Ranking the Best Catchers in Mariners Team History

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SEATTLE, UNITED STATES: Amidst a sea of his teammates’ legs, Seattle Mariner catcher Dan Wilson displays the Barry Bonds foul ball he caught while sliding onto the step of the Seattle dugout during third inning play against the San Francisco Giants in Seattle WA, 11 June 1999. Seattle went on to win, 7-3. AFP PHOTO Dan Levine (Photo credit should read DAN LEVINE/AFP via Getty Images) /

Without any baseball actively going on, we’ve all got a bit more time on our hands. Sure, we can argue with Baseball America about their prospect rankings, how they got some right (#1 farm system overall) and some wrong (Kirby not in the top 100). We can also pester MLB Pipeline to get theirs out. You can peruse MLB Trade Rumors all you want… but there just isn’t that much actively going on. So what should Mariners fans do in the meantime?

Well… how about pulling every single season in Mariners history off of Fangraphs, adjusting players so they fit into just one position (or UTIL if they truly were), combining it all together, and taking a look at where players line up WAR wise throughout the history of the Mariners franchise.

Yup, that’s what I went ahead and did. It took a while, but I’m glad I have that document now, as it’s a lot of fun to look at. Especially when you see some random names on there that you’ve completely forgotten about.

So, I’m going to go through and look at the best players at each position based on FanGraphs WAR. I usually use Baseball-Reference, but Fangraphs makes it easier to pull franchise numbers. I’ll also be using WRC+, which stands for Weighted Runs Created, which you can get a solid explanation of from Fangraphs themselves.

I thought about starting with pitchers since they are “1” on the scorecard but moved them to the end so I can save the best for last. We’ll go around the rest of the field in scorecard order, which means we are starting with catchers.

There was a decent fight for 5th, and I thought it was interesting that Omar Narvaez almost made it. Even though he wasn’t in Seattle for very long, he still had a 1.9 fWAR. There are some guys from the olden days, like Bob Kearney, Bob Stinson, and Tom Lampkin, but the Mariners just haven’t had that many good catchers in their history. So let’s jump in and see who takes the #5 spot.

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 28: Kenji Johjima #2 of the Seattle Mariners waits on deck during the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on June 28, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images) /

Mariners Kenji Johjima – 3.7

It seems like forever ago that Kenji Johjima was on the Mariners. It was 2006, and the Mariners had signed him to a 3yr/$16.5m deal. It ended up being a great value, and Johjima would rake his first two seasons on the team.

.289/.327/.442, 279 games. Those were his numbers during the first two seasons. There are a couple of things that I remember about him during his time year. He hardly ever walked and he hardly ever struck out. In fact, he had K% rates of 8.5, 8.0, 8.1 during his first three seasons, striking out at about 45% of league average. His walk rate was also minuscule, with league average being 8.5% and his rate being 3.7%.

He started off as a good defender too, and was actually an overall 2.8 and 2.5 WAR for Fangraphs during those two seasons, with WRC+ numbers of 105 and 101. It seemed like the Mariners had found great catcher. The only question was, for how long into his career could he do it?

He struggled in 2008, but the team would decide to bring him back and Johjima would actually sign a second deal with the Mariners. again, it would be for three years, but this time at $24 million. After a rough 2009 during his age-33 season, Johjima surprised the club by opting out of his final two years, leaving ~$16 million on the table, so that he could return to Japan to finish out his playing career there.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 02: Tom Murphy #2 of the Seattle Mariners looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park on October 02, 2021 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images) /

Mariners Tom Murphy – 4.2

Okay, this caught me off guard. You could’ve given me a lot of guesses, and it would have taken me a long time to get to Tom Murphy. It just shows that having a great season at catcher, and being able to play solid defense (despite not being able to catch throws home from fielders at important moments) can vault you up the WAR leaderboards.

You’ve gotta remember that, even though 2021 was a rough season offensively, Murphy was great in 2019. I don’t think I’m overexaggerating about his 2019 either.

.273/.324/.535 with a 126 WRC+ are great numbers for a catcher. Combine that with the good defense, and you actually had the 6th best fWAR season in team history at 3.2.

The more I think about it, the more I’m fine with the Mariners going into 2022 with Murphy as one of their two catchers alongside Raleigh. Murphy still has good defense, and if he can hit somewhere in between what he did in 2021 and 2019, then I think we will have a good catcher in our squad. I’m not saying he will put up another 3.2 fWAR, but an offensive rating of “0.0” and decent defense would earn him around 2.0 fWAR… and I think we should all be okay with that.

24 APR 1991: SEATTLE MARINERS CATCHER DAVE VALLE MAKES A PLAY DURING THE MARINERS VERSUS CALIFORNIA ANGELS GAME AT ANAHEIM STADIUM IN ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA. MANDATORY CREDIT: STEPHEN DUNN/ALLSPORT USA /

Mariners Dave Valle – 10.8

Yup, the Mariners longtime announcer and broadcaster, in the booth since 1997, is actually one of the best catchers in the team’s history.

He started back in 1984, and played ten years with the Mariners. He was a decent hitter, and finished with a lifetime slash of .235/.311/.371 in his time with the M’s. His best season in the majors was actually his last with the Mariners. In 1993, he hit .258/.354/.395 with 13 HR, 48 R, and 63 RBI, which outside of slugging, were all career highs.

His defense was awesome that year as well, and it earned him a 3.0 WAR. The stat that stands out is how often he nailed runners, catching an incredible 46% that year, well above the league average of 36%.

An underrated catcher, he always provided solid defense, which was the backbone of his ability at the position. He also brought a strong walk rate and low K rate (12.2% K, 8.1% BB) for the position.

Valle seems like a great catcher, just from hearing how he played. Wasn’t flashy, provided good defense with a good arm, and decent enough hitting.

SEATTLE, WA – AUGUST 22: Mike Zunino of the Seattle Mariners walks through the dugout. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images) /

Mariners Mike Zunino – 13.6

This caught me off guard a bit. Then again, it shouldn’t really. Zunino was an incredible defender, putting up some great defensive numbers for the Mariners. He didn’t make many errors, had a good arm, and was a great pitch framer as well. Although he may not have stood out in any particular area, he was strong all around and it made him a great defensive catcher.

The season that everyone always thinks of with Zunino, at least during his time with the Mariners, is the 2017 season. It really seemed like Zunino had put everything together that year, and put high hopes in the minds of Mariners fans that we were going to have one of the better catchers in all of baseball.

.251/.331/.509, 126 WRC+, 4.6 WAR, 25 HR

The K rate was still high, and those who took a look at his BABIP knew that he was due for a regression. At .355, there was little to no chance that he would be able to put together a BABIP that high again, so his average was likely to drop.

It would do just that in 2018, as he fell to a slash line of .201/.259/.410. The Mariners would see him leave after that season, and it seemed to be the right decision until 2021. That 2017 season was special though, and was far and away the best WAR season ever by a Mariners catcher, beating out his own previous team record of 3.8 from 2014. He’s still not the best catcher the Mariners have had, and I think everyone has been waiting for this one.

Dan Wilson of the Seattle Mariners (C) is congratulated by teammates. AFP PHOTO/Lee CELANO (Photo by LEE CELANO / AFP) (Photo credit should read LEE CELANO/AFP via Getty Images) /

Mariners Dan Wilson – 14.2

Of course it’s Dan the Man. There are going to be some obvious ones throughout this series, but I’m glad we got to put Dan Wilson here.

I know people like to point out that he wasn’t great offensively, and never had a WRC+ of 100 or better. He did have four seasons in the mid-90s, as well as an 89. That means that Wilson’s war essentially came from just his defense, which is a strong reminder of how good he was at it.

The stretch that he had from 95-97 was incredible and actually accounts for the 9th, 4th, and 3rd best seasons by a catcher in Mariners history. Add those three up (2.6, 3.5, 3.5) and you get 9.6 of his WAR. You would actually hear about Wilson as one of the best catchers in baseball, in large part to that defense.

Maybe those are just the memories of a 7-9 year old boy, but I’m going to trust them because I want to keep believing it. He would finish with a .262/.309/.382 slash for his career. It sounds and looks a lot better than it was. Nowadays, it would be a really solid line for a catcher. In the 90s, it wasn’t as great but was still acceptable.

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Dan Wilson was a great catcher to have behind the plate for the mid/late 90s and early 2000s. Although the Mariners haven’t had any all-time catchers in their history, they’ve still had some good ones, and Dan the Man leads the way.

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