Best Seattle Mariners Players of All Time

MLB fans will have several names in mind when considering the best Seattle Mariners players of all time. Some of the sport’s most beloved figures have played in the Pacific Northwest. 

The M’s were rarely at the top of the MLB odds board to win the championship during their postseason drought from 2001 to 2021, but a wild-card sweep of the Blue Jays in 2022 and 88 wins in 2023 should give fans a reason to feel confident about the future.

Despite being one of the few MLB teams to have never won a World Series, Seattle presented perhaps the most difficult decisions of any of my team’s rankings. Here are my final five. 

Best Seattle Mariners Players of All Time

1. Ken Griffey Jr.

Ken Griffey Jr.’s 11 All-Star selections and franchise-leading bWAR are only part of what makes him the greatest Mariner ever. The Kid led the AL in homers on four occasions and won MVP in 1997. 

He’s hit over 100 more long balls than any other Mariner, and only three players can better his 144 OPS+. A true legend in Seattle, Griffey was the face of baseball in the 1990s. He may have never reached the World Series, but Junior was integral on plenty of competitive Mariners teams. 

2. Ichiro Suzuki

Arriving from Japan for his age-27 season, Ichiro Suzuki won Rookie of the Year, MVP, the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger. It was the greatest rookie year in MLB history, and Ichiro built on that in the coming years, earning nine more All-Star selections and nine more Gold Gloves. 

Ichiro’s looking sharp in our City Connects 🤩 pic.twitter.com/UnmpAYxfgg

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) May 6, 2023

Despite coming over in his late twenties, Ichiro holds the franchise lead in hits, triples, batting average and stolen bases. 

His 113 OPS+ isn’t spectacular, but Ichiro’s peak production sees him just edge out Edgar Martinez for the second spot in these rankings. 

3. Edgar Martinez

Nelson Cruz is the only Mariner with a better OPS+ than Edgar Martinez – Cruz played just over 600 games for Seattle, which is less than a third of Martinez’s total.

Martinez has played the most games in franchise history. He’s got the most total bases, most walks, most extra-base hits and the best on-base percentage. 

Unlucky to only be a seven-time All-Star, Martinez’s career has long been underrated. He finally got the recognition he deserved in 2019, however, when he was elected to Cooperstown in his last year on the ballot. 

4. Randy Johnson

The pitcher with comfortably the best ERA+ in franchise history had to slot into this top five. Randy Johnson won the first of his Cy Youngs in Seattle and led the majors in strikeouts in four consecutive years as a Mariner.

#OTD in 1995, Randy Johnson was named the AL Cy Young Award winner after a dominating season that saw him go 18-2 with a 2.48 ERA. pic.twitter.com/D3oTNg0bam

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) November 14, 2020

He had three other top-three Cy Young finishes while playing in the Pacific Northwest. His 39 bWAR across 10 seasons is the second-best among all pitchers, and he’s in a four-way tie for the best ERA.  

5. Felix Hernandez

It’s a toss-up between Johnson and Felix Hernandez for fourth and fifth. Some of this comes down to personal preference – Hernandez has the edge in plenty of stats, but his poor last few seasons dragged down his ERA and FIP.

Hernandez won a lone Cy Young in his career, which came on the back of an utterly dominant 2010. Two years later, he made MLB history with just the 23rd perfect game ever pitched in the big leagues. 

King Felix was, and remains, adored by the Mariners fan base. While he amassed a higher bWAR than Johnson, the latter was a better pitcher overall as his ERA+ indicates. 

It was not Hernandez’s fault, but Seattle never making the postseason during his career at least has to be a minor factor when comparing the two.