It’s been a long road and hard work for Mastrobuoni to come to Seattle
In the offseason, the Mariners addressed a serious problem within the makeup of the team: there were not enough Italians on the roster. With the departure of fan-favorite speedster Sam Haggerty in November, the front office knew they’d have to take drastic steps to fill this glaring hole. Which they did by reaching into their pockets and sending some cash over to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for infielder Miles Mastrobuoni.
Since making it up to the majors for the first time in late September of 2022, Miles Mastrobuoni has found himself riding the edge. At the AAA level, he looks like a competent enough ballplayer, typically hitting over .300 and slugging .425. But at the major league level, that power evaporates into thin air. Some of that may be misfortune (.358 xSLG vs. a .224 SLG in 2024), but the simple answer is that he’s getting overpowered by major league level fastballs. Against four-seamers and sinkers he earned a -7 and -4 batting run value respectively. He accomplished such an ignominious feat in a mere 106 PAs, which is impressive in its own way. On the bright side, Mastrobuoni has less trouble dealing with breaking pitches, sporting a .310 xwOBA on that pitch type last year. For comparison, Julio had a .305 xwOBA on breaking pitches in 2024.
The most friendly comparison I can make for Mastrobuoni is Luis Arráez of the San Diego Padres. Arráez is the last of the true dink and dunk hitters, and I’ll love him for that no matter what. Mastrobuoni and Arráez have not dissimilar percentile rankings (with the caveat that Mastrobuoni was not a qualified hitter), with Arráez being a more extreme example. They don’t whiff or strikeout, and they square up the ball on nearly 40% of all their swings. Mastrobuoni actually had a massively better chase rate than Arráez (26% vs. 35.3%). Miles can also run fairly well, with a nice sprint speed 28 ft/s, good for 69th percentile.
The point is that Mastrobuoni has an upside, despite what his OPS and single career home run may tell you. Think about how many times last year you watched the Mariners have a runner on third with no outs but fail to score him because they swung out of their shoes at every pitch for a home run. Think about how many times you wanted to see someone choke up on their wood and just slap the ball the other way. Who better to do that than Mastrobuoni?
Projections:
Fangraphs Depth Chart: 6 PA, 88 wRC+, 0.1 fWAR, .234/.306/.324
PECOTA: 251 PA, 94 DRC+, 0.7 WARP, .245/.318/.349
Overs/Unders:
Kate: Under
No offense to this man, but if Miles Mastrobuoni gets 250+ plate appearances this season I will cover myself in honey and beef jerky and go lie down on Tiger Mountain. Not to disappoint the bears, but under.
Grant: Under
Honestly? Under. I can’t in good conscience call him a utilityman because that implies that he’s of real utility. Perhaps “break in case of emergency” is more accurate.
John: Over
That’s a prorated 10-win player over 600 plate appearances by FanGraphs, I’m not getting in the way of that, and only eight or so other players stand between him and a bench role.
Zach: Over, but for Anaheim
Even the 2025 Seattle Mariners infield is not down bad enough to give playing time to Miles Mastrobuoni.
Bee: Under
I’m going to take the under on Mastrobuoni, especially the PECOTA plate appearances, but there is a potential rose colored glasses future for Mastrobuoni. But it means the sky has fallen for, well, everyone else. But sure, there’s a world where like Sam Haggerty he has a solid, legendary month… and not much else ever again. (I don’t care to live in that world, to be honest).