Kendrys Morales: Never Again A Seattle Mariner?

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Much to the pleasure of many a Mariner fan, the Kansas City Royals signed DH Kendrys Morales to a 2 year, $17 million contract on Thursday.

This move by the reigning American League Champions should mark the end of the Mariners-Kendrys Morales relationship. Shouldn’t it?

The Mariners and Kendrys Morales have had a checkered saga together. As a DH for the rival LA Angels, Kendrys Morales chopped at Safeco field. That trend continued, and in the 51st game of the 2010 season Kendrys Morales hit a walk-off grand slam against… the Seattle Mariners.

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He rounded the bases and greeted the home plate celebration with a helmet toss and an emphatic jump. Upon landing, Morales compound-fractured his ankle, missing the rest of the 2010 season and all of the 2011 season.

The switch-hitting Cuban returned to the Angels lineup in 2012 with mixed results. His stats weren’t as glamorous as before, but he did hit .273/.320/.467 with 22 home runs and 73 RBI in 134 games played.

Then, before the 2013 season, the Mariners traded for the slugger and inserted him in their lineup as the everyday DH. In 156 games in 2014– a career high– Kendrys Morales hit .277/.336/.449 with 23 home runs and 80 RBI. He also accounted for 2.7 WAR that season.

At the end of the disappointing 71-win season, the Mariners extended Morales a qualifying offer that he rejected.

Morales was eventually signed by the Minnesota Twins, for whom he played in 39 games and hit a disappointing .234/.259/.325. Then, much to the dismay of many M’s fans, the team traded for Morales at the July trade deadline, sending an oft-injured but powerful right hander in Stephen Pryor to the Twins.

The rest of that season only got worse in the Morales/Mariners relationship. In 59 games for the M’s, all of them in the thick of a postseason push, he hit .207/.285/.347 with 8 home runs and 42 RBI.

Now that Morales has signed a 2 year deal with the Royals, it seems the saga has ended. But take solace M’s fans, in knowing Jack Zduriencik and Co. could end up trading for Kendrys Morales during this season, or the next.

Many hope the M’s are done with Kendrys Morales forever. But, as most M’s fans are used to, the painful things always seem to find a way of rearing their ugly heads.