The 24 best players in Seattle Mariners history.

The best stat to determine a player’s worth is WAR (wins above replacement), an analytical metric that was not available until relatively recently. The formula for WAR differs for position players and pitchers, and I’ll lay it out in layman’s terms. WAR uses every aspect of the game — batting, baserunning and fielding — factors in position and ballpark and determines how many wins better than a league-average player an individual player might be. Using WAR to help us rank them, let’s look at the top 24 players in the history of the Seattle Mariners franchise.

1 of 24Ken Griffey Jr. – 1989-1999, 2009-2010 (70.6 WAR)
Ken Griffey Jr. – 1989-1999, 2009-2010 (70.6 WAR)
Otto Greule Jr./Allsport
The best player to ever wear a Seattle Mariners jersey is center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., so it should come as no surprise to find him at number one on the team’s all-time WAR list. Griffey had a strong rookie season for Seattle in 1989 as a 19-year-old when he finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting, and immediately after that blossomed into one of the premier stars in the sport. In the next ten years Griffey would make 10 All-Star Games, win ten Gold Gloves, win the 1997 AL MVP award and capture seven Silver Sluggers. He broke the hearts of Mariners’ fans when he left the team as a free agent ahead of the 2000 campaign to go home to Cincinnati, and while he was good for the Reds, his best days clearly came in the Pacific Northwest. It was really cool that the Mariners brought him back in ’09 to finish his career where it started and give their fans another chance to see him play in Seattle. Griffey is the Mariners all-time leader with 417 home runs, and he was enshrined in Cooperstown with an M’s hat in 2016.

2 of 24Edgar Martinez – 1987-2004 (68.4 WAR)
Edgar Martinez – 1987-2004 (68.4 WAR)
Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images
By talent alone Ken Griffey Jr. was clearly a better overall player, but a teammate of his every year he played in Seattle, Edgar Martinez, was probably the guy you wanted at the plate with the game on the line. Before David Ortiz enjoyed unprecedented success in Boston, Martinez was the gold standard for what a DH should be. He spent the entirety of his 18-year career with the Mariners, slashing .312/.418/.515 with 309 homers, 1261 RBI and 514 doubles. The right-handed slugger qualified for seven All-Star Games, won five Silver Slugger awards and two batting titles. He’s Seattle’s all-time leader in RBI, doubles, runs and extra-base hits, and was deservedly voted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.

3 of 24Ichiro Suzuki – 2001-2012, 2018-2019 (56.4 WAR)
Ichiro Suzuki – 2001-2012, 2018-2019 (56.4 WAR)
Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images
When Ichiro Suzuki left Japan to join the Mariners in 2001, he was already one of the most accomplished Japanese hitters in history. So when he instantly won AL Rookie of the Year in his first season in North America, it seemed a little unfair to the other rookies that year. Of course, that wasn’t the only award the right fielder won in ’01. After winning the batting title with a .350 mark and leading the majors with 56 stolen bases, Ichiro was named AL MVP. Along with Boston’s Fred Lynn, he is the only player ever to win both awards in the same season. Throughout his Mariners’ career, Ichiro would lead the AL in hits seven times, qualify for 10 All-Star Games, win a second batting title and win 10 Gold Gloves. Like Griffey, he left Seattle late in his career but then returned to play out his last MLB games in the city where he started. Ichiro retired as the Mariners’ all-time leader in hits, batting average, and stolen bases, and will almost certainly be inducted into the Hall of Fame the first year he’s eligible in 2025.

4 of 24Felix Hernandez – 2005-2019 (49.7 WAR)
Felix Hernandez – 2005-2019 (49.7 WAR)
Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
Right-hander Felix Hernandez debuted for the Mariners as a 19-year-old rookie in 2005, and over the next decade and a half would author one of the best careers in the franchise’s history. Hernandez made every one of his 418 major league starts in a Seattle uniform, winning 169 games with a 3.42 ERA. He won the AL Cy Young award in 2010, won the ERA title twice, led the league in innings in 2010 and was chosen to represent the junior circuit in the All-Star Game six times. Hernandez is the Mariners’ franchise leader in starts, wins, strikeouts and innings.

5 of 24Randy Johnson – 1989-1998 (39.0 WAR)
Randy Johnson – 1989-1998 (39.0 WAR)
Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images
Randy Johnson is probably most remembered for his excellence in Arizona and the World Series trophy he helped deliver to the Diamondbacks in 2001, but let’s not forget how dynamic the big southpaw was in Seattle early in his career. In 10 years with the Mariners, the ‘Big Unit’ won 130 games with a 3.42 ERA, while striking out 2,162 hitters in 1,838.1 innings. He represented Seattle in five All-Star Games, won the 1995 AL Cy Young award, won an ERA title and led the AL in punchouts in four straight seasons from ’92-’95. Johnson was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2015, understandably with a Diamondbacks cap on his head, but that doesn’t change the fact that for most of the ’90s he was the most-feared starting pitcher in baseball and called Seattle home.

6 of 24Alex Rodriguez – 1994-2000 (38.1 WAR)
Alex Rodriguez – 1994-2000 (38.1 WAR)
Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images
Alex Rodriguez has become one of the most polarizing names in Major League Baseball history. The Manhattan-born shortstop spent most of the first half of his career as the best player in the game, before controversially skirting his original club to sign what at the time was the richest contract in history with their primary rival. He later got blackballed from the sport for his inclusion in the PED scandal and has since resurrected some of his reputation and become a respected broadcaster. Got all that? Let’s go back to the beginning, though, because during the first seven years of his career in Seattle, A-Rod was the golden child of baseball. In just under 800 games in a Mariners uniform, Rodriguez slashed .309/.374/.561 and hit the first 189 of his 696 career homers. He represented Seattle in four All-Star Games, won four Silver Sluggers, led the AL in hits once, doubles once, and won a batting title. Following the 2000 campaign he left Seattle to sign with the Rangers, a development that was understandably not received well in the Pacific Northwest, and while Mariners fans still may hold a grudge, it doesn’t take away from how well he performed in their uniform.

7 of 24Kyle Seager – 2011-2021 (36.9 WAR)
Kyle Seager – 2011-2021 (36.9 WAR)
Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images
The Mariners selected third baseman Kyle Seager in the third round of the 2009 draft, and the UNC product would go on to become a mainstay for them at the hot corner for over a decade. In 11 years in Seattle, Seager slashed .251/.321/.442 with 242 homers and 807 RBI, and his 309 doubles are the third-most in club history. He made his only All-Star team and won his only Gold Glove award in 2014. After his retirement in 2021, Seager had a chance to come back and play with his younger brother Corey in Texas, but Seattle fans were delighted when he chose to stay in retirement and be one of the only players in his generation to suit up for only one organization.

8 of 24Jamie Moyer – 1996-2006 (34.4 WAR)
Jamie Moyer – 1996-2006 (34.4 WAR)
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
Crafty southpaw Jamie Moyer had already pitched for five other major league teams before arriving in Seattle in 1996 at the age of 33, but something seemed to click for him when he got to the Pacific Northwest. In his 11 years with the Mariners, Moyer enjoyed the most success of his career, winning 145 games and pitching to a 3.97 ERA in 324 outings. He made his first and only All-Star team as a 40-year-old in 2003, and while the St. Joseph’s University product was never considered a star, you may be surprised to learn that only Felix Hernandez earned more victories as a Mariner.

9 of 24Robinson Cano – 2014-2018 (23.5 WAR)
Robinson Cano – 2014-2018 (23.5 WAR)
Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
The Mariners signed Robinson Cano to a massive free-agent contract ahead of the 2014 season, and at the time it was viewed as a coup. Cano was one of the best players in baseball and played for the mighty New York Yankees, so when the M’s convinced him to leave the biggest media market in the world to move across the country to the Pacific Northwest it seemed like the beginning of a bright new era in Seattle. Unfortunately, Cano’s Mariners’ career quickly became tainted. After four productive seasons, the veteran tested positive for PEDs in 2018 and received a long suspension, which likely played a role in the club working hard to trade him that following offseason. During his Mariners tenure, Cano did slash .296/.353/.472 with 271 extra-base hits, but fans don’t have much patience for cheaters. The Dominican Republic native was once a sure-fire Hall of Famer, but a second PED suspension while with the Mets all but put an end to that notion.

10 of 24Jay Buhner – 1988-2001 (23.0 WAR)
Jay Buhner – 1988-2001 (23.0 WAR)
Photo by Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images
Right fielder Jay Buhner played the first 32 games of his big-league career as an ineffective role player with the Yankees, but his career took on a much different trajectory when he landed in Seattle midway through the 1988 campaign. Buhner developed into a dynamic right-handed run producer with the Mariners, and while he was often overlooked in a lineup that included Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez, Buhner could mash with anybody in his prime. In the three seasons between 1995-1997 he crushed 124 homers and drove in 368 runs. Buhner is still third on the club’s all-time list in both home runs and RBI — behind both of his Hall of Fame former teammates — and he’ll always be remembered as a fan favorite in Seattle.

11 of 24Adrian Beltre – 2005-2009 (21.2 WAR)
Adrian Beltre – 2005-2009 (21.2 WAR)
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Third baseman Adrian Beltre did not spend all that much time calling Seattle home, but he was a productive offensive piece for five different Mariners teams. In 715 games with the M’s, Beltre slashed .266/.317/.442 with 103 homers, 396 RBI and 172 doubles. He made his first All-Star team in Boston the year after he left Seattle, but he did win the first two of his five Gold Glove awards as a member of the Mariners.

12 of 24Alvin Davis – 1984-1991 (20.1 WAR)
Alvin Davis – 1984-1991 (20.1 WAR)
Photo by Owen C. Shaw/Getty Images
Left-handed swinging first baseman Alvin Davis broke into the big leagues with the Mariners in 1984 and enjoyed instant success. In 152 games that year, Davis slashed .284/.391/.497 with 27 homers and 116 RBI and was the clear choice to be named American League Rookie of the Year. Surprisingly, that would end up being the best season of Davis’s career. He did hit over 20 home runs for the Mariners two other times and reached triple digits in RBI once more, but he never came close to duplicating the overall excellence he displayed as a rookie. The Riverside, California native left Seattle to join the Angels in 1992, where he was released midway through the season and ultimately ended up finishing his playing career in Japan.

13 of 24Mark Langston – 1984-1989 (19.2 WAR)
Mark Langston – 1984-1989 (19.2 WAR)
Rick Stewart /Allsport
Before there was Randy Johnson and later Jamie Moyer, the Mariners employed another left-handed starter that continually befuddled the rest of the American League. San Jose State product Mark Langston spent the first six seasons of his major league career pitching for Seattle, and for most of that time was the M’s ace. In 173 starts for the club, Langston won 74 games with a 4.01 ERA, while making an All-Star Game, winning two Gold Gloves and leading the American League in strikeouts three separate times.

14 of 24Bret Boone – 1992-1993, 2001-2005 (19.2 WAR)
Bret Boone – 1992-1993, 2001-2005 (19.2 WAR)
Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
Right-handed swinging Bret Boone was drafted by the Mariners in 1990 and got his feet wet with the team before being traded to Cincinnati. And while he was a productive everyday player for the Reds, Braves and Padres, he didn’t become an elite run producer until coming back to Seattle in 2001. In his first year back in the Pacific Northwest, Boone enjoyed a career season, slashing .331/.372/.578 with 37 homers and an AL-high 141 RBI — easily new personal bests in every category. The second baseman knocked in well over 100 runs for Seattle in each of the next two seasons as well before slowly fizzling out as he reached his late 30’s. With the Mariners, Boone made two All-Star Games, won three Gold Gloves and earned two Silver Sluggers.

15 of 24Freddy Garcia – 1999-2004 (18.8 WAR)
Freddy Garcia – 1999-2004 (18.8 WAR)
Photo by Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images
Venezuelan-born righty Freddy Garcia won 17 games and tossed over 200 innings for the Mariners as a 22-year-old rookie in 1999, and while his Seattle tenure ultimately proved to be a little up and down, when he was on his game he was as dominant as any pitcher in the American League. With Seattle, Garcia took the ball 170 times across six seasons and pitched to a 3.89 ERA with a 1.29 WHIP in just under 1,100 innings. He hurled nine complete games in a Mariners uniform — including four shutouts — and represented the