The Mariners and outfielder Mitch Haniger have agreed to a one-year, $3.01MM contract, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray (Twitter link). The deal replicates the agreement made between the two sides last winter heading into Haniger’s first year of arbitration eligibility, which is no surprise given that Haniger missed the entire 2020 season.
Haniger hasn’t played since June 6, 2019, when he suffered a ruptured testicle. While rehabbing from that horrific injury, Haniger then tore an adductor muscle that eventually led to a pair of surgeries (one for his core, the other a discectomy) during the 2019-20 offseason and he never got onto the field last year. However, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto indicated during his end-of-season press conference that Haniger was making good progress in his recovery and was expected to be ready for the start of the 2021 season.
Seattle’s decision to tender Haniger a contract reinforces that optimism in the outfielder’s health, and he will now look to resume what had been a very promising career. Haniger hit .271/.351/.486 with 57 home runs over his first 1376 plate appearances in a Mariners uniform, emerging as Seattle’s breakout star of the memorable November 2016 deal with the Diamondbacks that sent Taijuan Walker and Ketel Marte to Arizona.
Haniger (who turns 30 in December) is under team control through the 2022 season, so a good performance in 2021 will line him up for a nice raise in third and final year of arbitration eligibility. While the M’s might make some level of a push to reach the playoffs next season, Haniger might still project as a trade chip for the deadline if he regains his old form. Between Kyle Lewis and star prospects Jarred Kelenic, Julio Rodriguez, and Taylor Trammell, Seattle is loaded with young outfielders, so Haniger could still be expendable. For now, however, the focus is just on getting Haniger fully recovered after all of his health woes over the last 18 months.
With Haniger’s deal settled, the Mariners have two remaining arbitration candidates in J.P. Crawford and Tom Murphy.
That’s a horrible string of injuries.
I’m surprised there’s no mention of the horrendous injury from the 2017 season. Mitch also took a 95mph Jacob DeGrom fastball directly to his face. No glance off his bat or protective pads- flush in his mouth. It was sickening. You can understand why Mariner fans are really pulling for this guy.
DeGrom was visibly upset after it, in fact he gave up 2 R’s following the incident and I believe his winning streak ended shortly after that accident. Fortunately Mitch was able to get up and walk off the field on his own but it cost him 6 weeks on the DL. Hopefully Mitch bounces back in 2021 much like he did after this DeGrom FB- He hit a grand slam v Tampa in his 1st g after that 6 week absence.
Damn, I vaguely remember that. Good to see the Mariners sticking by him.
I wonder how much they haggled over that .01 million dollars?
@ayrb- Goodness. I didn’t know about that. This guy is incredibly unlucky.
I really feel like any article with the phrase “ruptured testicle” should have some kind of warning on it.
Seriously?
Of course I’m serious. It’s a well known fact that 38% of all ruptured testicles are caused by reading the term “ruptured testicle.” By failing to warn its readers, MLBTR will be liable for dozens of spontaneous testicluar explosions.
Agreed
I agree with you. It’s absolutely nuts that a disclaimer wasn’t included.
The balls on these guys…
You really should have included a warning on your comment!
Science bro!
WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that material contained in this article may be harmful to men.
WARNING: the Surgeon General has determined a foul ball hit off the plate and into the testicles will hurt like HE11. There is a high probability it will lead to a surgeon cutting into his sack and putting the ruptured testicle back together. Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall too soon. Surgeons could probably put him back together and that is no yolk.
For a player like Haniger who has been through so much physically and missed significant playing time as a result, it’s cool to see him get tendered a solid 2nd Arb year contract. Come back strong Mitch!
Hoping he’ll bounce back back but missing basically two years could be rough. Gotta wonder if he even knows how to play at his same high level any more.
Ruptured testicles?? Has Mitch Haniger been working the Los Angeles Porno scene during the Offseason?? Dayum!! My testicles hurt just thinking about what than man went through
Mediocrity and Dipoto never take a day off in Seattle
If we have a 162 game season in 2021 a lot of things have to fall into place for the M’s to have any kind of chance to compete for a WC spot. The most obvious being the decision on the amount of teams who make it to the post season next year.
I personally think the Mariners success will be largely determined by Haniger’s play next yr. The middle order of that lineup would change dramatically if he’s in it. I might be completely wrong but if Haniger is anything like the player we saw before his string of bad luck injuries I think he will be the difference between the M’s having a winning and losing season. The guy is a stud who gave Seattle 9.3 bWAR in 253g played over the 2017 and 2018 seasons. We know he has All-Star potential. He just needs a little luck to go his way and If he plays well there’s no reason the M’s can’t get above .500
If he returns to perform like before the injury he will most likely be traded. I could see him and Trammel being part of a trade for a SP like Snell. There could also be another team that has a high priced SP they want to get out of the salary. They have some blocked or soon to be blocked players they could add in.
They could also trade for a guy who will be eligible for FA at the end of the year or next year. I would hope they agree to a long term contract before the trade. If he returns to form it opens a lot of options for Seattle. I don’t see him being long term in Seattle. Hope he returns to form not only for trade value but he seems like a good guy and teammate.
Compass- interesting, you might be right but personally I just don’t see Jerry sticking with him for so long then booting him once (if) he starts to contribute. Besides, there is so much uncertainty with young prospects it would be incredibly risky not to mention unpopular to trade away a former All-Star if we are trying to compete for a WC.
If Haniger returns to form while the team around him tanks? That’s a different proposition- his value at the trade deadline would probably force Jerry to look for an INF or a Pitcher. IMO you keep established players who are your best hitters/leaders if you want to continue to fight for the playoffs. IMO We are not really in the position to trade away surplus All-Star caliber bats.
Cue the “we should’ve traded him after his 2018 All-Star season” talk. Hindsight is 20/20
Honestly, maybe they could gauge the market for him and get something in a trade for him. He would make a nice bounceback candidate for any team. Plus, his salary isn’t extremely high and they wouldn’t have to sacrifice much to get him.
Nah, He’s still young and good. and controllable for a couple of more years Mariner fans need a drawing card.
Your right. Maybe with the winter meetings coming up, they could gauge the market for Kyle Seager or Marco Gonzales. They are the only two players I know who the Mariners would be open to listening to offers on. They are at the point in the rebuild where they don’t have a ton of players to trade. Kind of like the Orioles and Giants.
With a highly ranked farm system the Seattle Mariners are stacked with valuable trade assets:
baseballtradevalues.com/teams/478/
… but are not likely to trade away future.
The Mariners are unlikely to trade Marco Gonzalez, who has four years and $30 million remaining on his contract (with a $15 million option for a fifth year) after posting 9.1 fWAR, valued at $72.4 million in 74 starts over the last three seasons.
As a point of reference, fellow lefthander Blake Snell, who has three years and $39 million remaining on his contract, has posted 8.1 fWAR, valued at $64.6 million, in 65 starts over the same period (which included Snell’s stellar Cy Young season in 2018).
With team control through 2025, Gonzales should fall within Seattle’s competitive window.
Redsfan- why would the Mariners trade Marco? He’s been terrific for us since 2018. In fact when we give him at least 3R of support he’s 28-0 since the start of 2018. This 2020 season* he was the most dominant and confident I’ve ever seen him- it’s rare to find a SP who is that aggressive in going after hitters with an 89-91 mph FB.
You enter into a rebuild to have long term cost controlled players which gives you financial freedom to add players where necessary. Marco is not only on a team friendly contract he is the clubhouse leader and a tenacious competitor.
Seattle needs to keep proven SP’s not trade them away! They’re not in a position to trade away their best SP. Okay they have stud SP prospects coming up starting w L Gilbert in 2021 but until prospects prove themselves you don’t trade away a valuable commodity. Trading Marco is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. It doesn’t make one bit of sense. To those who say Marco is not a true ace who would be a SP3 on a better team- you need good SP3’s to get to the postseason.
Your right. I guess I thought that maybe they could see what they could get back in a trade for him. I was also interested to see what they could get back! Maybe some younger controllable arms. But I agree in the end they should keep him.
If his salary isn’t very high and he’s finding the kind of success he showed in 2017 and 2018 why would you trade that away? That’s exactly why you do a rebuild – to have success from a cost controlled cheap hitter. The Mariners are not in the stage of a rebuild where they are overflowing with proven players- they are still seeking them. So don’t trade him.
They should have traded him back in 2018 when he was perhaps the most valuable plausible trade chip out there. When teams were offering up 2 or 3 top 100 picks for him. I say the same thing about the Royals and Whit Merrifield as well. Also about Syndergaard too.
If you have a guy that has tremendous value and youre not gonna compete until after they become a free agent go on ahead and trade them get the prospect capital and build to the future.
Mitch Haniger had four years of team control when Seattle was coming off an 89-win season in 2018. The Mariners hoped … and perhaps still hope — to compete within that four-year window.
They werent gonna compete everyone had the Astros and As over them and many had the Angels over them because they had trout and a bigger payroll. I do give them credit for fleecing the Mets and getting Cano off their books and getting their #1 prospect Kelenic. But could you imagine if they had lets say Pache, Anderson, Mueller and maybe Carmargo as a throw in from the Braves. And in 2018 the Braves would have given that and perhaps more.
But thats my point you have to strike when the irons hot and Haniger had good potential but he was being way overhyped compared to the rumors he had attached to him. And if you have that much buzz then you gotta make a deal and sell high. When the hype exceeds the production always sell.
We don’t know what offers Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto declined.
We know that instead of trading Mitch Haniger that Dipoto drafted three pitchers ranked among MLB’s Top 100 prospects, including one ahead of Ian Anderson and another one slot behind Anderson:
mlb.com/prospects/top100/
Without trading Haniger the Mariners still have multiple years of team control over three starters who this year combined for 4.7 fWAR in 30 starts.
We know that instead of trading Haniger that Dipoto acquired three outfielders ranked among MLB’s Top 100 prospects, including one ahead of Cristian Pache and another closely behind Pache. And the Mariners have five more years of outfielder Kyle Lewis, the 2020 American League Rookie of the Year.
Fan proposals in the 2018-19 offseason included the likes of Mike Soroka, Kyle Wright, Kyle Muller, Touki Toussiant and Tristan Beck:
tomahawktake.com/2018/12/31/atlanta-braves-visions…
sodomojo.com/2018/12/09/mariners-trade-send-hanige…
The Mariners were wise to pass on those players.
You assume the Braves were willing to trade elite prospects to acquire Haniger, but there has been no indication that they were willing to do that and they have yet to make any major sacrifice for anyone since AA took over (for better or for worse).
But it’s hardly fair to call it a mistake. There are still two years of affordable control. He could still be traded for a significant return, or stick around and possibly help Seattle get into the postseason before Rodriguez debuts.
Worth noting that Seattle lacks veterans. His work ethic alone can have a positive impact on such a young team.
I like Haniger, but Seattle should have traded Haniger when Seattle announced they were rebuilding.
Amen my point exactly
That’s like saying the Yankees should have traded Judge because they were out of the playoffs when he came up. Hindsight.
To the people saying we should’ve traded haniger in 2018, we’ll the M’s tried to! No one was giving up anything for corner outfield help even then Braves. And we weren’t just gunna trade Haniger, coming off a 6.2 WAR season with 4 more years of team control, for peanuts.
We gauged the market and the market wasn’t offering a fair market value. We kept Haniger and he ended up getting hurt.
Hindsight is 20/20