Mariners' Garver received death threats amid struggles

Warning: story contains coarse language

Seattle Mariners designated hitter Mitch Garver acknowledged Wednesday that his season-long slump is creating extreme vitriol from fans.

"It's probably the hardest I've ever had to grind," said an emotional Garver after a 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, according to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times. "This is by far the worst I've ever played in my career. Tough on myself and my family with the death threats, the 'retire' and 'you suck' and 'fucking kill yourself' and all that shit.

"It's getting old. The only way I change it is if I play better, but it's, like, continuing right now. So the worse I play more here. And rightfully so. I'm not playing well."

Garver is slashing .168/.286/.337 with 12 homers and 38 RBIs this season after an 0-for-5 performance against the Red Sox in which he struck out twice and left eight runners on base during his at-bats.

"I've already accepted the fact that I'm not going to hit above .200 this year," the eight-year veteran said. "And I don't know. It might not get better. Who knows? Maybe it just gets worse. I don't know. But I show up to the field every day prepared to play, prepared to get better and work hard and control what I can control. And the people out there that say certain things, they say whatever they want. I think I bring a lot to this team."

Garver joined the Mariners on a two-year, $24-million contract in the offseason after recording 19 long balls with an .870 OPS over 87 games for the World Series-winning Texas Rangers last year.

"I've never quit anything," the 33-year-old added. "Certainly not going to quit this. They're gonna have to rip the jersey off my back. That's fine. That's an easy way out. I could happily retire right now, go home, and live a great life with my family. That's not what I do. I made a two-year commitment to this team. They believe in me, my teammates believe in me. So, it's a matter of just making it click and when it does good things will happen."