Ranking the Best Third Baseman in Mariners History

Mariners #1 Third Baseman: Kyle Seager – 34.8 fWAR

Was there really any question about this one? Well, okay, maybe there was. If you thought that I was going to put Beltre here because he clearly had the better career. Or Edgar, because, you know… it’s Edgar. In reality, it’s Kyle Seager who dons the cap as the greatest third baseman in the history of the Mariners.

It’s odd because Seager just retired and he debuted the same year as Mike Trout, who it seems like is smack in the middle of his career. We did get a great decade from Seager though. Clutch hits, great defense, home runs, and a fight against the shift during the second half of his career.

According to Fangraphs, Seager had just three negative marks in his career, excluding his rookie season. He put up a negative offensive number in 2018 and 2021, and a negative defensive number in 2020. He never had a negative fWAR season though, and his two worst seasons were a 1.5 in both 2020 and 2018.

Throw 2020 out, since it should actually be a 4.1 when you add the short-season multiplier to it. Seager never had a monster year either, with his max fWAR coming in both 2014 and 2016, when he had a 5.2. It was nice to have though. You were always gonna get just below all-star results from Seager. He might fall a bit short, and he might push for the All-Star game.

He retired with a total of 34.8 fWAR, good for 7th All-Time on the Mariners. We were lucky to have Seager, and he is well-deserving of the title of best third baseman to ever play the hot corner for the Seattle Mariners.

Stay tuned for the rest of the positional rankings throughout the history of the Mariners, and make sure to take some time to go back and read the ones that were already done. Go Mariners!