at it”, he settled into a part-time DH role, overcame a slow start offensively, and finished with 15 home runs and a 101 wRC+. 

Pressed into regular catching duty thanks to Tom Murphy’s injury and Cal Raleigh’s bat, Torrens has seen all semblance of offense completely fall apart this season. His primary struggle had been the total cratering of his power. His .211 SLG is the fifth lowest in the game (Min. 70 PA). I am not going to link to his Savant page to discuss his defense, because this has already been a rude write up.

He’s not hitting, and he’s not really a catcher. Given the roster construction having him on the 40-man always felt odd. I’m not sure the plan is moving forward, but the current situation is untenable.

Sea Us Walk?

Paul Sewald is the damn best. If any one player was the face of last season’s delirious joyride through anarchy and the 90-win threshold it was him, and his funky drop down delivery. In addition to a highly enjoyable anti-Mets platform, Sewald and his wife appear heavily invested in the community, and finding ways to give back to the region in which they have found professional success. I greatly enjoy him being here, and he’s a quality reliever in 2022.

That said, he had a bad week! It happens. Sewald threw in two high-leverage situations last week, and walked three batters, which now stand as 60% of his season total. While the nature of relievers is to discuss small sample size, a greater concern is the sharp decrease in K%. After striking out 39% of batters last year that number has shrunk to 25% this season. 

It’s not really fair that the Mariners built their team demanding most of their relievers repeat career years. The very nature of a career year is it’s unrepeatable. That said, Paul Sewald has gone from truly amazing in 2021 to perfectly fine this year. Here’s hoping his true talent is somewhere between those two, and he lands there fast.

Jerry Dipoto Uses Play Index Too

I’ve never really understood the value proposition of having a baseball team’s GM/President of Baseball Ops semi-regularly having a podcast. The nature of the position is highly-mercurial, and any attempt to engender public goodwill by coming across as folksy and approachable is quickly and thoroughly erased when you go through things like the Dr. Lorena Martin scandal, or you eliminate your scouting department during a pandemic.

That said, and as a fellow white dude who clearly can’t ever shut up, I get Jerry just kinda likes talking. It’s fun, and at its best can serve as a way to clarify your thoughts. However, I think this one probably should have stayed in the can:

You can get all twisted up about this, or you can get upset at me and others for making fun of it on Twitter. Or you can just laugh that the Mariners President of Baseball Operations is furiously working Play Index for his podcast so he can tell you that if the team were to finish in last place somehow it would be doing so in a way heretofore unseen in the 150+ year history of professional baseball.

I don’t really care which choice you make. Comedy is comedy, and this is good stuff. Many thanks, Jerry.

The Weekly “Mariners Tweet that Made Me Laugh Most Embarrassingly in Front of My Family” Award

(I know not a Mariners tweet but I laughed, and Brian is a great follow.)

After a month of bashing their heads against the best the league has to offer, the Mariners finally get an easier schedule. All they have to do is beat up on the Orioles (who have more wins than they do), and the Rangers (who have a lot more wins than they do). 

Oh dear. This season has really been, as my good friend Chris says, ten pounds of crap in a five pound bag thus far. Let’s swat some dingers and even that poop-to-bag volume ratio out a bit.

You’re all beautiful points of light in a darkened sky. Have a great week. Goms.

You can follow Nathan on Twitter at @nathan_h_b. Additionally he appears on the Ian Furness show on Mollywhop Mondays on KJR 93.3 FM every Monday at 1:10 PM with Chris Crawford and Kevin Shockey. Please be nice, he is doing his best.