Did the Seattle Mariners rush Evan White to the Majors?
Chris Phillips
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Seattle Mariners, Evan White.
The Seattle Mariners are famous for rushing prospects to the Majors before they were ready. Is Evan White the next in line?
Coming into the 2020 season, Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto decided that this was the time to give one of the organization’s highly-touted young prospects a chance in the bigs. He signed first baseman Evan White to a six-year, $24M contract without ever seeing if he could hit Triple-A pitching let alone major leaguers.
The deal is designed to cover ALL of his arbitration years. This kind of move is eye-catching and recently it’s been a little bit more common. Philadelphia started the growing trend when they signed Scott Kingery to a six-year, $24M deal in 2018. Additionally, the White Sox signed their top two outfield prospects Eloy Jimenez (six-years, $43M) and Luis Robert (six-years, $50M). All three of them hadn’t yet played in the majors but they all had Triple-A experience.
On the road
The fact that White hadn’t played above Double-A but signed a major league deal is what made him different than the others. As an up and coming first base prospect, White showed tremendous promise in the minors. Through 2019, he hit a career .296 average with some pop. At Double-A Arkansas in 2019, he put up a slash line of .293/.350/.488/.838 with 18 home runs and 55 RBI.
While there was some question about his bat at higher levels, his slick fielding was Major League ready. Many experts believe White will win a few Gold Gloves during his career. That’s something the Seattle Mariners haven’t had at first base since John Olerud.
Last year M’s manager Scott Servais used converted outfielder Jay Bruce and designated hitters Edwin Encarnacion and Daniel Vogelbach at first base. Defense at the position was an issue that had to be addressed.
Watching the 24-year-old handle himself in the field shows Servais doesn’t have much to worry about in that department. White is not only an outstanding gloveman himself, he makes the rest of the infielders better.