he’s coming to spring training prepared to work on his catching skills. It’s a position he’s pretty much dropped the last couple of years after the Indians converted him to first base in 2005.

“I caught all the way to Triple-A, and really would have kept doing it except Victor Martinez signed a five-year deal (with the Indians),” he said. “I felt it (switching positions) was my best path to the big leagues. It’s there. Jack and I talked about it. Just in terms of giving Don the opportunity to make moves in games, it’s important for us to have that third catcher. It just gives us more versatility and I think it can help the team.”

Now, that may be all hot air in the usual “will show up at spring training in the best shape of his career” and pitchers who pick up “a new pitch” or hitters that made “that little adjustment” in the offseason. Players always say they’ll do anything to make the team, and the Mariners clearly see Garko as a RH 1B/DH platoon with just an interesting little something extra. (Though it should be noted that there were enough questions about Rob Johnson’s recovery from off-season surgery on both hips and “catcher of the future” Adam Moore’s development that the M’s earlier gave out a NRI to Josh Bard). Even if Garko genuinely spends a big chunk of ST behind the plate getting the rust off, there’s no certainty he’ll be there for even one inning in the regular season.

But if he does serve a handful of games there, it changes his value for fantasy players. Granted, he’s a platoon player who won’t get a huge number of ABs, but that’s a lot more interesting if he becomes catcher eligible during the season.

The other signing which I think is incredible despite it not getting any press is the A’s signing of Gabe Gross for around the same price. I’m just amazed that there’s no interest in these guys to the point where they can be had for almost the league minimum. I mean, Gross is a very good player, especially defensively, he’s tough as nails.

…The second reason I like this move is that the Mariners bought low on a quality offensive player. Despite the “down years” in 2008 and 2009 which made 2006 and 2007 seem like a fluke, it was bad luck which largely masked the fact that Garko’s skills improved last season. Whereas Garko struck out 20% of the time and walked approximately 6.5% of the time from 2006-2007, Garko posted a 7.3% BB% and 14.1% K% last season. The strikeout rate has come down every season since 2006. Garko’s power was down a bit last season (.153 ISO) compared to 2006 (.178 ISO) and 2007 (.194 ISO), but it bounced back from a low .131 mark in 2008 and was a robust .180 on the Indians before he was traded to the Giants a few days before the trade deadline. It is easy to forget that Ryan Garko posted a sexy .361 wOBA with the Indians last season. It was only when Garko was shipped away to San Francisco that things turned sour — and you can blame most of that on a .243 BABIP across 127 very limited PAs.

Despite all the bad press stemming from his boring overall .268/.344/.421 (.765 OPS) triple slash line from last season, Garko was still 7% better than the league average player offensively. True, the average MLB first baseman hit .277/.362/.483 (.845 OPS) in 2009, but Garko was also hindered by a cumulative .282 BABIP (.304 xBABIP, according to THT’s xBABIP calculator calculator). If we adjust Garko’s BABIP to match his xBABIP and assume all of his additional hits would have been singles, Garko’s 2009 expected triple slash line would have been a very respectable .288/.362/.441 (.803 OPS). CHONE projections peg Garko as a +8 run bat and -2 run glove per 150 games next year. Combined this with a -12.5 positional and +20.0 replacement adjustment, and you’ve got a decent +1 to +1.5 WAR bat at your disposal. Obviously, Garko won’t see 150 games in a platoon, but he also won’t see a lot of righties, so let’s just say he’s a +1 WAR player next season. Pair this with a league average glove and a salary which is less than 20% of that of Aubrey Huff, and Jack Z’s got a bargain on his hands (+1 WAR has cost approximately $3.7 million in free agency dollars this offseason).

By contrast, by the way, CHONE projects Aubrey Huff as a +1 run bat and -1 run bat per 150 games. Factor in the positional (-12.5) and replacement (+20.0) adjustments, and you’ve got yourself a +0.5 WAR player. Makes you wonder what Brian Sabean is doing out there in San Fran.