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Seattle Mariners catcher Mike Zunino is worse than ever

By Bobby Mueller

Apr 25, 2017; Detroit, MI, USA; Seattle Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre (30) talks to starting pitcher Felix Hernandez (34) and catcher Mike Zunino (3) during the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 25, 2017; Detroit, MI, USA; Seattle Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre (30) talks to starting pitcher Felix Hernandez (34) and catcher Mike Zunino (3) during the second inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /
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After struggling to hit in the early going of 2017, Seattle Mariners catcher Mike Zunino has been sent back to Triple-A.

The ongoing saga of Mike Zunino has once again landed him back in Triple-A after he hit .167/.250/.236 in his first 24 games with the Seattle Mariners. Seattle fans have seen this before. After playing 131 games for the Mariners in 2014, Zunino went back and forth between the major leagues and Triple-A in each of the last two seasons and now he’s back down in the minors to figure out his swing.

With Zunino, the problem is apparent but the solution has been elusive. His issue is plate discipline. Namely, he strikes out too much and is particularly susceptible to breaking pitches on the outside part of the plate. The team was hoping for improvement in this area in 2017, but Zunino has been worse than ever, with a career high 37.5% strikeout rate.

Since coming to the big leagues in 2013, Zunino has hit .193/.262/.362. In that same time period, pitcher Madison Bumgarner has hit .205/.259/.384. I realize Madison Bumgarner is a good hitter for a pitcher, but c’mon, Mike. At this point, Zunino would need to go 11-for-11 just to get over the Mendoza Line and get on base 73 times in a row to push his career on-base percentage over .300.

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Zunino has always had trouble getting on base, but he’s been able to tap into some power occasionally. In his first full season in the majors, he hit .199/.254/.404, with 22 home runs and 60 RBI. That was back in 2014 and is still Zunino’s best big league season, worth 1.8 Wins Above Replacement (WAR). He cratered the following year, which got him sent back to Triple-A for 10 games before the team cut his season short to work on his swing.

The Mariners went into last season with the plan to keep Zunino in Triple-A so he could work on his swing and have some success. It looked like the plan worked beautifully when he hit .286/.376/.521 and cut his strikeout rate to 21% with the Tacoma Rainiers. The M’s brought him back up to the major leagues in July and it looked like he had made real progress, as he hit .207/.318/.470 in 55 games.

A closer look at last season shows that whatever lessons Zunino learned in Triple-A did not stick. He hit progressively worse and struck out at a higher rate as the season went on:

.241/.353/.655, 20.5% strikeout rate—July

.212/.346/.515, 33.3% strikeout rate—August

.188/.273/.348, 40.3% strikeout rate—September/October

The warning signs were there that Zunino wasn’t yet the hitter the Mariners hoped he would be. Now, after his ugly start to 2017, he’s back in Triple-A trying to figure it out once again. In the meantime, the Mariners will go with 38-year-old Carlos Ruiz and 32-year-old Tuffy Gosewich.

At this point in his career, Ruiz is adequate at getting on base but has very little power. At his age, he’ll likely split time with Gosewich, rather than be the full-time guy. He’s been a good defensive catcher throughout his career, so it’s not a total loss.

Gosewich won’t help the team offensively, either. He has a career batting line of .199/.237/.286 in four season with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Like Ruiz, Gosewich should be an asset on defense. For the time being, it won’t matter who starts at catcher for the Mariners, that lineup spot will be a black hole of death.

As for Zunino, the outlook is not good. Since 1901, there have been 184 catchers with 1000 or more plate appearances through their age 26 season. In this group, Zunino ranks 154th with a 75 wRC+ (a 75 wRC+ means he’s been 25% worse than league average when league and ballpark effects are taken into account). Catchers in this group between 70 and 80 wRC+ include such illustrious names as John Buck, Josh Thole, Rick Cerone, Alan Ashby, Chris Snyder, Dioner Navarro, Mike Fitzgerald, Bob Boone, Michael Barrett, and Bruce “Eggs” Benedict. Those names do not inspire confidence that Zunino will figure out how to hit major league pitching.

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I guess if you want to be optimistic, you could look to Bob Boone for inspiration. Like Zunino, Boone had a 75 wRC+ through his age 26 season. Over the next four years, from age 27 through 31, Boone was an above average hitter in three seasons and had a 107 wRC+ across all four years. Despite his early career struggles, Boone managed to be an asset on offense during his late-20s and early 30s. Of course, Bob Boone never came close to striking out as much as Zunino has. Until Zunino can solve his strikeout problems, he’s going to struggle.

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