The Drought, Part I: The 10 Worst Mariners Since 2001

#9: C Steve Clevenger

I’m sorry, but it had to be done. Steve Clevenger is potentially the biggest stain on Jerry Dipoto’s otherwise fairly successful record.

Dipoto desperately wanted to get Mark Trumbo’s contract off the books. The best offer he received, as far as we know, was from the Orioles. They offered Clevenger in return for taking Trumbo’s contract off Dipoto’s hands. He took the deal.

Clevenger was no more than a backup catcher, and a pretty mediocre one at that. That didn’t change when he arrived in Seattle. He would only play 20 games for the Mariners after suffering a broken hand in June 2016.

It wasn’t his on-field performance that landed him on this list, though.

Due to his injury, Clevenger had a lot more free time on his hands. He used this newfound time to share his opinions on the Black Lives Matter movement and U.S. President Barack Obama.

In short, Clevenger exposed himself as no more than another racist with a Twitter account.

The Mariners were quick to release Clevenger, thankfully. Since then, Clevenger has never received another opportunity to play Major League Baseball.

Meanwhile, Mark Trumbo went on to have an All-Star season in Baltimore, hitting a league-leading 47 home runs.

#8: 1B/3B Scott Spiezio

Another Angel-turned-Mariner. The M’s hoped Spiezio would bring something they desperately needed: veteran leadership and playoff experience. Spiezio was one of the heroes for the Angels in their World Series victory in 2002, which was a breakout year for him.

When Spiezio signed with the Mariners in 2004, he was coming off three straight years worth roughly two wins each. He wasn’t an offensive juggernaut, but he got on base often and had the ability to put one in the stands every now and then.

Instead, Spiezio only played in 112 games and looked absolutely lost at the plate all season. His OBP dropped 38 points from his 2003 numbers, and he ultimately posted an awful slash line of .215/.288/.346.

Spiezio somehow found himself on the 2005 Mariners as well, but only lasted 29 games. Things got even worse for Spiezio that year, hitting for a -26 wRC+. The M’s had enough and cut ties with Spiezio.

Of course, Spiezio went to the Cardinals and suddenly became good again. Spiezio posted career highs in wRC+ (123) and wOBA (.370) while becoming a World Series champion with St. Louis in 2006.

#7: RHP Hector Noesi

Oh look, it’s the bane of my existence.

Acquired in the Jesus Montero deal (which we’ll get into later), Noesi projected to be a solid swingman in the Yankees’ system. After pitching considerably well throughout the Minors, Noesi looked like a solid addition to the package.

We didn’t expect the disaster Noesi would become.

It’s not an exaggeration when I say that Noesi was nothing but a problem for the Mariners. Jack Zduriencik was so hellbent on making Noesi work, forcing us to watch him for 34 games over two full seasons. It felt like an eternity.

When Noesi was a starter, he put the offense in a hole. When Noesi was a reliever, he blew leads. His career-high in xFIP with the Mariners was 4.74. So yeah, it was his fault.

In 2014, Zduriencik finally cut ties with Noesi, trading him to the Texas Rangers. The Rangers would designate him for assignment just 10 days later.

In this case, Noesi would not go on to do bigger and better things after leaving Seattle. He stayed bad. That didn’t stop him from shutting out the M’s later that year, though. Mariners baseball, baby.

#6: RHP Brandon Morrow

The Mariners held the fifth overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft. Everything was lined up perfectly for the M’s to select Tim Lincecum, a local pitcher from the University of Washington. Instead, the Mariners decided to take Brandon Morrow, a young hurler from Berkeley.

Lincecum would go on to win two Cy Young awards and three World Series championships with the San Francisco Giants.

But Lincecum was not the only future superstar the Mariners passed up on that day. The next two picks after Morrow were none other than perennial All-Stars Andrew Miller and Clayton Kershaw. Six picks later, another superstar was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks: Max Scherzer.

With all that said, Brandon Morrow just had to be amazing, didn’t he? Well, he wasn’t. He wasn’t awful either, but given what the M’s passed on in favor of him, his time in Seattle is frustrating.

Morrow was rushed through the Mariners system, breaking camp with the team in 2007 after only playing eight Minor League games the previous year.

2007 was rough for Morrow, who appeared in 60 games that year. He struggled with his command, posting an outrageous 7.11 BB/9.

2008 was a bit better, but the Mariners couldn’t find a specific role for Morrow. They tried him as a middle reliever, closer, and even a starter for five games.

Morrow could not handle starting pitching duties due to his battle with Type 1 Diabetes. Thus, the Mariners scrambled to find him a spot to contribute.

Morrow found some success in the closer role, notching 10 saves, but overall appeared uncomfortable.

The following year saw no improvement from Morrow and the Mariners finally decided to part ways while he still held value on the trade market. That December, Morrow was shipped North of the border to the Blue Jays for RHP Brandon League and OF Johermyn Chavez.

League went on to pitch two-and-a-half seasons out of the Mariners bullpen and was pretty solid. In 2011, League notched a career-high 37 saves in his first and only All-Star season.

In Toronto, Morrow was able to work out his struggles with Diabetes and became a full-time starter. Morrow blossomed and posted 3.6, 3.2, and 2.4-win seasons with the Blue Jays in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Injuries caught up with Morrow for several years after, though. But in 2017, Morrow made a name for himself as a late-inning reliever for the Dodgers in the postseason. This landed Morrow a two-year, $21 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

Now, in 2018, Morrow is off to a solid start and appears to be on his way to his first career All-Star selection.

#5: RHP Carlos Silva

Now it’s getting ugly. Oof.

This should be a good indication of where this list is going, because Silva could easily be in the top two or three. It should also be a really good indication of how poorly run the Mariners organization was and how lucky we truly are to have Jerry Dipoto.

Carlos Silva was a decent pitcher for the Minnesota Twins from 2004 to 2007. The Mariners decided his production in that period was worth $48 million over four years. It was a massive overpay.

The only year Silva had that warranted this kind of contract was 2005, in which he won nine games and posted a 3.96 xFIP. Even then, Silva could not strike anyone out and had to rely on inducing ground balls. The thing is, he couldn’t do that and thus suffer from a case of the dingers.

This was another situation in which the Mariners were putting too much stock into what a player did against them in the past, alike Kotchman. However, this was before Zduriencik. This was Bavasi, who we’re gonna touch upon quite a bit more as this list comes to an end.

Before signing in Seattle, Silva pitched 54.1 innings versus the Mariners to the tune of a 3.77 xFIP.

Like I said, though, Silva was a decent pitcher for the Twins. There was nothing that went against Silva being a solid fourth and fifth starter for the Mariners.

But Silva went off the rails. In 28 starts for Seattle in 2008, Silva atrociously went 4-15 with a 6.46 ERA (4.59 xFIP). While he had a higher K/9 than he ever did in Minnesota, Silva still struggled to keep the ball on the ground and had one of his worst years with the home run ball.

Silva’s contract saved his roster spot on the 2009 Mariners, but a shoulder injury limited him to just 30.1 innings. This would be a blessing in disguise for the Mariners, as Silva got off to an incredibly poor start that year.

After the season, Silva was traded along with $9 million to the Chicago Cubs for Milton Bradley, another awful Mariner.

Surprise, surprise – Silva went on to post career-high numbers with the Cubs in 2010, going 10-6 with a 3.75 xFIP.

#4: C/1B/DH Jesus Montero

This one still stings.

Of all the bad trades Jack Zduriencik made, this one may be the worst. After Michael Pineda burst onto the scene with an All-Star rookie season for the Mariners in 2011, Zduriencik thought it’d be a great idea to strike while the iron was hot and trade him.

The Mariners found themselves a partner: the New York Yankees. At that time, the Yankees had a top catching prospect by the name of Jesus Montero who was absolutely mashing Minor League pitching. The Yankees were reluctant to part with Montero in past trade talks but felt Pineda was worth it.

At first glance, it looked like the Mariners were getting the “next big thing” in baseball. They did get the “next big thing.” “Big,” as in weight (sorry).

Montero was severely overweight for most of his career with the Mariners. He was a defensive liability as a catcher and was no longer needed thereafter Mike Zunino was called up in 2013. His career-high in wRC+ with the Mariners was 90 in 2012.

In the Bronx, Pineda dominated the AL East with multiple three-win seasons. Unfortunately, a UCL injury in 2017 required him to undergo Tommy John surgery and he’s now working his way back within the Minnesota Twins’ system.

But Pineda would have been nice to have in 2014 and 2016 when the Mariners finished just outside the postseason.

As for Montero, he’s currently playing in the Mexican Baseball League after a PED suspension stuck a fork in his MLB career in 2016.

I wonder if they have good ice cream sandwiches down in Mexico.

#3: C Jeff Clement

If you thought Brandon Morrow hurt, just wait until you relive this one.

After a horrible 2004 season, the Mariners held the third overall pick in the 2005 MLB Draft. After Justin Upton and Justin Verlander went in the first two picks, the Mariners had their choice of several future All-Stars. Amongst them, Andrew McCutchen, Ryan Braun, and Troy Tulowitzki.

Per Tulowitzki, the Mariners had told him that he was their guy with the third pick. Instead, Bill Bavasi and his team of idiots selected Jeff Clement, a catcher from USC.

Tulowitzki was then drafted seventh overall by the Colorado Rockies and went on to become of the best shortstops in MLB history.

Clement, on the other hand, proved to be a below-average defensive catcher and his bat followed suit. In just 243 career plate appearances for the Mariners, Clement hit for a 90 wRC+ while striking out 27.2% of the time.

In 2009, Clement was included in a package traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jack Wilson and Ian Snell. Clement was never able to put together any success elsewhere and retired from professional baseball in 2014 at the age of 30.

#2: UTL Chone Figgins

Yes, we’re at this part of the list now. This is just a sad situation at this point. We’ve tried to laugh it off and turn Chone Figgins into a meme, but there’s no avoiding how disappointing this was.

Dee Gordon and Jean Segura are what we thought the combination of Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins would be. Alternatively, we saw Ichiro get traded to the Yankees just two-and-a-half years after Figgins signed his deal, and the latter flew right off the handles.

Figgins was coming off a 6.5-win season for the Angels before signing a four-year, $36 million deal with the M’s. At the time, the Mariners were getting of the MLB’s premier players for a relatively affordable deal.

The highest WAR Figgins posted for the Mariners was 1.3 in his first season. The next year, he’d erase almost all of that with an unimaginable -1.2 WAR season. He finished that year slashing .188/.241/.243.

Figgins was a slap-hitter who couldn’t hit. He didn’t have the power to mask his awful numbers.

Before his numbers began to spiral out of control, his mentality did. This came to a head in July of 2010, when Figgins and then-Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu got into a heated exchange that incited a dugout brawl.

Figgins’ poor attitude would continue for the rest of his time in a Mariners uniform, appearing visibly upset and uninterested most nights.

The Mariners experimented with Figgins quite a bit, trying him at second based, third base, and even the outfield. They were desperate because of what they had invested in him. They placed him in nearly every spot in the lineup but saw no change.

As his numbers never saw improvement, Figgins was finally DFA’d by the Mariners in 2012. In his Mariners career, he finished with a slash line of .227/.302/.283, inflated by his decent 2010 season.

Honorable Mentions: 2B/OF Dustin Ackley, RHP Miguel Batista, and OF Milton Bradley

While names like Richie Sexson, Jack Cust, and Jose Vidro are popular names when talking about the worst Mariners, Ackley, Batista, and Bradley just stand out a little bit more to me.

We’ll start with Ackley, the second overall pick for the Mariners in the 2009 MLB Draft.

Some Mariners fans whine about the fact that Ackley was taken over Mike Trout but keep in mind that Trout also didn’t go until the 25th pick. He just wasn’t a realistic option at the time. You can’t blame them for that.

In retrospect, the first round of that draft was pretty weak, with only a handful of noteworthy players selected.

While Ackley was a bust, I never saw a fit for him in my top 10. Ackley was a 7.6 WAR player in his Mariners career and had some key contributions in the Mariners’ magical 2014 run up to Game 162.

In the end, Ackley’s hot college bat could just never properly translate to the Majors. Now he’s just a Triple-A body for the Angels.

Miguel Batista signed a three-year, $24 million deal with the Mariners in 2006.

In 2007, Batista started 32 games for the Mariners and accrued a 2.2 WAR with a 4.90 xFIP. He was nothing spectacular, but he was a solid starter for a Mariners team that needed some stability in their rotation.

But Batista’s production as a starter drastically declined and he was thus shifted to the bullpen, where he would also struggle. Batista finished 2008 with a -1.4 WAR but was still owed $8 million for his next season.

In short, Batista’s spot on the 2009 Mariners was saved by his contract which the Mariners failed to offload. While his 2009 season wasn’t as disastrous on his previous year, he was still extremely mediocre in the 56 games he pitched in.

Batista could never get right and was out of professional baseball by 2013.

As I mentioned earlier, Milton Bradley was acquired in the Carlos Silva deal with Chicago. One awful Mariner for another.

Bradley was notorious for his temper tantrums throughout his career. The only reason he stuck in the league for so long was due to how good of a hitter he was. That is until he joined the Mariners.

Before we dive further into his on-the-field issues, let me just say that Milton Bradley is an awful human being.

The only reason he didn’t make my list is that he was too little of a factor for the Mariners teams he was on.

The temper tantrums continued in Seattle. In May 2010, Bradley was benched during a game and left the stadium before it ended.

Pair his attitude with a total fall-off at the plate and you have a player that has no business being on your team or any other. The Mariners recognized this a bit too late, releasing him early in the 2011 season.

#1: LHP Erik Bedard

William Joseph Bavasi, professional moron.

You all know the story. The Mariners got too cute and traded three All-Stars, including Adam Jones, for 46 starts of Erik Bedard.

Bedard was coming off a five-win season for the Orioles in 2007, making him a hot target in the trade market the following offseason. Don’t get me wrong, Bedard was a solid pitcher for the Mariners. When healthy, he and Felix Hernandez were a dangerous one-two punch.

But that’s the point: Bedard couldn’t stay healthy. His production didn’t make him the worst Mariner, but the injuries and the expectations surrounding him do. For what the Mariners gave up, they needed one of the best pitchers in baseball. Instead, they got a slightly above-average pitcher with shoulder problems.

In his recovery from shoulder surgery, Bedard only pitched three times, all in the Minor Leagues, in 2010. He was shut down and faced the end of his career.

Bedard was able to return to the Majors in 2011 with the Mariners, having a solid enough year to get traded to Boston at the Deadline. The Mariners didn’t get much from the Red Sox in return, rendering Bedard’s overall presence on the team useless.

Bedard went on to pitch three more seasons in the MLB for the Pirates, Astros, and Rays. He was mediocre at best and ultimately ended his professional baseball career on a low note.

The reason Bedard is #1 on this list is simple; when we think of the Mariners’ long playoff drought, we think about Erik Bedard. We think about where this team would have gone if Adam Jones and Chris Tillman had stayed.

I think about riding in the car with my Dad, hearing the trade announced on the radio. The excitement we initially had, not knowing what kind of heartache this trade would end up causing.

While Mariners fans were met with several more playoff-less years, Orioles fans received a new hero who would lead them to an ALCS appearance.

Unfortunately for Bedard, he’s at the center of our grief.

Brighter Times Ahead

The purpose of this article is to remind everyone to enjoy the success the Mariners are having this year. Do not take any of this for granted. While this team has caused some frustration, it’s nothing in comparison to what we’ve experienced for the past 17 years.

The Mariners are a competent organization now, which is something we haven’t been able to say for a really long time.

As the title of this article indicates, this is just the first part of a series that I’ll be doing about the playoff drought. It won’t all be negative. Up next: the 10 best Mariners since 2001.

Next: A Pathetic Attempt to Bring Blake Snell to the Mariners

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