Seattle Mariners Sign Rickie Weeks

For the second offseason in a row, the Seattle Mariners have signed a second baseman to a major league deal. For the second offseason in a row, that player was, at the time of his signing, the best remaining talent on the market. Yup, that’s right: welcome to Seattle, Rickie Weeks.

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Okay, so Weeks signing isn’t really anything like Robinson Cano signing his mega-deal a year ago, but the parrallels do illustrate on particular point: this is a weird signing. Weird, because of Cano. Weird, because it really didn’t look like the Mariners had any more room to add MLB players, even if they wanted to.

A quick Rickie Weeks primer: 32 years old, former number two overall pick of the Milwaukee Brewers. Jack Zduriencik drafted him when he was with the Crew, then watched him turn into a star there. Weeks peaked in 2010, when he hit .269/.366/.464 while playing above average keystone defense. That was a 5.8 WAR season. He would have likely made it back to near that figure the following season had he not been slowed by injuries. He was, at that point, clearly one of the best second basemen in the game.

Then 2012 happened. Weeks’ offense slipped to something just a shade under average, which is somewhere he hadn’t been in years. But unlike his previous offensive off-years, this one came along with a sudden and extreme drop-off in defensive production. Weeks was suddenly a very limited player, and it only got worse in 2013. His defense continued to suck and his offense slipped another wrung. He lost playing time, and seemed to be nearing an abrupt end to a career that had so recently been on such a different trajectory.

2013 Rickie Weeks isn’t the kind of player you sign to a major league contract, so what happened to convince the Mariners to guarantee him $2 million for 2015? He rebounded, basically. In a reduce role, mostly platooning with Scooter Gennett at second, Weeks slashed .274/.357/.452. Over 286 plate appearances, Weeks posted the same wRC+ as he did in his amazing 2010 season. 2014 Rickie Weeks hit as much as any Rickie Weeks ever has.

The defense still isn’t there, but even so, that’s a good player, that 2014 Weeks. He was good against righties – .294/.351/.395, but he was downright great against lefties – .256/.361/.504. He got plenty of plate appearances against pitchers of each handedness, since his platooning with Gennett wasn’t strict and traditional by any means. Weeks showed last year that he can still hit. And against lefties, he can straight up mash.

You know who wasn’t very good against lefties last year? Dustin Ackley. You know who’s always been seen as a good athlete? Rickie Weeks. Don’t count on Weeks’ role on the Mariners being once-a-week second base sub and late-game pinch hitter. I’d expect Weeks to play quite a bit, and probably more often in left field than anywhere else.

In hindsight it almost seems obvious. Weeks is an experienced piece of quality infield depth, which is simply not something the team had before (sorry, Willie Bloomquist). But infielders don’t have to be infielders forever. The Boston Red Sox just gave Hanley Ramirez a ton of money to switch from shortstop to left field, despite already having the most crowded MLB outfield in all of baseball. Weeks, in this case, gets to be a poor man’s Ramirez.

Want to see something fun? 2014 Hanley Ramirez: 135 wRC+, -6.1 Def. 2014 Rickie Weeks: 127 wRC+, -7 Def. Ramirez was an every day player, of course, but neither played well enough up the middle to avoid moving to the outfield. Ramirez is going to cost $86 million more than Weeks, and last season was only marginally better on a per-plate appearance basis.

For the Mariners, Weeks should be defensively versatile. He’ll be there to provide rest days for Cano and Nelson Cruz, while forming some kind of platoon with Ackley in the outfield. There’s room for him to play often if he’s productive, and if someone gets hurt he’s a neat piece of insurance to have around. If he reverts to 2013 form, hey, he only cost $2 million. That’s not a player you mind dropping if he’s holding the team back.

Rickie Weeks doesn’t seem like an obvious fit at first. But look a little closer and he’s a flexible veteran coming off a nice season, but still with something to prove. Odds are he improves the 2015 Mariners, which is really the goal of every recent acquisition. The Mariners are building something. And now Rickie Weeks is a part of that something.

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