Seattle Mariners History, Designated Hitters: Bocthe, Edgar, Nelly,

A look at the designated hitter position for the Seattle Mariners since the beginning of the franchise in 1977.

The Mariners did not have a full-time designated hitter in their inaugural season. Juan Bernhardt, Steve Braun, Dave Collins, and Leroy Stanton split time at DH. Bernhardt was with the Mariners for two seasons before being traded to the Chicago White Sox. In 1978 he had to play in Triple-A well as with the Mariners. He played first and third base that season after only being a DH in 1977. The Mariners picked him up from the New York Yankees in the expansion draft.

Braun played mostly in left field though he DH’d for 31 games. He was a solid defender but had only five home runs. The Mariners traded Braun to Kansas City in June 1978.

Collins played in left field just like Braun. He didn’t do well hitting in his only season with the Mariners; however, he had 25 stolen bases. The Mariners traded Collins to the Cincinnati Reds after 1977. He played 13 more seasons in the Major Leagues, hitting over .300 three times. In 1980, he had 79 stolen bases for the Reds. Sounds like someone the Mariners should have kept.

Stanton spent most of 1977 playing in right field though he did DH 32 times. It was his best season in the Major Leagues. He had 27 home runs and 90 RBIs. In 1978 he spent more time at DH being in 60 games. In 1979, he went to play ball in Japan.

Bruce Bochte, who the Mariners signed as a free agent before 1978, played first base most of his time in a Mariner uniform. He was with the Mariners for six years, however, DH’ing 42 times in 1978. For the remainder of his tenure in Seattle, he DH’d just 22 times. His best season in a Mariner uniform was 1979 where he hit .318 with 16 home runs and 100 RBIs.

The Mariners signed veteran outfielder/DH Willie Horton as a free agent before the 1979 season. He had his best years with the Detroit Tigers; however, had a good season in 1979, hitting .279 with 29 home runs and 106 RBIs. In 1980, he played in only 94 games, hitting only .221 with 8 home runs and 36 RBIs. After that season, he was involved in a ten-player trade between the Mariners and the Texas Rangers.

Richie Zisk, who the Mariners picked up from the Texas Rangers in the aforementioned ten-player trade, was the primary DH in 1981, starting 93 times. He was the DH in 1982 and ’83 as well. Major League Baseball had a strike in 1981, so Zisk played in only 94 games with 16 home runs and 43 RBIs while batting .311.

Before the 1983 season, the Mariners acquired first baseman and designated hitter Ken Phelps from the Montreal Expos. He was with the Mariners from 1983 until the trading deadline in 1988. He had some good years with the Mariners, hitting over 20 home runs a season.

Phelps’ best year for the Mariners was 1987 when he hit .259 with 27 home runs and 68 RBIs. He was having a good season when the Mariners traded him to the Yankees. Phelps was most famous being traded for Jay Buhner.

Before the 1984 season, the Mariners acquired Gorman Thomas. He played in left field in 1984 for 35 games. He missed the rest of the season because of rotator cuff surgery. In 1985, he played the whole season as the DH for the Mariners. He only hit .215 but notched 32 home runs and 87 RBIs.

He began 1986 as the Mariners DH; however, he struggled at the plate so they released him on June 25, 1986. In July, he was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers where he had his best years. The Brewers released him after the season so it was the end of his career. Phelps was the primary DH after Thomas was released, though Alvin Davis DH’d some as well.

On June 1, 1988, the Mariners acquired Steve Balboni from the Kansas City Royals. He shared the DH role with Phelps until he was traded to the Yankees, then Balboni became the regular DH for the rest of the year. He hit 21 home runs and drove in 61 runs along with a .251 batting average in 96 games. He was DH in 56 games while at first base in 40.

The Mariners signed veteran outfielder Jeffrey Leonard before the 1989 season. He played most of his time at DH during the season though he did play 26 games in left field. In 1990, though, he played most of his time in left field. He had a better year at the plate for the Mariners in 1989 playing DH. He hit .254 with 24 home runs and 93 RBIs that year.

Alvin Davis, a.k.a. Mr. Mariner, who played most of his time in a Mariner uniform at first base, played most of his time at DH in 1990 and 1991 – his last two years in Seattle. In 1990, he hit .283 with 17 home runs and 68 RBIs. In 1991, his average dipped to .221 but had 12 home runs and 69 RBIs. He signed the next season his last in the major leagues with the California Angels.

In 1992, the Mariners had no regular designated hitter. Tino Martinez and Pete O’Brien split time at first base, but also shared DH duty along with Kevin Mitchell, who played left field most of the year. While serving as the team’s full-time third baseman, Edgar Martinez also put in 28 games at DH.

In 1993, Edgar tore his hamstring in an exhibition game in Vancouver, British Columbia before the season began, so he ended up playing in only 42 games, including 16 at third base and 24 at DH. Edgar pinch-hit a couple of times as well. Again, Seattle didn’t have any regular designated hitter though O’Brien played 54 games before being released on July 21, 1993.

In 1994, the Mariners again used several different players at designated hitter. Edgar only played 89 games because of his hamstring injury. He played 64 games at third base plus 23 as DH.

Before the magical season of 1995, manager Lou Piniella decided to make Edgar Martinez the full-time DH because of the injuries that limited his time playing third base. Edgar was the DH from 1995 until 2004 when he retired. Piniella’s decision then led to Edgar being voted into the Hall of Fame now.

In 1995, Edgar hit .356, winning the batting title in the American League along with 29 home runs and 113 RBIs. In the American League playoffs, he hit a double in the deciding game against the New York Yankees, driving in Joey Cora and Ken Griffey Jr. to play against the Cleveland Indians for the AL Championship, where they unfortunately lost.

Edgar hit over .300 for seven straight seasons from 1995 through 2001. In all of those seasons except 1999, he drove in over one hundred runs. His best power numbers were in 2000 where he hit .324 with 37 home runs and 145 RBIs. In 2002, Martinez was limited to 97 games because of injuries including having surgery to repair the tendon in his left knee. Also, he had trouble with his eyesight. Though he played full-time in 2003 and 2004, he decided it was time to retire.

Martinez’s career totals were a .312 batting average with 309 home runs and 1261 RBIs. He also hit 514 doubles in his career with a high of 52 in 1995 and 1996.

The first player to be designated hitter in the post-Edgar Martinez era was Raul Ibanez in 2005. He played 101 games at DH with the remaining time in left field. He hit .280 along with 20 home runs and 89 RBIs.

The Seattle Mariners decided to sign veteran outfielder Carl Everett to be their next designated hitter. He didn’t turn out to be a good investment so the Mariners released him on July 26, 2006. The Mariners were not in the playoff chase, ending the season with a record of 78-84 in 4th place of the AL West.

While releasing Everett, the Mariners had acquired Ben Broussard from the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Shin-Soo Choo. He was the Mariners DH the rest of 2006, hitting .238 with 8 home runs and 17 RBI. He was with Seattle in 2007 as well but played first base, left, and right field.

On December 18, 2006, the Mariners traded outfielder Chris Snelling to the Washington Nationals for veteran infielder Jose Vidro who became the everyday DH for the team. He had a solid season hitting .314 with six home runs and 59 RBI.

The following year 2008 he began the season as the Mariners designated hitter but didn’t have a good season, hitting .234 with seven home runs and 45 RBI in 85 games. Seattle released Vidro on August 13, 2008. The Mariners had a terrible season in 2008, finishing with a record of 61-101. Both general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren were fired during the season. The Mariners used several other players at DH with little success.

Mariner’s all-time great Ken Griffey Jr.returned to the fold before the 2009 season in which he spent most of the time as the DH at the age of 39. He didn’t have a great batting average (.214) but did hit 19 home runs and 57 RBI.  In 2010 he started out the season with the Mariners but retired on June 2, 2010. He was hitting .184 with no home runs and only seven RBI.

The Mariners used several different players in 2010 at DH besides Griffey Jr. It was another bad season for the Mariners finishing with a record of 61-101. Russell Branyan, who played first base in 2009 for the Mariners, split his time between first base and DH in 2010, before being traded to the Cleveland Indians on June 26, 2010. The Mariners used several different players the rest of the season.

After a bad season in 2010, the Mariners decided to sign veteran outfielder/DH Jack Cust who had played for the Oakland Athletics. He had three solid seasons 2007 thru 2009 where he hit 26, 33 and 25 home runs while driving at least 70 RBI. However, in 2010 his numbers went down to 13 home runs and 52 RBI.

The Mariners were hoping his numbers would rise again in 2011 but actually dropped off a lot where he had only 3 home runs and 23 RBI in 67 games. Seattle released Cust on July 29, 2011.

Before 2012 the Mariners made what was supposed to be a big trade of two young players with the acquisition of catcher Jesus Montero from the New York Yankees for right-handed pitcher Michael Pineda. Montero hit .328 in limited time in 2011 for the Yankees with 4 home runs and 12 home runs.

In his rookie year with the Mariners, Pineda had a record of 9-10 with an era of 3.74 with 173 K’s in 170 innings.  In 2012 Montero had a solid season hitting .260 with 15 home runs and 62 RBI.

Another catcher John Jaso, who the Mariners had acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays before 2012, shared the backup role with Montero behind starting catcher Miguel Olivo. He had a solid season hitting .276 with 10 home runs and 50 RBIs in a limited role. The Mariners traded Jaso to the Oakland A’s on January 16, 2013, in a three-team trade. The Mariners acquired Mike Morse for the second time from the Washington Nationals.

The Mariners decided to go for another veteran DH in Kendrys Morales in a trade with the Los Angeles Angels before the 2013 season for starting pitcher Jason Vargas. Morales ended up hitting .277  with 23 home runs and 80 RBIs.

At the end of the season, Morales became a free agent. The Mariners decided not to match Morales asking price so he didn’t sign a free agent contract until June 8, 2014, with the Minnesota Twins.

The  Mariners decided to sign Corey Hart a veteran outfielder who had some good seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, however, he had come off knee injuries so the Mariners decided to make him the DH. He was the DH until he was hurt trying to steal second base on May 18 where he hurt his hamstring. He did play additional games with the Mariners but was not very productive.

They used several different players in the role. However, they wanted someone to be the full-time DH once again, so they decided to trade for Kendrys Morales back from the Minnesota Twins for reliever Stephen Pryor on July 24, 2014.

Morales didn’t work out for the Mariners, hitting .207 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. The Mariners once again missed the playoffs. Morales became a free agent once again playing two years with the Kansas City Royals than the last two with the Toronto Blue Jays where he has hit over twenty home runs in each season.

On December 4, 2014, the Mariners signed Nelson Cruz. During the 2015 Cruz played almost half of his games at DH with the remaining in right field. The Mariners used several other players at DH when Cruz was in right field.

In 2016, Nelson Cruz appearances at DH increased to 107 while appearing 48 times in right field. In his last two years, he became full-time DH. He became a free agent after the 2018 season. The Mariners have decided to go another direction not only at DH but trading players like Mike Zunino, Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, and Jean Segura.

The four years Nelson Cruz played for the Seattle Mariners, he averaged .284 had 163 home runs and 414 RBIs.

During the off-season, Seattle acquired Edwin Encarnacion from the Cleveland Indians. They sent the Indians Carlos Santana, who they had acquired in the trade from the Philadelphia for Jean Segura. He likely will share DH with outfielder Jay Bruce they acquired in the Robinson Cano trade from the New York Mets and Daniel Vogelbach.

All three will play some first base as well. Bruce will spend time in the outfield as well. Ryon Healy who played first base last year may have started 2019 in AAA Tacoma but Kyle Seager injured his left hand and he will be gone likely through April so Healy will start at third base.

It is hard to know after 2019 who the designated hitter will be, but if Vogelbach can hit major league pitching, he will likely spend a lot of time at the spot and Healy could be there as well.

It will surprise no one if Edwin Encarnacion is traded during the season if he is doing really well and the same goes for Jay Bruce.

So the question is: will the Mariners have a designated hitter in the future who will hit like either Edgar Martinez or Nelson Cruz? Stay tuned.