Ichiro. The Kid. A-Rod. With names like that, it’s truly a shock the Seattle Mariners are the only MLB team to never make a World Series.
But consider those guys, and who else has made their all-time roster (and who is “merely” an honorable mention) and it becomes clear in a hurry that Seattle has been home to players that were outright incredible to watch play baseball. The postseason success may be still to come, but their legends are already etched in stone.
Manager: Lou Piniella
“Sweet Lou” is here for more than the amusing tantrums and meltdowns. Piniella leads the Mariners in wins with 840, in part because he was successful — a .542 winning percentage with Seattle is also at the top of the ranks — but also because he kept the job longer than anyone else: those are related, naturally. Piniella was at the helm for 10 years, managing 1,551 games, as well as another 34 in the postseason. He was named AL manager of the year twice, for the Mariners’ surprise 1995 AL West crown, and in 2001 for their record-tying 116 wins.
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Starting pitcher: Felix Hernandez
If this were an exercise in players who appeared for a given club, Randy Johnson would be the pick as a Hall of Famer and one of the half-dozen or so greatest pitchers ever. We’re talking about the greatest Mariners starting pitcher however, and that’s Felix Hernandez, easy. He leads the franchise in both wins and wins above replacement, in games started and innings, and he spent the entire 15 years of his major-league career with Seattle, from age 19 through 33. King Felix won the 2010 Cy Young, and also threw MLB’s 23rd — and Seattle’s only — perfect game.
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Reliever/closer: Kazuhiro Sasaki
Before the Mariners brought Ichiro Suzuki in from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, they signed closer Kazuhiro Sasaki. The right-hander’s numbers might not jump off the page at you — a 3.14 ERA and 9.8 strikeouts per nine, for example — but consider that he pitched for Seattle during the height of the most significant offensive environment in MLB history, and that used to be a ton of strikeouts. Sasaki won Rookie of the Year honors, made two All-Star teams in four seasons — Sasaki was already 32 when he debuted — and still ranks second all-time in saves for the Mariners.
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Catcher: Dan Wilson
Cal Raleigh swings his bat like a man determined to make this list someday, but for now, Dan Wilson and his 12 years in Seattle have the edge owing to excellent defense and the work he performed with Mariners’ pitchers throughout the years. While Wilson’s bat was never a threat, at his peak, he was at least average for the position, and his work behind the plate — he leads the Mariners in defensive WAR — made up for his deficiencies there, anyway. That might not have been as true at the end, but from 1995-2002, Wilson and the Mariners both thrived.
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1B: Alvin Davis
Before the Mariners started attracting future Hall of Famers, there was the 1980s, and there was Alvis Davis. None of those teams made it to the postseason — the franchise’s first appearance came in 1995 — but none of that was Davis’ fault. He spent eight years with Seattle, and hit .281/.381/.453 with 160 homers (seventh in Mariners’ history) and 382 extra-base hits (eighth) in that time. While he had power, his patience was the real virtue: Davis’ 672 walks with the M’s rank fourth, and his on-base percentage fifth. Consider who else makes up this list when reading that.
2B: Bret Boone
Seattle was the first stop in Bret Boone’s career, but he played just over 100 games there before he was traded to the Reds for Dan Wilson. He’d return as a free agent in time for the 2001 season, and of the five years he spent there on that deal, three of them rank as his best seasons ever. That first campaign in 2001 is the true highlight: Boone hit .331/.372/.578 with an AL-leading 141 RBIs, powered by 37 home runs and 77 extra-base hits; combined with his defense, that graded out to nearly a 9-win season.
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3B: Kyle Seager
In 11 years with the Mariners, Kyle Seager, the older brother of Corey Seager, hit .251/.321/.442, numbers that look worse than they are because of how pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park’s run environment was throughout his decade-plus in Seattle. He ranks fifth in wins above replacement among Mariners’ position players, owing to placing in the same spot in both offensive and defensive WAR, fourth in games played, hits (1,395), home runs (242), and total bases (2,458), third in doubles (309) and fifth in walks (533). An exemplary player underappreciated due to the teams he was stuck on.
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SS: Alex Rodriguez
The Mariners have had an impressive number of Hall of Famers on their roster, especially considering they joined MLB in just 1977, and Alex Rodriguez should number among them. Drafted first-overall in 1993 by Seattle, Rodriguez debuted in the majors the next summer: while it took until ‘96 for him to stick, he did so in an awe-inspiring way by leading the majors in batting average, hitting .358/.414/.631 overall at the age of 20. From 1996 through 2000, Rodriguez amassed 39 WAR, enough to outrank all but three Mariners ever… and then had an all-timer career after that.
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OF: Ichiro Suzuki
Have you seen Ichiro Suzuki play baseball? Then you don’t need an explanation here, but it’ll be fun to read one, anyway: Ichiro won the AL MVP, Rookie of the Year, Gold Glove, and Silver Slugger in 2001 with the Mariners, who won 116 games in no small part due to him. He led the majors in hits in seven of his first 11 seasons, and in 2004 set the single-season record with 262 while batting .372. Ichiro won 10 Gold Gloves with the Mariners, hit .346 in 19 postseason games and was elected to Cooperstown on the first try.
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OF: Ken Griffey Jr.
That a single organization could have both Ichiro Suzuki and Ken Griffey Jr. seems impossible, but it’s true: the Mariners moved on from the era of one supremely cool Hall of Famer that everyone idolized to another like it was normal, with merely a year separating their tenures. Griffey signed with his hometown Reds as a free agent in 2000, and returned to the M’s to end his career. In his first go, from 1989-1999, he had an entire Hall of Fame-worthy career, hitting .299/.380/.569 with 398 home runs and 71 wins above replacement all before turning 30.
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OF: Jay Buhner
Jay Buhner didn’t have the all-time numbers of some of his Cooperstown-bound teammates, but he could do two things exceptionally well: hit the ball very far, and draw a walk when he didn’t see a pitch that he liked. Sure, he struck out a ton, but that was the cost of doing business. Said business: sixth in Mariners’ history in slugging (.497), third in home runs (307), fifth in total bases (2,245), third in both RBIs (951) and walks (788), and first in number of fans who shaved their heads like his to see a baseball game for free.
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DH: Edgar Martinez
When did Edgar Martinez peak? It began when he was 27, that’s clear. When did that peak end, though? In ‘90, he hit .302/.397/.433, for a 133 OPS+. In 2003, at age 40, Martinez batted .294/.406/.489 for a 141 OPS+. In between? More of the same, and often even better: Martinez put together a 14-year run of .317/.426/.531. He’s second in OPS among Mariners at .933, second in hits behind Ichiro, first in on-base percentage (.418), total bases (3,718), doubles (514) and walks (1,283). A somehow undersung Hall of Famer.
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Honorable mention
- Dan Wilson (manager)
- Jamie Moyer (starting pitcher)
- Freddy Garcia (starting pitcher)
- Randy Johnson (starting pitcher)
- Jeff Nelson (reliever/closer)
- Edwin Diaz (reliever/closer)
- Mike Zunino (catcher)
- Robinson Cano (2B)
- Harold Reynolds (2B)
- Julio Cruz (2B)
- Adrian Beltre (3B)
- Mike Blowers (3B)
- Omar Vizquel (SS)
- Carlos Guillen (SS)
- Raul Ibanez (OF)
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