The 50 greatest Mariners, as chosen by me

The 50 greatest Mariners, as chosen by meStory byRyan BlakeWed, December 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM UTC·13 min read

It’s time for a listicle.

The Mariners will play their 50th season in 2026. To celebrate, they offer a patch, some merch and chance to remember some guys. You can vote on the 50 “greatest” Mariners here. The top vote getters will be honored on August 8.

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I was feeling inspired so I gave it a shot. I didn’t limit myself to the eligibility criteria set in the official voting. The main rule I followed is I had to have some opinion or memory of the player to put them on my list. I was born in 1996. My first game was in 2003. The first season I truly remember was in 2009. As such, my list skews towards the present.

I took a liberal view of “greatest.” I wrote down about 100 names and ordered them without looking at their stats. I balanced performance, fidelity, entertainment value and whether the Mariners ever gave me free merch with their likeness as a child.

I put quite a bit of thought into ordering the top 10. I put less thought into ordering the next 40.  Here’s what I came up with:

The Top 10

Ichiro Suzuki (1)

Ichiro was my first favorite player. I mimicked his batting stance. I had a t-shirt with his face on it. I got his poster whenever the Scholastic Book Fair came to school. He’s the reason I’m a Mariners fan. He was great on the field and cultivated a legendary presence off. Ichiro is the Seattle Mariners.

Félix Hernández (2)

The only other player I considered at number one was Félix. While Ichiro made me a fan, Félix kept me a fan. The Cy Young. The perfect game. The King’s Court. The ultra-quality starts. The lore — oh the sweet, sweet lore. That his career is part tragedy prevents him from taking the top spot, but I think that makes him all the more compelling. Where Ichiro is our untouchable deity, Félix is our symbol of sovereignty. Greatness in isolation. I don’t know whether he will ever make the Hall of Fame, or even if I want him to. He’s ours, and you can’t have him.

Edgar Martinez (3)

I found a picture of my first ever game from sometime in 2003. I was holding a sign that read “EDGARRRRR” in the handwriting of a six year old. I don’t remember much of his playing career, but I do remember him bursting into flames in Slugfest: Loaded on my Playstation 2. Like Ichiro, Edgar’s legendary status is as much in his presence as his accolades. I feel compelled to respect him without question.

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Ken Griffey Jr. (4)

I think there’s a bit of a gap after Edgar and before Griffey on my personal list. My only memories of Griffey as a Mariner are his return to the org in 2009 and the drama surrounding his retirement a year later. I can imagine his impact in the 90s through our collective reverence, but when I think Griffey’s greatness I mostly think of his home run chase with the Reds.

Julio Rodríguez (5)

You could argue Julio hasn’t earned this spot yet, but I suspect he’ll top the list when I write this post for the org’s 100th anniversary. I’m a sucker for a superstar prospect who instantly delivers and then stays with his team to build a dynasty. It’s most satisfying trope in sports. Sure, I’m jumping the gun, but Julio is the first real chance to witness such an arc in my lifetime. I’m leaning into it.

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Alex Rodriguez (6)

A-Rod was my second favorite player growing up. I always wore number 13 in Little League. I used his stance in create-a-player modes in MLB The Show. I don’t remember him ever playing for the Mariners, but I always thought it was cool that the best player in the world used to play for the Mariners. It was a sense of legitimacy the Mariners rarely could provide for themselves. The new HBO documentary “Alex vs. A-Rod” only made me like him more.

Cal Raleigh (7)

I might be little burnt out from writing about Cal this year, if that’s possible. It was the greatest season I have ever seen. He could retire today and justify this placement. I assume he’ll jump a few more spots with time.

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Cliff Lee (8)

This is the most controversial choice in the top 10, but I’m sticking to it. Lee was simply the best pitcher I ever saw in a Mariners’ uniform. He made just 13 starts with the team and posted a 2.16 FIP and 4.2 fWAR before being traded to the Rangers. His 1.5% walk rate is still the lowest in team history. Sure, his time in Seattle was brief — so brief you can’t even vote for him in the official event — but he was an elite pitcher for many years elsewhere and one of the best players to ever put on a Mariners’ uniform. I claim him as our own, even if I doubt he feels the same.

Nelson Cruz (9)

Cruz is tied with Edgar with the top wRC+ in team history. It’s silly, but I’m glad he retired as a Mariner.

Randy Johnson (10)

Johnson is in a close race with A-Rod as the best player on this list, but I don’t really think of him as a Mariner. There never seemed to be an effort to associate him with the org as with the other ’95ers. The reason for that distance was revealed this year as he and the team worked to repair their public relationship. But my appreciation for Johnson resides in his Fangraphs’ page and (as Eric Sanford recently put it) the trio of phallic references in his name. Both are world class.

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The Next 10

Kyle Seager (11)

Fair or not, the first thing I think of when Seager is mentioned is the way he left the team. It makes me sad. Great player, though. I wonder if he’ll show up for the ceremony. Is he ready?

J.P. Crawford (12)Luis Castillo (13)Eugenio Suárez (14)

The current era of the Mariners is by far my favorite. It’s hard to picture it without J.P., Geno or Castillo. They’ve each been productive and likable and winners. I’ll be sad when their time in Seattle is over.

James Paxton (15)Mitch Haniger (16)

Paxton and Haniger are a parallel for the trio above but without the health to have been a reliable part of a core. They provided countless memorable moments in their time here, though.

Jay Buhner (17)Bret Boone (18)

I appreciate Buhner’s longstanding fondness for the org. I missed him on the broadcast for the years he was away, even if sometimes he irritates me. He’s family.

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I had a mini-bat with Boone’s face on it that destroyed at least one lamp in my childhood living room. I loved his bat toss — hence the lamp. He was also the best player on the early 00s squad that was the best in team history.

Andrés Muñoz (19)

I don’t know that there’s a strong case for Muñoz as the top reliever on the list, but he’s my favorite active pitcher in MLB and the “closer” for one of the most successful eras of the org. His fastball/slider combo is iconic — as is his cat.

Adrian Beltré (20)

Beltré combines my feelings on A-Rod, Lee and Seager. My first thought when I see Beltré’s name is how disappointing he was in Seattle. But because he wasn’t here too long, and because he was so exceptional everywhere else, and because he was otherwise likable and shared my fondness for Félix, I feel lucky to have watched him as a Mariner. And, well, the “disappointing” version of Beltré was still one of the best players in team history.

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The Middle 10

Alvin Davis (21)

Davis breaks my rule of only choosing players I know something about. I never saw him play. I couldn’t pick him out of a crowd. I don’t know what his batting stance looked like, or even which box he stood in. But his Fangraphs’ page is tremendously impressive. Forgive my ignorance, Mr. Mariner.

Hisashi Iwakuma (22)

I am a proud owner of a Kuma Bear hat. He is the proud owner of a no hitter.

Mike Cameron (23)

I always get a chuckle out of Cameron burning sage whenever the team needs a vibes cleanse.

Robinson Canó (24)

I have never been so excited about baseball as the day Canó signed with the Mariners. He was one of the 20 best players in the world before Seattle, and he was one of the 20 best players while here. The sense of legitimacy I sought with A-Rod was finally in my lap. He had two truly great seasons in 2014 and 2016, and he had two pretty good seasons in 2015 and 2017. He looked on pace for another all-time season in 2018 but abandoned the team to serve a PED suspension. I’ve convinced myself that squad would have made the playoffs had he been on the field, and I find that hard forgive, especially with what it would have meant for Félix and Seager (and himself and me). Canó was great. His legacy in Seattle is complicated. He should be higher, but he’s not.

George Kirby (25)Logan Gilbert (26)

Why are J.P., Geno and Castillo 11-13 and Kirby and Gilbert 25-26? I don’t know.

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Kyle Lewis (27)Franklin Gutierrez (28)

I had to fight the urge to put Lewis much higher. He might be the player whose career I’ve rooted for the hardest. He debuted right as I was getting into Big Data, and I found him fascinating to study. He had one of the best — at times THE best — approaches in MLB, to go with massive power and solid center field defense. If he didn’t get hurt, I’m certain he’d be among MLB’s best players. But he did get hurt, and his career is over. We’ll always have the 2020 AL Rookie of the Year.

Like Lewis, Guti earned similar affinity from stats-knowers of an earlier era. And like Lewis, he goes down in the “what might have been” category, battling freak and sometimes mysterious ailments that kept him off the field. He was the best defensive player I ever saw, and his nickname “Death To Flying Things” is among the final great calls of Dave Niehaus.

Tom Wilhemsen (29)Charlie Furbush (30)

The Bullpen Banter duo is remembered fondly for their personalities, and that’s largely why they’re on this list. They were rare brights spots in the org’s otherwise miserable teen years. But they were also two of the best relievers in franchise history, and they were part of the combined no hitter in the middle of their best season.

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The Penultimate 10

John Olerud (31)

Olerud was maybe the greatest college baseball player ever, and he did it at my alma mater. My sister was a big fan of his because he wore a helmet on defense. He also had a public legal fight because he wanted to cut down his neighbors trees.

J.J. Putz (32)Edwin Díaz (33)

One of my first team giveaways was the “J.J. Putz height chart.” For several years of my childhood, a life-size, 2-D Putz watched me sleep. His 2006 season is the second best by a reliever in team history and gave us maybe the greatest pitch in team history.

The best reliever season belongs to Edwin Díaz in 2018. He was (and still is) a great pitcher, but I’ll never forgive him for mainstreaming that Timmy Trumpets song after he was traded to the Mets.

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Jamie Moyer (34)Jason Vargas (35)Jarrod Washburn (36) Marco Gonzales (37)

Next we have a quartet of lefty starters. Moyer is self explanatory; Washburn less so, but I had his shirsey and some fond memories of his final outings with the Mariners (including a near perfecto). Marco went to Gonzaga and I live in Spokane, so that’s something. And Vargas is an all-time gif-able player, even after he left the team:

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Mike Blowers (38)Ryan Rowland-Smith (39)Dave Valle (40)

And now the broadcast trio. Blowers was the best color analyst in baseball. I don’t remember him as a player — I never thought of him as a player — but I miss him dearly. I do remember RRS as a player. We shared a name and that’s all it took for him to become one of my favorites growing up. I enjoy his presence in the booth, too. Valle would rank number one on my list of people I’d like to have a few beers with and watch a slate of Saturday games.

The Final 10

Raul Ibanez (41)

Ibanez holds the record (along with Ted Williams) for most homers in a season as a 41 year old, making this ranking too convenient to pass up. He always makes me think of Lookout Landing.

Dylan Moore (42)

Moore was one of the league’s great fastball hunters and capable of playing every position on the field. He was dynamic, he was interesting, and he was good. I’m sad that he’s gone, though I couldn’t stand to watch him swing and miss even one more time.

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Fernando Rodney (43)

Freddy Garcia (44)Joel Pineiro (45)Doug Fister (46)

I remember each of these pitchers.

Mike Zunino (47)John Jaso (48)

These are two exactly opposite catchers. Zunino was a joy to watch defensively, and he still has the longest batted ball I’ve ever seen. He was maybe the most successful of the “can’t miss” prospects from the Zduriencik era, but he holds by far the highest strikeout rate in team history.

Jaso, on the other hand, wasn’t a very good catcher and had little power, but his 143 wRC+ in 361 PAs is fourth highest in team history — just ahead of Griffey and A-Rod. He got there by drawing walks and not striking out, which made him a favorite among stats-knowers. That he wasn’t a Mariner longer is a shame. Oh and he also caught Félix’s perfect game.

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Nick Vincent (49)

There were many relievers I could have included here, but Vincent is the org’s all-time leader in holds, which is a fact fun enough to earn him a top 50 spot.

Dan Wilson (50)

Wilson has the most defensive WAR in team history. He has the least offensive WAR in team history. He has the highest win rate of any manager in team history. His legacy is forever enshrined in his Funko Pop.

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