The Mike Carp Question

With the Mariners playing so well but hitting so poorly, it's become impossible for us to ignore what Mike Carp has been doing with AAA Tacoma. Over 200 trips to the plate, Carp is running a four-digit OPS with the second-highest home run total in the PCL, mostly thanks to a white-hot month of May. He's been on an absolute tear, and he's forced his way into the discussion.

He's forced his way into the discussion because the long-time first baseman has been spending a lot of his time in left field. Carp's played 32 games in left and three games in right, and left field, of course, has been a total black hole in Seattle. The Mariners need help, and Carp is one intriguing potential solution.

So it's worth discussing this, at least a little bit. In the recent past, the Carp possibility has been waved away dismissively, with statements like "he's not a left fielder" or "he's not the answer." These explanations are insufficient. The former means nothing. Wilson Valdez isn't a pitcher, but he pitched. Carlos Ruiz isn't a third baseman, but he played third base. Ichiro isn't a shortstop, but he could play short. Mike Carp is not incapable of playing left field. He might play it poorly, but all that means is that he'd be a certain amount of runs below average.

As for the latter, Mike Carp is clearly not a franchise building block for the outfield. He's not the answer if the question is, who's going to hold down left in Safeco for the next five years? But if the question is, who's the Mariners' best option to play left against righties? Then things are different. It's not about roster perfection. It's about roster maximization.

The matter at hand is trying to figure out what player or combination of players would give the Mariners the best overall production in left field. And this is where Carp stands out. Michael Saunders cannot hit. He couldn't possibly look more lost than he does right now. Carlos Peguero - for all of his earlier heroics - has a .210 OBP and more than seven times as many strikeouts as walks despite being platooned. These guys aren't helping. Carp, meanwhile, is sitting on a 1.007 OPS, and swings a left-handed bat.

From the looks of things, it definitely seems as though Carp should be on this roster. Not necessarily as an everyday player, but he could hit against righties and platoon with Mike Wilson, essentially swapping places with Peguero. It's hard for me to imagine that Carp's defense could be so bad that his offensive advantage would be canceled out.

There's little doubt in my mind that Carp would be of more use to this team right now than Peguero or Saunders. An interesting question is whether he'd be of more use than Ryan Langerhans, who's also in Tacoma. Langerhans, of course, is also a lefty, and brings a better glove. But I'm not sure how good Langerhans' defense is anymore now that he's in the low 30s, and Carp has the more capable bat. While I don't think the difference is huge, I think Carp is the better option to hold a steady gig in left. And Langerhans could always come up and fill the reserve role, sending both Peguero and Saunders down for more work.

If Carp were to come up, how good would he be? I'm not sure how to answer that. I haven't been watching him play every day. His defense would probably be bad. Noticeably bad. But he's not so new to the outfield that he couldn't manage without embarrassing himself. And he'd be coming up for his bat. Used to be that Carp was a doubles hitter from whom we wanted to see more home runs. Since the start of last season, he's hit 44 home runs. Carp turns 25 at the end of the month, and his power is arriving.

Carp isn't four-digit-OPS good. Aside from BABIP, there's very little difference between his 2010 in Tacoma and his 2011. But he has some power and enough of an idea of the strike zone to keep from getting exploited every time he comes to the plate. In other words, he'd hit better than Peguero, and better than Saunders. Given enough time, his offense would probably best be described as "all right," and who knows, maybe it would be more than that.

It says a lot about the state of the Mariners' left field situation that we're talking about Mike Carp as a possibility for a platoon. Mike Carp would almost certainly not make a good Major League outfielder. But the Mariners don't need good. The Mariners need non-disastrous, and I think Carp could come up and not be a disaster. Bring him up and pair him with Wilson until or unless something better comes along. There's not a whole lot to lose.