6 Mariners who left Seattle for the eventual World Series winner

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These former M’s went on to win a ring after starting the season in Seattle.

It’s a common theme amongst Mariners fans to note a players’ success after their departure from Seattle, or claim that the Emerald City is where playing careers die. Some fine examples of the former come in the form of players such as Chris Taylor, Justin Smoak, and Adrián Beltré, while the Seattle tenures of Chone Figgins, Érik Bédard, and Drew Smyly, amongst others, support the latter.

How immediate is the success of some of the players that leave Seattle, you may ask? It depends on what you define as ‘success.’ Of course, there is individual accomplishment, and that’s all fine and dandy, but most players devote their time to baseball for one common goal: to win the World Series. That’s what we’ll be looking at today.

In order to make this list, a player must have started his season with the Mariners and ended it with the team that eventually won the Fall Classic. That excludes any players who landed in their championship destination prior to the season’s start. We’re also going to go by one degree of separation, which means the player must have been traded or waived by the Mariners at some point during the season.

In other words, the Mariners must have had some sort of say in where the player wound up. We’ve found six players that fit this criteria in the 42 years the M’s have existed, all of whom are fairly spread out.

So, without further ado, let’s get into it.

INF TODD CRUZ – 1983 BALTIMORE ORIOLES

Todd Cruz began his MLB career a year after the Mariners joined the league, and by the time he found his way to Seattle, he had already been with four other clubs. The journeyman played all over the infield, and while he carried a dreadful .230/.246/.376 slash line in 1982, he was able to stick in the Emerald City for the following season.

His offensive numbers worsened, but the Orioles took a chance and purchased him from the Mariners on June 30, 1983. Cruz was worth -0.4 bWAR since his move to Baltimore; however, his defensive flexibility proved valuable to the team as they carried him on their ALCS and World Series rosters. The Orioles went on to defeat the Phillies four games to one to win their third and most recent championship to date.

Cruz wound up playing another 95 games for the Orioles before being released in the spring of 1985. He never played another inning in Major League Baseball, but walked away from the game with a ring on his finger.

6 OCT 1995: SEATTLE MARINERS SHORTSTOP LUIS SOJO (LEFT) CELEBRATES AFTER TAGGING OUT NEW YORK YANKEE RUNNER RANDY VELARDE ON A THROW FROM RIGHT FIELDER GERALD WILLIAMS DURING THE AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFF GAME AT THE KINGDOME IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. Mandat /

INF LUIS SOJO – 1996 NEW YORK YANKEES

Luis Sojo was one of the unsung heroes of the historic 1995 Mariners team, slashing .289/.335/.416 with seven home runs and 39 RBIs while playing several positions in both the outfield and infield that year. But a rough ’96 campaign in which he posted an abysmal .244 on-base clip landed him on the waiver wire, where he was picked up by the team he helped break the hearts of the year prior: the New York Yankees.

While his numbers didn’t improve much for the remainder of the regular season, Sojo remained on the team’s postseason roster and contributed to their World Series victory over the Braves with a 3-for-5 performance in the series. Sojo went on to post his best offensive season in 1997, win three more championships with New York in ’98, ’99, and 2000, and appear in another Fall Classic in New York’s eventual loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001.

BOSTON – OCTOBER 17: Mike Myers #36 of the Boston Red Sox pitches against the New York Yankees during game four of the American League Championship Series on October 17, 2004 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox won 6-4. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /

LHP MIKE MYERS – 2004 BOSTON RED SOX

If you don’t remember Mike Myers’ time in Seattle, don’t worry—hardly anyone does. The southpaw reliever appeared in just 27.2 innings after signing with the M’s in January 2004 before being waived and subsequently claimed by the Red Sox the following August.

Myers had a rough go of it in his limited innings, averaging five-and-a-half walks per nine innings with an ERA of 4.88. The walks went down once he got to Boston and the ERA was lowered by over half a point, but he was far from a key cog to their bullpen.

However, the Red Sox carried Myers into the postseason, where he appeared in five games across the ALDS and ALCS in which he allowed three runs on five hits in 2.2 innings pitched. Myers was present for the World Series but did not make an appearance against the Cardinals as his team put an end to the Curse of the Bambino at Busch Memorial Stadium.

CLEVELAND, OH – NOVEMBER 02: Mike Montgomery #38 of the Chicago Cubs celebrates after defeating the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in Game Seven of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on November 2, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

LHP MIKE MONTGOMERY – 2016 CHICAGO CUBS

Mike Myers isn’t the only former Mariners left-handed reliever to have been a part of a curse-breaking championship run. On July 20, 2016, Seattle dealt away lefty Mike Montgomery to the eventual champion Cubs for designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach and right-handed pitcher Paul Blackburn.

The deal ultimately worked out for both teams, as Vogelbach earned All-Star honors in 2019 and Montgomery famously induced the final out of an incredible Game 7 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series to end the Cubs’ 108-year championship drought.

Montgomery immediately became a cult hero in the city of Chicago and further etched out an important role in the Cubs’ success in 2017 and ’18, but a disappointing 2019 season led to his exit from the team and a return to the organization that drafted him in the Kansas City Royals.

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 30: Roenis Elias #29 of the Washington Nationals celebrates during the game against the Miami Marlins at Nationals Park on August 30, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

LHP ROENIS ELÍAS & RHP HUNTER STRICKLAND – 2019 WASHINGTON NATIONALS

The most recent names on the list, Roenis Elías and Hunter Strickland were traded by the Mariners to the eventual champion Nationals at last year’s trade deadline for pitchers Aaron Fletcher, Taylor Guilbeau, and Elvis Alvarado.

Elías was one of the lone bright spots in a Seattle bullpen that had been decimated by trades the past offseason and injuries throughout the regular season, but wasn’t good enough to the point that made his price tag too rich for other teams. Therefore, he was quite the attractive piece to those that inquired about his services. Strickland, on the other hand, appeared in just four games for the Mariners after signing with them in the offseason; he suffered a Grade 2 lat muscle strain early in the season and didn’t return until the week he was traded to Washington.

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Ironically, of the two, Strickland was the only one to appear in a postseason game for the Nationals. Elías’ season came to an abrupt end after straining his hamstring in early September. Neither he nor Strickland appeared in the World Series for the Nats, but did come away with World Series rings after starting the season with a rebuilding Mariners team.

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