Stats Since 2000: Seattle Mariners
Winning Seasons: 12
Playoff Appearances: 3
Playoff Series Record: 3-3
Championships: 0
In 2022, the Mariners finally reached the mountain top. For the first time since their record breaking season in 2001, they finally accomplished what they set out to do for 2 decades, make the playoffs. Yes, you read that correctly. Just make the playoffs.
You see, while other clubs battle for championships year after year, the Mariners couldn’t even make it to the October Postseason. They would have a winning season here or there, but there was never any consistency in their play. The promise of capitalizing on a winning season would soon turn to doubt during the summer in the middle of the following season. For 21 long years this was the same thing, year after year.
It didn’t help that every team in the AL West would go on to have massive success during the Mariners drought. In 2002, the Angels would steal the Wild Card spot away from Seattle and go on to win the World Series. The Astros would leave the National League, join the American League West division, and have a massively successful run of 7 straight ALCS appearances, 4 World Series appearances and 2 World Series victories in 2017 and 2022. The Rangers would go on a few runs to World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011 and would win it all in 2024. Hell, even the Oakland A’s would gain fame due to their Moneyball ways by having a book written about it…and a movie as well. Oh, and they made a run to the ALCS in 2006 proving that Moneyball was no joke.
Meanwhile the Mariners would arguably have one of the greatest talents that baseball has ever seen, a future Hall of Famer at 3rd Base and one of the best pitchers of the century. All of that just to not even sniff the postseason. But why is it that the Mariners can’t get out of their own way? I’m glad you asked.
Welcome to A Series of Inept Franchises. In this series, well, it’s in the title. I’m going to be breaking down one franchise in the four major American sports a week and I’ll take a quick, yet deep dive into why a franchise has so many problems. For the interest of time and not to bore you with deep history and lore, I will only be diving into a franchise’s history since the year 2000. It’s been 24 years since then, trust me, there’s plenty of history already for teams in this near quarter century.
Just a warning, this series may contain some swearing and yelling, from you, the reader, at your favorite teams. Upon reading this, you may become mad, you may cry, you may want to throw up and you may want to yell at God. Reader discretion is advised. Sounds good? Good.
For this first instance, I’ll be diving into one of the more unsuccessful MLB franchises this century, the Seattle Mariners. That’s not a joke either. You can argue that the most success this team has had is having their players featured in the movie “Little Big League”.
Never forget that “Little Big League” painted Ken Griffey Jr. as the bad guy. pic.twitter.com/Lpblu8g2y4
— Barstool Baseball (@StoolBaseball) January 17, 2024
Randy Johnson only made a handful of relief pitches during his career.
— Baseball Legends (@Leg_baseball) May 18, 2023
Once in 2001, when he struck out 16 batters in 7 innings (Still a Major League Record for relievers)
And another time when he made a cameo in Little Big League 👀
pic.twitter.com/4GvnZ8kokg
I know what you’re thinking. Yes, this is Lou Piniella’s most defining role. “Little Big League” is a great movie that is definitely worth a watch. Griffey and Johnson by the way, they were two superstars that were both wasted away in Seattle. But that was pre-2000 so I won’t get into that.
What I will get into is why the Mariners have been so bad for nearly a quarter of a century. The answers are very simple, the wasting of generational talent and poor roster decisions.
Greatness Stuck in Mediocrity
The Mariners have really lucked their way into some amazing talent post-2000. You have your guys like Kyle Seager, Mike Cameron, and Julio Rodriguez just to name a few. However, there are three names that immediately stick out when talking about Mariners legends, again, post-2000. Adrian Beltre, Felix Hernandez and Ichiro.
Now, before I dive into those three, let me address the steroid filled elephant in the room. You can make the argument that Alex Rodriguez should be on that list, but I disagree. For one, most of his Mariners career was spent in the 90’s and I’m not diving into that. Second, there was no way Seattle was going to fork over the amount of money he wanted along with the amount of years he wanted in a contract. This was the early 2000’s when Rodriguez was a free agent. Monster contracts weren’t the style at the time. Third, he would have never stayed in Seattle his entire career. Only a few years after Rodriguez left and became a member of the Texas Rangers, he wanted to become a Red Sox and join in the Red Sox vs Yankees rivalry. He would end up becoming a Yankee instead, which is an ironic fact in itself. Point is, he was never going to stay in a smaller market like Seattle. Because of all these reasons, he’s off the list.
Now, back to the big three of Seattle baseball. I’m going to list each of them out with their accomplishments and from there, I’ll transition into where it went wrong. Remember to please keep your hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times as we take a blast to the past.
Ichiro
Oh boy where to start with Ichiro. I know! We’ll start with his career in the Japan Pacific League. You see, Ichiro started playing professional baseball in 1992 when he was 18 years old, in Japan. He didn’t come over to MLB until 2001, when he was 27. By this time, his stats in the JPPL were as follows; 1,278 Hits, 529 RBIs, 118 HRs and he only struck out 333 times in 4,098 plate appearances. Just disgusting numbers in Japan.
Then he came to the good ole USA. In his 19 big league seasons, he achieved the following: AL MVP, AL RoY, 10x All-Star, 10x Gold Glove Winner, 3x Silver Slugger, 2x Batting Champion and an All-Star Game MVP. That AL MVP also happened in the same year as his Rookie of the Year win, 2001, also known as the year Ichiro helped the Mariners win 116 games on the season, a record that still stands as of this writing. On top of that he also set the record for most hits in a season in 2004 with 262, another record that still currently stands as of this writing.
Oh, and speaking of Ichiro’s hits, during his entire baseball career, he amassed a total of 4,367 of them. For those counting at home, that is 111 hits more than Pete Rose, the MLB leader. MLB will never acknowledge that fact however, because they don’t consider the JPPL as “professional baseball.” But at least now you can say you learned something new by reading this blog. Congrats to you.
Ichiro is eligible for the MLB Hall of Fame next season and it’s all but a guarantee he will get in as a first ballot. And yet, despite all of these accomplishments, Ichiro only made the playoffs ONCE in his Mariners career. The first year he was there, 2001.
Adrian Beltre
Beltre’s tenure in Seattle was short but it was certainly memorable. The Hall of Famer may have only played 5 years in Mariners teal but during that span he amassed 2 Gold Gloves, 751 hits, 103 HRs and 396 RBIs. He also hit a walk-off homer for the Mariners in 2006, one of the nine times he did that in his career (2nd most all-time). Oh, and he was a hell of a defender as a 3rd Baseman too.
Unfortunately, the Mariners never made it to the postseason during Beltre’s time in the Pacific Northwest. He did, however, play the hot corner very well for a pitcher who was coming into his own at the time. Beltre and that pitcher would become great friends and have a little friendly rivalry when Beltre moved on to Texas. That pitcher’s name was…..
Felix Hernandez
Hernandez spent his entire 15-year career in Seattle and earned quite a few accolades. He achieved the following: AL Cy Young, 6x All-Star, 2x ERA Title winner and, in 2012, he became only the 23rd MLB pitcher to ever throw a perfect game.
It took over a decade for another pitcher to throw a Perfect Game.
— Gomer (@GomesDaLegend) August 12, 2023
Felix Hernandez was absolutely unstoppable in his prime pic.twitter.com/csCVwx9aB4
His record may be a bit deceiving, only going 169-136 in his career. That’s not entirely his fault though. The roster around him wasn’t great as you’ll read for yourself later. He did, however, finish in the top 10 in Cy Young voting 4 times including his win in 2010. Hernandez also finished with a respectable 3.42 ERA and a solid 2,524 career strikeouts.
Unfortunately, once again, Seattle didn’t sniff the grass from October baseball during King Felix’s tenure. On the bright side, the Mariners did dub a section of the stadium as “The King’s Court” in honor of Hernandez. It doesn’t have anything to do with winning but it’s still kind of cool.
Three players. Three Seattle legends. One postseason run to show for it. Baseball is obviously a team sport so neither one of these players could do it on their own. Afterall, it takes 25 players to make up a baseball team. However, these three legends did have their careers overlap for five years from 2005-2009, how come they couldn’t get it done then? How come the best they could finish was 85-77? How come they never were able to get even a Wild Card spot? Well, it’s because the other 22 players on the team didn’t live up to expectations.
A Roster Constantly in Flux
On Saturday, October 6th, 2001, the Seattle Mariners won their 116th game of the season, a 1-0 victory over the Texas Rangers and their old pal, Alex Rodriguez. During that ’01 season, they sent 8 people to the All-Star game, had the Starting Pitchers finish with a combined 3.51 ERA and the team hit a respectable .288 at the plate. While they didn’t hit many Home Runs during the season (169), they did finish with 1,637 Hits. They played small ball with the best of them and tied for the best regular season record of all time.
Seattle marched into the postseason red hot, winning eight of their last ten games. They ran into a Cleveland Indians team that would take them the distance, but the Mariners would come out on top winning their ALDS 3-2. From there, it was time to take on the heavily favored New York Yankees.
Those Yankees were favored for a reason. For as historic as a season as Seattle had had, none of it mattered in the postseason. The Mariners would come up short and lose the ALCS 4-1.
Just like that, the season was over. Little did they know, October 22nd, 2001, would be the last postseason game for Seattle for the next 21 years.
So, what do you do when you come so close to winning it all? You reload the roster and come back stronger the next year. And yet, that is not what Seattle did in the next coming years.
During the 02’ off-season, the Mariners lost 3 key players, Aaron Sele, David Bell and Jay Buhner. That was a loss of 15 wins (Sele), 17 HRs and 69 RBIs (Bell/Buhner). But not to worry, they brought back most of the team for the 02’ season, including all eight All-Stars from the previous season.
Towards the end of the 02’ season, the Mariners were eliminated from playoff contention once the division rival Angels clinched the AL Wild Card. Those same Angels would go on to the World Series and face the San Francisco Giants. More importantly, those two teams each had one of Seattle’s old friends, Aaron Sele (Angels) and David Bell (Giants). Really makes you think about what could have been.
The 03’ season was more of the same. Seattle finished with a very good record of 93-69, the same record as the year before. However, they were unable to earn a Wild Card spot, this time losing out to the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, the bottom completely fell out and the Mariners finished 63-99. The good times were finally over. Time to rebuild.
Between 2004-2022, the next time the Mariners went to the postseason, the team only had six winning seasons and never finished above 89 wins. The reason for that is the roster was never as good as it could have been. Whether it being bad free agent signings or bad trades, the Mariners could never get out of their own way. Let’s look at some of those now. First up, the bad signings.
Scott Spiezio: Now I’m slightly cheating because this signing happened in 2003. However, it is still bad enough to warrant a spot on this list. Spiezio was a hero for the Angels with his clutch Home Run in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. He turned that into a nice little 3yr/$9.15 million contract the following season in ‘03. He didn’t even make it past the second year of the contract and gave the Mariners only a .139 Batting Average before he left.
Richie Sexson: Sexson was a decent power hitter and was expected to bring the lumber when he entered the 05’ season in Seattle on a new 4yr/$50 million deal. And bring the lumber he did…for the first two seasons of that contract. Between ’05-‘06 he hit 73 HRs, 228 RBIs and amassed 303 Hits. So far so good right? Wrong. His numbers didn’t just decline, they fell off a cliff during the ’07 season. During that season he finished with just 89 Hits, 63 RBIs and 21 HRs. It didn’t help that during his entire Mariners tenure, he struck out a whopping 23% of the time he came up to the plate. He was released in the middle of the final year of his contract.
Carl Everett: Everett was towards the end of his career but still signed a 1yr/$3.4 million contract for the 2006 season with Seattle. He only played 92 games for the team before being let go. In those 92 games he collected 70 Hits, 33 RBIs and 11 HRs. For those who enjoy math, that’s $48,571 per hit, $103,030 per RBI and $309,091 per HR. A worthy investment for Everett, not so much for the Mariners.
Jeff Weaver: Weaver, another former Angel, only signed a 1yr/$8.325 million deal with the team in 2007. That one year was an absolute disaster. Weaver finished that season with a 7-13 record, a 6.20 ERA and he allowed 23 HRs on the season. He did have two complete game shutouts that season though. A small silver lining.
Carlos Silva: This was a bad one. Silva was an okay at best pitcher for Minnesota with a 4.42 ERA. Somehow, the Mariners saw that and said, “that’s our guy”, signing him to a 4yr/$45 million deal. Silva repaid Seattle with a 6.81 ERA and was traded to the Cubs in the middle of his second season with the Mariners. His pitching was so bad, Seattle had to send money with him in that trade because no team was willing to take the full amount of his contract. That’s not very common for MLB type trades.
Chone Figgins: Figgins was a solid player for…hold on, let me check my notes…oh my god, the Angels, again. He signed a 4yr/$36 million contract in 2010 becoming the team’s new 3rd baseman, replacing Adrian Beltre. One of his best attributes was stealing bases and he did that in his first season in Seattle by stealing 42 times in 2010. In 2011 however, that number dropped down to 11 stolen bases. He also batted .188 and .181 in the 11’ and 12’ seasons respectively and was designated for assignment after 2012. Maybe Seattle should stop signing former Angels. Just a thought.
These are indeed the worst of the worst signings. And I haven’t even gotten to the trades yet. Buckle up, hold on tight and get ready to ride with Mariner Moose. Here we go.
Eduardo Perez: Seattle traded for Perez in 2006, hoping to make a playoff push towards the end of the season. That didn’t happen. Perez gave the Mariners a total of 17 Hits, 11 RBIs and 1 HR for the last part of the ’06 season. That was also the last full season he would ever play in MLB. But who did the Mariners trade away for him? That would be one minor league player by the name of Asdrubal Cabrerra. Cabrerra would come up with the Indians the next season and enjoy a solid 15-year career that included two All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger award in 2011. Oh, and he helped the Nationals win their only World Series in 2019, something Seattle has yet to do.
Ben Broussard: Like Perez, Broussard was also traded to Seattle from Cleveland in 2006. Why they did two separate trades that year with the same team, I will never know. Anyways, Broussard was a bat that had another year left on his contract so the Mariners thought they would get some lumber and some team control. Well, they got one of those things. While the team control was there, the lumber was not. Broussard finished his time in Seattle with 105 Hits, 46 RBIs and 15 HRs. He left in free agency following the 2007 season. Now who did the Mariners give up this time to Cleveland? That would be a very young up and coming player from Korea by the name of Shin-Soo Choo. Choo would go to Cleveland and enjoy a nice productive career in the majors that would see him become an All-Star and finish in the top 15 of MVP voting twice.
Erik Bedard: In 2007, Mariner’s ace Felix Hernandez had come into his own and was one of the top young pitchers in MLB. However, he couldn’t do it on his own and needed some help on the mound. Enter the trade for Erick Bedard in 2008. The Mariners thought they were getting their co-ace of the future, pushing them into the postseason. That kind of happened. They didn’t make the postseason, but Bedard was good…when he wasn’t hurt. Bedard only pitched a combined 30 starts in ’08-’09 because of injuries and the Mariners missed the playoffs in both seasons. All in all, it was an okay trade for Seattle…that is until you realize who they gave up. In return for Bedard, they gave Baltimore Chris Tillman, a respectable starter who played his entire 10-year career for the Orioles. He went 74-60 in his career and had a 4.57 ERA while becoming a 1x All-Star.
They also gave up another player to the O’s. You may know him. He became Baltimore’s star CF for about a decade and his name is Adam Jones. Jones became a superstar during the 2010’s, becoming a 5x All-Star, a 4x Gold Glove winner, a Silver Slugger winner and he finished in the top 15 in MVP voting three times. He finished his time in Baltimore with 1,781 Hits, 866 RBIs and 263 HRs. Safe to say Seattle would have preferred to keep Jones in their lineup.
Cliff Lee: The Mariners traded for Cliff Lee to help their starting rotation…I think. You see, Lee was traded mid-season during his first and only year in Seattle, not because he wasn’t doing well, but because he was doing so well that the team figured they could use him as a trade chip. They did, sending him to the Texas Rangers for some minor leaguers and superstar in waiting Justin Smoak. Smoak never amounted to much in the big leagues and neither did any of the other players they traded for. Lee meanwhile still had plenty left in the tank. He helped Texas earn their first trip to the World Series in 2010. After the season, he returned to Philadelphia where he would go on to be a 2x All-Star, top 10 in Cy Young voting twice and top 15 in MVP voting in 2011.
Jarred Kelenic: Kelenic was a star in the making, at least that’s what the Mariners were trading for. He was a highly touted prospect that the Mariners wanted to help rebuild their team. They needed to get rid of older players like the aging Robinson Canó and get younger. And they did just that. After the 2018 season, Seattle traded away Canó to the Mets in exchange for a package that was centered around Kelenic. They had to trade some money along with Canó because the Mets didn’t want to pay his bloated contract, but hey, semantics. That didn’t matter to Seattle anyway because they got their guy. Or so they thought. Kelenic didn’t pan out at all the way the Mariners hoped he would. In three seasons with Seattle, he totaled just 178 Hits, 109 RBIs and 32 HRs. Not great for someone who was the #1 ranked prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com. But hey, at least the Mariners dumped the old contract of the ageing Canó and tried to get younger. It happens sometimes, no one could blame them for trying.
Oh, just one more thing.
There was another player the Mariners sent to the Mets along with Canó. A young Closer by the name of Edwin Diaz. Diaz was a young blossoming star with the Mariners, landing in the top 5 of Rookie of the Year voting, becoming an All-Star and gaining some Cy Young and MVP votes in his young career. The Mariners really wanted Canó gone, and Diaz was the unfortunate price. Since he left Seattle, Diaz has become one of the top Closers in all of baseball. He’s totaled 96 Saves so far for the Mets and has given them a 3.18 ERA. Keep in mind that his numbers would be better if he didn’t sustain an injury during the ’23 WBC which forced him to miss the entire ’23 MLB season. Kelenic meanwhile has since been traded away from the Mariners and is trying to revamp his career in Atlanta.
And there you have it. Some of the worst moves possible during the time when the Mariners had three amazing talented players on their team. Except for the Diaz trade, that was just stupid on their part. Here’s to hoping Julio Rodriguez doesn’t come into the same fate.
That’s the thing about fate though. Sometimes you can’t do anything about it. Injuries happen, weird hops of the baseball across the diamond happen, teams get hotter than you and leapfrog you in the standings, it happens.
Sometimes, however, you can control fate. You can control the pieces on your team. You can control how badly you want to win. You can give your team a fighting chance to, at the very least, make the postseason.
The Mariners on that hand, they sometimes just didn’t want to do that. Literally.
Between the years of 1992 and 2016, the Mariners were owned by Nintendo of America. Yes, the same Nintendo that made Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, all that stuff. In my opinion, a company owning a team is never a good thing. When you have investors or a sole owner who wants to win, they’ll spend money. When you have a company as owners, they care about the bottom line, financially speaking. Don’t believe me? Look at these quotes.
When it came to resigning star infielder Bret Boone in 2002, Howard Lincoln, representing Nintendo of America, said this, “We have to operate at a profit. And we have to make decisions with that in mind.”
When it came to not making trade deadline deals in 2002, Lincoln said, “The goal of the Mariners is not to win a World Series. It is to field a competitive team year after year, to put itself in a position to win a World Series, and hope at some point that happens.”
In regard to baseball decisions as a whole, Lincoln said, “I’m in the baseball business, not the feel good business.”
What in the hell does any of that mean? If I’m a fan and my owner said those things, I’d be prepping my gas cans to burn down the stadium. Jokingly of course.
Still, like I said, you have the chance to control fate. Sometimes. The Mariners had plenty of times to do this. They just didn’t. Whether it be operating at a bottom line or reaching too far, they botched every chance of controlling fate that came their way. While other AL West teams went for the stars and climbed the mountaintop, the Mariners always stayed on the ground floor, looking up at their rivals soaking in all the glory. But, hey, at least they’ll always have 2001.
