5 active hitters who dominate the Mariners

Many players have earned the “Mariner killer” title over the years; let’s see who fits the mold right now.

There are just some matchups you find on the schedule that ultimately make you groan. As a Mariners fan, this has been a fairly common theme during their current playoff drought. Even on bad teams, there always seems to be a player or two that just has Seattle’s number.

And while the likes of Vladimir Guerrero, Michael Young, and even Mark Ellis retired, they would be quickly replaced by fresh new villains to bring ruin to the Emerald City. Today, we’ll look at five active hitters that serve as nightmare fuel for the Mariners and their fans across the globe.

This list is presented in no particular order. To qualify, the player must have logged at least 100 at-bats against the Mariners in their career thus far.

Mike Trout is the best player in baseball—maybe ever—and he just so happens to play in the same division as the Seattle Mariners. How lovely.

As one would expect, Trout has destroyed the lowly Mariners over the course of a whopping 670 plate appearances over the last decade, slashing .322/.428/.641 with 41 home runs, 107 RBIs, and a 185 wRC+. At T-Mobile Park, Trout leads all hitters with a 194 wRC+ and 1.109 OPS.

While Tim Anderson‘s 105 at-bats against the Mariners pales in comparison to Trout’s, the damage has been done in a very similar fashion. At the very least, Seattle doesn’t have to see Anderson 19 times a year.

But in the seven games a year they do see Anderson and the White Sox, the 26-year-old shortstop has put on one hell of a show. Out of those 105 ABs, 43 of them have gone for hits; 13 for extra bases. Overall, Anderson has slashed .410/.417/.667 with six home runs, 14 RBIs, and a wRC+ of 191⁠—the best of any hitter versus the Mariners since the turn of the century.

Like Anderson, J.D. Martinez doesn’t have a massive amount of ABs against the Mariners, but he’s brought the pain all the same in his time with the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.

Martinez has crushed 10 dingers and driven in 28 runs on the back of a .349/.413/.597 slash line with a 169 wRC+ versus Seattle. He’s been better at T-Mobile Park than at home, hitting over half of the aforementioned home runs (6) and RBIs (19) when visiting the M’s.

There are several other active hitters that outrank George Springer in the major hitting categories against the Mariners, but it’s hard to justify not putting him on this list given the consistent production he’s had.

The first thing that will stick out are the first inning, leadoff home runs he’s had versus Seattle, of which he’s hit nine. He’s added another 12 dingers on top of that, as well as 55 RBIs, so while his .268/.350/.506 line isn’t all too impressive in comparison to the three other names listed thus far, he’s had a massive impact on the games he’s played in.

This one’s a bit weird because Khris Davis‘ numbers against the Mariners, at first glance, are mediocre. Hitting just .194 against them, it would appear that Seattle has quite the handle on Oakland’s power hitter.

But then you’ll find that Davis ranks third amongst all active hitters in home runs versus the M’s while playing in significantly less games (24 in 68 games) than his peers, such as Albert Pujols (29 in 144 games) and Mike Trout (41 in 155 games). So while you think you may have Davis under wraps, he can strike quickly with a deadly blow to turn a game on its head at any given moment, and the Mariners have certainly seen that firsthand on more than one occasion.

So that’s gonna do it for today’s list, but there are many other hitters that fit this criteria that I couldn’t get to but will do so in the near future. Let us know in the comments below which opposing active hitter you despise the most as a Mariners fan.