Seattle Mariners Mike Zunino Still Struggling With Plate Discipline

It looked like Mike Zunino had greatly improved his hitting in the minor leagues, but the Seattle Mariners catcher has regressed mightily over the last month of the season.

One of the main reasons Seattle Mariners catcher Mike Zunino has struggled in his major league career is because of plate discipline. In his first three big league seasons, from 2013 to 2015, Zunino hit .193/.252/.353. After adjusting for league and park effects, he was 29% below average as a hitter (71 wRC+). He struck out 5.1% of the time and walked 32.1% of the time. League average rates for walks and strikeouts over that time were 7.7% and 20.2%, respectively. Simply put, Zunino struck out too often and didn’t draw enough walks.

It wasn’t all bad. Zunino does have good power. He hit 22 home runs in 2014, which tied for third among players who primarily played catcher. That year, he was just 13% below average as a hitter (87 wRC+). He also grades out well defensively. Mariners’ manager Scott Servais said recently, “He has done a fantastic job defensively. I think that goes overlooked. What he’s done for our pitching, with his (pitch) framing.”

After his 22-homer year in 2014, Zunino struggled more than ever in 2015. It got so bad that the Mariners sent him back down to Triple-A, then didn’t bother to recall him to the major leagues when rosters expanded in September. In the offseason, they signed Chris Iannetta and traded for Steve Clevenger to handle the catching duties and and Zunino started this year back in Triple-A.

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Zunino hit very well in Triple-A, the best he’s hit in years. With the Tacoma Rainiers, Zunino hit .286/.376/.521 in 79 games. More importantly, he walked 10.7% of the time and struck out 21.1% of the time. The last time he walked that often and had a strikeout rate that low over more than 20 games in a season was with the Low-A Everett Aquasox in 2012. It looked like he had finally figured something out.

The Seattle Mariners called Zunino up at the beginning of July and he got off to a great start. In his first 28 games, he hit .269/.389/.679 in 95 plate appearances. He also maintained the plate discipline he’d shown in Triple-A. He walked 11.6% of the time and struck out 24.2% of the time. There was progress. The outlook was good.

Then it wasn’t so good. Zunino struck out twice on August 25, then twice more on the 26^th, another two times on the 28^th, and four times on the 29^th. In a four game stretch, he was 0 for 15 with one walk and 10 strikeouts. The new and improved Mike Zunino was nowhere to be found.

After hitting .269/.389/.679 in his first 95 plate appearances in the major leagues this year, Zunino has hit .159/.258/.293 in his most recent 93 plate appearances this year. He’s come close to maintaining his walk rate (11.6% to 10.8%), but his strikeout rate has jumped from 24.2% to 40.9%.

The Mariners know there’s a problem. Manager Scott Servais recently said, “He was in such a good spot. Consistent at-bats, getting hits and taking his walks. I think he may be expanding the strike zone a little bit. There are some pitches that he should be hitting that he’s not. He’s chasing off the edges, which he wasn’t doing earlier.”

For reference, the clip below shows a typical Zunino strikeout. You can see where the catcher sets up, low and away, and it’s a pitch that Zunino has great difficulty hitting but can’t seem to lay off of.

Even Zunino knows his plate discipline is an issue. In the midst of his slump, he admitted, “I think I tried to do more than I was doing. Expanding the zone. When I came back (from Tacoma), I had some success. You want to make everything better and continue to get better. I made some tweaks that sent me in the wrong direction. So it’s just a matter of getting that turned around. It’s a work-in-progress, but I have to do something that I want to go back to.”

Zunino’s overall numbers for the season will look good. This will be the best hitting season of his career, with the caveat that it will be about a 55-game sample. With just two games left, he’s hitting .213/.324/.481 (120 wRC+). A full season of that level of production would make him a top 10 catcher, especially when you add in his defensive abilities. With this in mind, the Mariners organization still views Zunino as the long-term answer at catcher. They can keep Iannetta as the backup if they pick up his $4.25 million club option, but Zunino is expected to be the starter going forward.

You have to wonder, though, if Zunino will rebound from his end-of-season slump and improve upon his career-long struggles at the dish. The good news is that his walk rate of 11.2% this year is more than double what it was in his first three years. The bad news is that he’s still striking out over 30% of the time and he now has over 1,200 career plate appearances with a .195/.263/.371 batting line.

For reference, in the entire history of baseball, there have been 3,730 non-pitchers with more than 1,000 career plate appearances. This is where Zunino ranks in the following categories:

On-Base Percentage: 3,661^st out of 3,730

Batting Average: 3,720^th out of 3,730

Walk rate: 2,861^st out of 3,730

Strikeout rate: 9^th out of 3,730

wRC+: 2,996^th out of 3,730

Next: Weather creating Wild Card havoc

The Seattle Mariners are optimistic about Zunino’s long term future, but he has a big hill to climb. Even with his improved hitting this year, his career is off to a historical bad start.

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