The Mariners Add Insurance Plan For Their Outfield

It has been a fairly quiet offseason in Seattle. The Mariners bought issues transferring pretty shortly, buying and selling for Teoscar Hernández and Kolten Wong to cowl the holes left by a few departing free brokers, however issues slowed down after that. They’ve introduced in a few veterans to offer a little bit of depth, however are in any other case largely banking on a repeat of their success final 12 months and a few continued progress from their younger core. They made another final minute addition yesterday, signing Kole Calhoun to a minor league contract with an invite to spring coaching.

Bringing in an 11-year veteran like Calhoun is the kind of transfer that loads of groups make throughout the spring, however they not often work out for the participant concerned. Most ball golf equipment are content material to roll out no matter inside depth they have already got as an alternative of clearing a 40-man roster spot so as to add a participant on a minor league deal. However each every now and then, a veteran will present that he has simply sufficient left within the tank throughout spring coaching to interrupt camp on the Opening Day roster.

Should you squint, you may see how Calhoun might be primed for a bounce again season in 2023. An extended-time Angel, he actually began to wrestle throughout his closing seasons in Anaheim. From 2017–19, he put up a 94 wRC+ and amassed 3.5 WAR, with a career-high 33 residence runs in his closing season for Los Angeles. He joined the Diamondbacks in free company the next 12 months and produced a career-high 125 wRC+ and 1.5 WAR throughout the shortened season. The final two years haven’t been variety to him, nevertheless. A recurring hamstring harm reduce quick most of his 2021 season and his manufacturing cratered final 12 months after signing a one-year cope with the Rangers, along with his wRC+ falling to a career-low 67.

While you take a look at his underlying batted ball knowledge, you’ll discover that Calhoun actually didn’t deserve such tough outcomes on his balls in play. Merely taking a look at his Statcast anticipated stats tells a lot of the story: his anticipated batting common was .223 and his anticipated slugging share was .382, 27 and 52 factors larger than what he really completed, respectively. That underperformance ranked thirteenth and fifteenth within the league amongst certified batters. A take a look at his batted ball peripherals tells an much more attention-grabbing story:

Final 12 months, Calhoun elevated his hard-hit fee by 9.3 factors, the most important year-over-year improve amongst all batters with at the least 400 plate appearances in 2022. He additionally noticed important enhancements in his exit velocities, whether or not you might be calculating a straight common, taking solely his elevated contact, or taking a look at his Ninety fifth-percentile exit velocity. With the accidents that had hampered him a number of years in the past behind him, he was capable of affect the ball with the identical type of authority as he did throughout his excellent 2020 season. That type of batted ball high quality ought to have resulted in a lot better outcomes when placing the ball in play.

Maybe one of many causes he struggled to seek out success is that he has develop into fairly pull joyful in current seasons. In 2020, his pull fee reached a profession excessive of 59.0%, and whereas it hasn’t been as excessive since, he was nonetheless among the many league leaders in pulled contact final 12 months. In consequence, opposing defenses deployed a shift towards him in 93.4% of his plate appearances final 12 months, the seventh-highest shift fee within the majors. The restrictions on defensive shifts received’t be a silver bullet for all his batted ball woes, however you’d count on to see at the least a number of extra groundballs sneak by way of the correct aspect and not using a third defender in shallow proper subject.

That’s the place the excellent news ends, nevertheless. The largest motive Calhoun’s total manufacturing fell so precipitously was as a result of his plate self-discipline fell aside. His chase fee, contact fee, and swinging strike charges had been all profession worsts, which led to a ten level improve in strikeout fee. Regardless of making loud contact when he was placing the ball in play, he merely didn’t put his bat on the ball usually sufficient. Calhoun has had a strong strategy on the plate previously; over the three seasons previous to 2022, he ran a 24.3% strikeout fee and a ten.8% stroll fee.

As a substitute of sticking along with his honed aggression, he’s elevated his total swing fee every year since 2020. Final 12 months, it was as much as 53%, and when much more of these swings are approaching pitches exterior of the zone and find yourself touching air, it’s a fast slide in direction of catastrophe. If you wish to grasp at straws, Calhoun did enhance his plate self-discipline metrics towards the very finish of the season, reducing his swing fee to round 45% and his chase fee underneath 30%.

The possibilities that Calhoun will gown in Northwest Teal on March 30 are fairly slim. The Mariners have Julio Rodríguez and Hernández put in in middle and proper subject and have a handful of choices to deploy in left, together with Jarred Kelenic, AJ Pollock, Sam Haggerty, and Dylan Moore. They did lose a possible piece of depth when Taylor Trammell broke his hamate bone throughout a spring exercise; he can be sidelined for at the least seven weeks. Haggerty and Moore are each recovering from offseason surgical procedures as nicely, although they appear to be on monitor to be able to contribute by Opening Day. Dropping Trammell, if solely briefly, doubtless opened up a chance for Calhoun to show he has one thing left within the tank.

There’s additionally the query of whether or not Kelenic will ever be able to tackle a full-time position within the majors. He has the expertise and instruments, however he merely hasn’t been capable of translate them into constant main league success. He made some refined changes in September and labored to construct off these this offseason. When he reported to camp this spring, the Mariners had been thrilled with the work he had put in to deal with the problems in his swing. He’s nonetheless competing for a spot on the large league roster, although he would wish to have a completely dismal spring for the Mariners to contemplate breaking camp with out him on the 26-man roster.

Which means Calhoun actually must show he can contribute as a backup outfielder and doubtlessly part-time designated hitter. If the contact high quality sticks and his plate self-discipline bounces again in direction of his profession norms, there’s a shot. And even when he doesn’t make the M’s Opening Day roster, he may take the Matt Carpenter route and make an affect elsewhere in the course of the season.