Seattle Mariners: 2017 Season Review and Offseason Preview
What Went Right
The biggest surprise on offense was catcher Mike Zunino, who came into this season with a career batting line of .195/.262/.370. He showed promise at times in previous seasons, most notably when he hit 22 home runs in 2014, but even then it came with a .254 OBP. This year, he hit .251/.331/.509 and set career highs in pretty much everything.
Zunino still struck out too often (nearly 37 percent of the time, a career high), but he also had a career-high 38.6 percent hard hit percentage and the best rate of home runs per fly ball that he’s ever had. Combine that good batting line with a good glove behind the plate and you get 3.6 Wins Above Replacement for Zunino, which made him the second-best catcher in the American League, behind only the Yankees’ Gary Sanchez.
The one big caveat in Zunino’s season was a .355 Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP). His career rate is .273 and he’s not the type of player who would be expected to have a high BABIP (like Ichiro Suzuki, for example). Prior to this season, his best BABIP was .267 in 52 games in his rookie year. If you adjust his batting line from 2017 by reducing his .355 BABIP to his career mark of .273, his 2017 triple-slash becomes .208/.293/.466. That’s much more like the Zunino from the first four years of his career.
Other bright spots on offense included the core of the Mariners’ lineup—Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, and Robinson Cano. They were all around 3.5 WAR players. Cruz has proven to be a very good signing so far. Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger had good years that were limited by injuries, with Segura playing 125 games and Haniger playing 96. Center fielder Jarrod Dyson was very good on defense but was injured in early September and missed the rest of the season. Ben Gamel showed enough to be someone to watch next year.
The Mariners used 17 different starting pitchers in 2017, ranging from the 29 games started by Ariel Miranda to the single game started by four different pitchers (remember Ryan Weber?). Only two teams in the last 60 years have used more. The bright spot among this group was “Big Maple”, James Paxton, who had a 2.98 ERA and struck out a career-high 28.3% of the batters he faced. Health problems limited him to 136 innings, but they were very good innings.
Beyond Big Maple, the Mariners got five good starts from Mike Leake after acquiring him in a trade with the Cardinals. Andrew Albers started six games and had a 3.16 ERA, but his 3.99 FIP was less impressive. Similarly, Erasmo Ramirez had a 3.92 ERA in 11 starts, but with a 4.71 FIP that suggests it’s not likely to be repeated.
The Mariners’ bullpen finished in the middle of the pack in WAR. Nick Vincent (3.20 ERA, 2.82 FIP in 64.7 IP) had good numbers from the right side. Closer Edwin Diaz wasn’t as dominant as he was in 2016. His strikeout rate dropped and his walk rate went up, but he still saved 34 games and had a 3.27 ERA (4.02 FIP).