In mid-May, I went to a lovely afternoon game against the Padres. With a bowl of curry katsu from Tamari Bar and garlic fries in lap, surely, I thought, nothing could ruin such a pleasant day.
I was right, until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Rob Refsnyder was called to pinch hit for Dominic Canzone against a lefty reliever. A pretty normal decision, given that it is his actual, literal job.
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As incensed as if someone had suddenly screamed directly into his ear, the man behind spent the next two minutes screaming directly directly into my ear. “You fucking suck! Rob Refsnyder, you fucking suck! Fuck you! Dan Wilson, are you fucking stupid? You’re worthless!” Never mind that Dan Wilson didn’t make the call, as he was ejected mid-way through the game. Never mind that we were only about 10 rows back from the field and not too far from the batters box, so his words were likely pretty audible.
On that day, Megan and I decided we were going to be big Rob Refsnyder fans. It’s been fun to root for a fellow Asian American and average height king! So, it brings me no joy whatsoever to say that the Refsnyder Era may have run its course. Like the Chicxulub impactor came for the Mesozoic and the dinosaurs, a knee injury and regression to the mean has come for Good Refsnyder.
A situation like this (a painfully underperforming, aging veteran signed to a $6m contract) always threatens to bring out the masses that howl for Jerry Dipoto’s head and that we need to fire Scott Servais NOW to turn this team around!! But, in fairness, criticism of the signing is in order.
True, Refsnyder had the 8th-highest OPS against LHP from 2022-2025 (min 500 PA), ahead of Mookie Betts and right behind Ketel Marte and Jose Altuve, good for a wRC+ of 155 during that time. However, it is also true that over that same time period, he ran a .377 BABIP against lefties and a .348 BABIP against righties. His career BABIP sits around .297, perfectly average, not indicative of some Williams-esque BABIP skill. It doesn’t take a Szymborski to see the cliff looming ahead of the Roadrunner-ing Refsnyder.
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What Dipollander couldn’t have predicted, though, was that Refsnyder would suffer a vague but nagging knee injury that would bother him all season. That, plus some bad luck (a .149 BABIP feels a bit karmically heavy-handed here) has made Refsndyer the second worst batter this season by wRC+ (min. 100 PAs), his meager 26 beating out only Ke’Bryan Hayes’ 10 (!?).
Dan Wilson has recently referenced the veteran’s struggles recently in the most Dan Wilson-y way possible – standing by his Guys, vaguely but supportively.
“Every player has been through this at some point. [Refsnyder] continues to make his adjustments…we talk about the process a lot, and the process has been good. He’s getting good pitches to hit, he’s putting the barrel to the ball and he’s hitting the ball at people, and hit the ball on the ground a little bit. But you know, he’s close, and he’s had some big hits for us throughout,” Wilson said. “It’s a matter of trial and error and trying to find the right adjustment, and there’s no question that you know Ref is doing everything he can, and you know it’s coming soon.”
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Wilson is never going to talk poorly of his players to the media, as he shouldn’t! It’s what makes him a great leader. But this feels more like Wilson supporting his player as a person more than true organizational faith being placed in Refsnyder turning this around now.
So, like it was for Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton (apparently), it’s time to make a decision. With the Mariners floundering around .500 and a precipitous grasp on the mediocre AL West, the Mariners can ill-afford to keep this roster spot on cruise control. I see two reasonable options here.
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Refsnyder takes a phantom/sort of real IL stint. This would give him some time off the knee, which could help him in the medium-term return to at least being serviceable at the plate. In case some rest doesn’t help, the Mariners can take that time to try a couple different options and see who they feel most comfortable with taking those at-bats. A little more time to see Jhonny Pereda, Patrick Wisdom, or Brennen Davis (health permitting) surely couldn’t be worse than what we’ve been seeing from Ref recently.
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Skip straight to the second part of option 1 and bid farewell to one of the several and truly Good Guys of recent Mariners history.
I’m inclined to go with option 1 here, as it gives the Mariners some time to kick the can down the road, which typically is a good thing – the more information you can gather before making roster decisions, the better. But something’s gotta give, and with the way Refsnyder has been playing, that roster spot has gotta be given somewhere a little more productive.
