Mariners Position Primer: First Base and Infield
By Ben Renner
Most of the Mariners starting infield is set, but just how much did Jerry Dipoto upgrade first base this offseason?
Jerry Dipoto was a man of many missions this offseason to fix a flawed team and help it live up to its growing expectations. It remains to be seen, of course, but it appears that Dipoto upgraded three of the five infield positions during his offseason. First, let’s look at who’s starting where for the Mariners infield in 2016:
1B: Adam Lind
2B: Robinson Cano
3B: Kyle Seager
SS: Ketel Marte
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Let’s go through the easy analysis first, in case you were living under a rock for the past six months. There were whispers of possibly forcing Cano to play first base to solve the dead zone that it was last year, but that plan never came through. Dipoto wisely kept Cano at his natural position and brought in Adam Lind to play first base, a huge upgrade over the Logan Morrison/ Jesus Montero/Mark Trumbo show last year. Seager is the third baseman of the future and the present for the Mariners. Iannetta wasn’t exactly Mike Piazza last year for the Angels (.188/.293/.335), but he’s a much-needed upgrade over Mike Zunino, who needs some time in the minors in 2016.
Iannetta and Lind are easy upgrades. The Brad Miller trade could have upgraded the shortstop position by addition via subtraction. There were many things to like about Miller: speed, moderate pop, decent range defensively, and a good arm. But, his arm slung throws into the first base dugout in too many clutch situations and his bat wasn’t good enough to overcome lapses in the field. In steps Ketel Marte to take over the starting job. Marte flashed solid leather last season after taking over for Miller and Chris Taylor last year. While he may never hit a ton, he at showed some contact ability and seems willing to slap the ball into the dirt and run it out to first base with his considerable speed. He might not be as flashy as Miller was at times last year, but it seems he’ll be more consistent with the glove and the bat.
Lind is an obvious upgrade at first base, as I mentioned, but he has serious Kryptonite issues. I could recite his left/right splits again here, but suffice it to say that he’s good against right-handed pitchers and terrible against lefties. That’s why Dipoto has been bringing in all kinds of buy-low candidates to act as the right-handed hitting half of the first base platoon we’re likely to see in 2016. Dipoto brought in Korean veteran slugger Dae-Ho Lee, tried to add Travis Ishikawa (the deal fell through), Gaby Sanchez, Steve Clevenger, and somehow managed to restrain himself from dumping Jesus Montero on another team for a six pack. My hope for this motley crew of potential platoon mates for Lind is that Lee emerges as a power bat capable of starting at first against lefties. I’ve lost faith in Jesus; and Clevenger and Sanchez are bench-level bats. Finding a useful first baseman to supplement Lind could be a major bugaboo for the Mariners this season.
Next: Mariners Position Primer: Starting Pitcher
In his offseason makeover, Dipoto helped improve the team’s infield immensely on paper. I’m excited to see how it pans out when the season starts.