It’s Time for Dan Wilson, Mariners to End Platoon Obsession
The Seattle Mariners began this season with a clear plan to cycle through several players. A “platoon” in baseball is defined as a “a managerial strategy where two players share a single defensive position, alternating starts based on the handedness of the opposing starting pitcher.”
For example, the Mariners signed Rob Refsnyder this offseason to mash against left-handed pitching. When Seattle faced a right-handed starter, Dominic Canzone and Luke Raley would be in the lineup with Refsnyder on the bench.
But after 55 games, now closer to the halfway point of the season than the season opener, it’s time to ditch this approach.
To a fault, manager Dan Wilson has stuck strictly to the platoon arrangement. It almost seems like an obsessive process over strategy or what’s putting the Mariners in the best position to win games, especially late in the game.
Several times this season, it seemed Wilson pinch hit a platoon player too early in the game, thus leaving his replacement exposed to a suboptimal matchup later in the game. As just one example, during the Mariners’ 2-0 loss to the Padres a couple weeks ago, the Padres brought in lefty fireballer Adrian Morejon in the seventh. Wilson subbed in Connor Joe for lefty slugger Luke Raley and Rob Refsnyder for Dominic Canzone.
In a vacuum, those moves aren’t too egregious. Morejon is tough on lefties. However, that meant that Joe and Refsnyder stayed in the game and faced the all-world right-handed closer Mason Miller with the game on the line. Certainly, the matchup would have favored lefties Raley and Canzone against the fire-breathing Miller, throwing 103 mph from the right side.
Fans can point to several instances like this where Wilson substituted a hitter mid-game for a more optimal matchup in the middle innings, only to expose that same hitter to a much worse matchup with the game on the line in the eighth or ninth inning.
Among hitters with at least 50 plate appearances in May, Luke Raley has the highest wRC+ in MLB at 202. His 1.061 OPS is second in MLB for the month only to Byron Buxton. Raley is playing some of the best baseball of his career. Yet, he is being substituted at the first sight of a lefty every game.
Sure, Raley historically does not hit well against lefties. He has a lifetime .178 hitter with a .521 OPS against southpaws. However, Raley seems to be on a new level this year. Why not give him more than six plate appearances against lefties all year? It’s hard to know if this is truly a new and improved version of Raley if you never give him a chance to play a full game, even against a lefty.
Canzone is being treated very similarly. All but 10 of his plate appearances this season have come against right-handed pitching. He is 0-for-6 with three strikeouts against lefties this season. However, overall, he has a respectable .763 OPS and 121 OPS+.
Meanwhile, Refsnyder, the “other” part of this platoon, has been a disaster. Among 344 hitters with at least 70 plate appearances this season, he ranks 343rd in wRC+ and OPS. Quite literally, he’s been one of the worst hitters in baseball. He is supposed to be mashing lefties, yet he is batting .091 with a .200 slugging in 63 plate appearances against left-handers. That was the entire reason the Mariners brought him in.
Connor Joe, the other right-handed bat at Wilson’s disposal, isn’t doing much better. He is batting .182 in 39 plate appearances and hasn’t had a hit since May 10.
Seattle has struggled to gain traction this season, sitting at 26-29 heading into Tuesday. Part of that is that the Mariners are 23rd in OPS in the seventh inning and later. Their offense has stalled late in games over and over. Part of that is because the lineup gets gutted in the middle innings for platoon moves.
It’s time for Wilson to simply let his best hitters hit, regardless of matchup. Seattle cannot afford to put themselves in suboptimal situations with lesser hitters late in games anymore. They are running out of time to get their season rolling in the right direction. The Mariners have shown they are unable to utilize the platoon approach to better the team and it’s time to put that plan on the scrap heap.
