Ranking the Best Left Fielders in Seattle Mariners History

When we get to Mariners Left Fielders is when it starts to get confusing. Outfielders move around a lot, and it can be tough to nail them down to a specific position. Still, it’s more fun to look at the best by position than it is by labeling it just best outfielders. Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed doing this is to remember some of the lesser-known players. If I did just “outfield” you’d run into only the usual suspects, and there wouldn’t really be surprises on the list.

Again, this isn’t the best player to suit up and play at a position. Rickey Henderson played left for the Mariners, but that doesn’t mean he was the best to do it because we are looking for the best-left fielders WHILE on the Mariners.

There are some fun ones to check in on before we get to the top 5. The first two that I wanna talk to may not be in the top 10 of Mariners Left Fielders, but they definitely need to be mentioned. Glenallen Hill (0.9 fWAR) played with the Mariners for just 74 games, but his stance was an all-timer. I can’t find any videos with him on the team, but he was a joy to watch.

Then, there is Griffey Sr. He finished his career with the Mariners, playing in Seattle for two years. He was still decent as a 40/41-year-old, but my favorite highlight of him is the one where we got to see Jr’s playfulness on full display.

Then we get to the guys who just missed out on the list. There are a lot of players who ended up in the 1.5-1.9 range, so I picked out a couple that I wanted to talk about. There’s Jose Cruz (1.5 fWAR) who played just 49 games for the Mariners. This seems like one of the larger misses, or at least missed opportunities, by the Mariners from the 90s.

They had drafted him just two years prior, and after a hot start to his rookie season, they would trade him to the Blue Jays for Paul Spoljaric (0.4 fWAR) and Mike Timlin (2.1 fWAR). Spoljaric wouldn’t ever do much, and Timlin would leave in free agency after 1998. Cruz would go on to a lengthy career, playing another decade and amassing 17.6 fWAR after leaving the Mariners. He also had a 30/30 season in 2001, which I completely forgot.

Nori Aoki (1.6 fWAR) came to the Mariners in 2016, a late entrant to MLB after playing overseas. He has a handful of strong seasons under his belt and would turn in another in his lone season with the Mariners. I remember hoping that they would keep him around for another year, as he was an okay defender with a decent hit tool. He left, and the team played Ben Gamel in 2017 in LF, so it worked out alright.

Lastly, it’s Stan Javier (2.7 fWAR). He was only here for 2 seasons and played just 194 games, but he was good while he was here. Especially during the magical 2001 season. He amassed a 2.6 fWAR that year, the 11th best mark ever by a Mariners left fielder. At age-37, he had his 3rd best defensive season and his second-highest WRC+ (112) and would call it quits after that and retire from baseball.

Let’s get into it. Here are the top 5 Left Fielders in the history of the Seattle Mariners.

Mariners #5 LF: Tom Paciorek – 7.3 fWAR

I’m dropping Paciorek down to #5. Not just because I played against his nephew in high school and the guy wasn’t the most enjoyable person, but because he had one fantastic season, and was pretty average other than that. Pretty average as an MLB player is still darn impressive, but I’m still moving him down to #5.

That season happened in 1981, his final year with the Mariners. It was easily his best season, and nothing else comes close. He would put together a slash line of .326/.379/.509, all of which would end up as career bests. He also hit 14 HRs, stole 13 SB, and drove in 66 RBI. If not for his 15 HR season the year before, they all would have been career highs as well.

Even more impressive was that he did this in just 104 games. It was actually one of the best offensive seasons we’ve ever seen from a Mariners player if you look at it through the window of WRC+ or OPS+. He had a 152 WRC+ and a 151 OPS+, good for the 19th best mark in team history, regardless of position. In fact, there are only six men above him at all on the list, which is an incredibly impressive feat.

It sounds like an incredible season, and it was. Unfortunately, it was his last one with the team. I knock him down a bit for having such an outlier, but I can only imagine how fun it would be to see a guy have a season like that out of nowhere. Cough Jake Fraley Cough.

The Mariners would trade him away for a trio of players from the White Sox. Jim Essian had a decent single season at catcher for the Mariners, Rod Allen never did anything, and Todd Cruz was unable to accomplish much either. Paciorek would have two good seasons with the White Sox, and then finish with 4 negative fWAR seasons in a row to end his career.

Mariners #4 LF: Mark McLemore – 6.9 fWAR

Mark McLemore came to the Mariners in 2000 as a 35-year-old utility man. He’s played a lot of LF and 2B, some RF, a bit of SS and 3B, and a dash of CF in his career. He’d had two seasons in 14 years of higher than 90 WRC+, still had solid defense, and a bit of speed left in the tank. Well, that’s what it seemed at least.

It turned out that there was a lot more speed left, as he would go on to steal 30-39-18 during his first three years in Seattle. Alongside those 87 steals, he would hit .266/.371/.368 over his first three seasons, with a combined 6.3 fWAR.

The highlight year was 2001 (odd that so many people played well that year), and it was the best offensive season of his career. He would have a 188 WRC+ in both 2001 and 2002 but had 72 more ABs in 2001, so I give that the nod. He set a career-high with 39 SB, drove in 57 RBI (2nd), and had 9 3Bs which was a career-high and good enough to T-10th in all of baseball.

His slash was great as well, going .286/.384/.406, just four and six points shy of being career highs. A large part of his success came from the career-high .344 BABIP, but that’s something you worry about for sustained success from year to year.

McLemore just qualifies for LF as he played 145 games at 2B, 79 at 3B, 74 at SS, and 175 in LF. Also, I think of him as an LF and it’s my list. So you can direct your complaints to the comments if you want him at second base (where he would’ve been number five and kicked off Ackley).

Also, oddly enough, he played for six teams in his MLB career but managed to play for all five teams in the AL West. (Houston wasn’t there then, but you get the point).

Mariners #2 LF: Phil Bradley – 11.9 fWAR

During Bradley’s first two years, he didn’t do much to impress the Mariners. He had 0.0 and 1.0 fWAR his first two years, albeit in just 447 PA combined through 147 games. He played more his second season than he did the first, and showed glimpses of a decent hit tool and speed, but not much else. He hit .301/.373/.363, with just 12 2B and 0 HR, but 21 SB.

Then, out of nowhere, the power showed up. I don’t mean that he just cracked double digits, either. He actually turned in a 20/20 season in 1985, easily his best one during his eight professional seasons. He would hit 26 HR and steal 22 bases, scoring 100 R while driving in 88 (a career high by 19), while slashing .300/.365/.498. It was good enough for a fWAR of 4.8 and a WRC+ of 134, both career highs.

It’s not like he started swinging for the fences, either. His K rate was only 18.1%, which was in line with what it would be throughout his career. That power surge helped turn him into quite the hitter, and he would post a 2.8 fWAR and 3.3 fWAR during the next two seasons with the Mariners.

The Mariners would end up trading him to the Phillies after the 1987 season, and he went to Baltimore after that. If they would’ve kept him around, he easily would’ve cemented his place as the best LF in team history. Instead, that honor goes to a Mariner who everyone loves to yell about.

Mariners #1 LF: Raul Ibanez – 12.3 fWAR

Even though he was on-again-off-again with the Mariners, it feels like Ibanez is beloved by just about all Mariners fans. I can only imagine how nice it would’ve been if the team could’ve kept him around for his entire career. I know things don’t always work out like that, but the Mariners could’ve had 19 seasons from Raul Ibanez if he never left. Could make for a fun “what-if” sometime…

Raul was always at his greatest whenever he was with the Mariners. Well, at least starting with his second stint with the team. Over his first five years in Seattle, he actually had a -0.8 fWAR. He would leave for KC and put up a 5.1 fWAR over three seasons. He then came to Seattle and put together quite the offensive run, with WRC+ marks of 117, 115, 121, 119, and 122. That’s some nice consistency to have.

If not for an abysmal defensive season in 2007, Raul would’ve put up five straight 2.0+ fWAR seasons with the Mariners. His best year came prior in 2006, when he slashed .289/.353/.516, with 33 HR, 103 R, 123 RBI (both career-highs), and 33 2Bs. Raul was just a consistent producer at the plate, as you can tell by the WRC+ numbers. Over that five-year stretch, he hit .291/.354/.477, averaging 23 HR, 98 RBI, 85 R, and 35 2B.

Wouldn’t that be nice to have once again?

Here’s another way to show how consistent he was. If you take his WORST numbers possible, this is what the stat line would’ve looked like during that time frame. I’m taking out 2004 (the first season) because he only played 123 games, so it would skew the numbers and be a bit confusing if I tried increasing them to fit his average games played.

• .280/.351/.436, 20 HR, 89 RBI, 80 R, 32 2B, 115 WRC+

That’s what you get if you take all the WORST numbers. I’d still take that any day for our current outfield. Raul was a lot of fun to have, and fans loved having him on the team. It was even nice having him come back for a bit in 2013, just to see him one last time. OH! The 29 HR sure were nice as well.

Stay tuned for the next list when we move over to Center Field to check out the greatest CF in the history of the Mariners. We all know who #1 is going to be, but there are some other fun entrants on the list.