Ranking the Best Designated Hitters in Seattle Mariners History

This is it. The last of the hitters. We’ve gone all the way around the field, checking out the best of every position in the history of the Seattle Mariners. Some positions actually had a real discussion about who it was that was deserving of the top spot. Others, it was obvious.

For Designated Hitter… well, it’s pretty obvious as well. Can you really choose anyone either than the Greatest to not just do it for the Mariners, but the greatest Designated Hitter of all time?

Once you get past the two that are likely on the top of everyone’s mind, the pickings get a lot slimmer at DH. There just haven’t been great ones outside of those two. Part of it comes from a difficulty in breaking down who’s been there each year, since a lot of players have done it while splitting time with other spots around the field.

The other is, well, that the Mariners have just had a lot of not-great hitters throughout the years. It makes it hard to find a good DH when you’re constantly rotating through the position. So I’m not even gonna talk about the guys that barely missed making it into the top five. There aren’t enough, and when you have to start listing off guys with less than a 1.0 fWAR, it just isn’t that fun.

So here we go. At number 5, we look at one of the recent big boys/mashers that the Mariners have had who left only a few years ago.

Mariners #4 DH: Richie Zisk – 4.0 fWAR

I have no idea if anyone called him that, but it sounds like a good nickname, so I went with it. Richie Zisk came to the Mariners in December of 1980 in a massive trade with the Rangers. The Mariners received Richie Zisk, Steve Finch, Brian Allard, Rick Auerbach, Ken Clay, and Jerry Don Gleaton in exchange for Larry Cox, Rick Honeycutt, Willie Horton, Mario Mendoza, and Leon Roberts.

Zisk has been a solid hitter throughout his career, and would finish out his career with the Mariners in the same fashion. For the first two years, at least. In 1981, he would hit .311/.366/.485 with a 144 WRC+ and 16 HR. If he could’ve played the entire season, he would’ve ended up with a great year, but was limited to just 94 games.

It’s why his fWAR from 1981 and 1982 are so close. He would play 131 games the next year, hitting .292/.354/.477 with a 124 WRC+, better isolated power, and 21 HR. He had a 2.1 in 1981 and a 2.0 in 1982. 1983 would be his final season in the bigs, and he just didn’t have it anymore. Those first two seasons were quite good though, and were enough to get him to 4th on the list.

Mariners #3 DH: Ken Phelps – 9.8 fWAR

There are no pictures of Phelps for some reason, so here’s Jerry Stiller. This makes sense, because when you find something in life that can make you laugh, and you get to pair it with a bit of misfortune for the New York Yankees, you know that you’ve found a good combination. It’s why I always have loved the scene from Seinfeld when George’s dad berates Steinbrenner for trading away Buhner. It’s gold.

The player that the Mariners traded away, Ken Phelps, is actually #3 when it comes to the greatest Mariners DH of all time. He spent five and a half years in Seattle, and four of those were pretty good years. He ended up with seasons of 2.1, 2.1, 2.7, and 2.2 fWAR during his time with the Mariners, and was having his best season at the plate when the Mariners traded him away.

It’s one of the rare occurrences when the Mariners made a trade and it actually worked out quite well for them, at least pre Trader Jerry.

In that 1988 season, Phelps had a WRC+ of 170 through 72 games. 14 HR and a slash line of .284/.434/.547 can do that for you. That walk rate is insanely impressive, sitting at 20.9%. It was probably the best part of his game, as he had around an 18.5-19% BB rate from 1984-1988 with the Mariners.

It would’ve been his best fWAR season if he stayed with the team and continued to produce at that level. Instead, his best season falls the year before in 1987. He went .259/.410/.548 with a 2.7 fWAR, knocking a career-high 27 HR.

Although he finished 88 strong with the Yankees, he never did much after that. Buhner would have a 22.4 fWAR after being traded, while Phelps would have a lowly mark of 0.0. He was good while he was on the Mariners though, and did enough to come in at #3 behind The Boomstick.

Mariners #2 DH: Nelson Cruz – 15.7 fWAR

The Mariners didn’t have Nelson Cruz for very long, but he re-invented himself while he was with the team, and assuaged most fears and worries of PED use while in Seattle. When he got to the team, he had marks on his track record from the recent suspension, and there was a definite worry that the team could either be wasting money on someone who wasn’t going to be able to hit without PEDs, or was going to get caught using them again.

Luckily for everyone involved, Nelson Cruz did neither of those things. What he did was give the Mariners one of their best 4-year runs by a straight power hitter in team history.

5.0, 4.4, 3.8, 2.5. Those first three years with the truly special ones, and Cruz was a monster at the plate. He would average .292/.368/.557 with 26 2B, 42 HR, 92 R, and 106 RBI over those three years. Power numbers matched with an average like that are hard to come by, and it made every single plate appearance of his an exciting one to watch during his time in Seattle.

The Mariners let him walk after thinking that his numbers were declining after a disappointing (compared to the prior three years) 2018. He would go to Minnesota and hit .308/.394/.626 with 57 HR in just 173 games (remember, 2020 was short) showing that he still had it. It would’ve been a lot of fun to have him as the DH in 19 and 20, but the four years we had him were a joy on their own.

It cements him as the second-best DH the team has ever had, and he’s in a tier of his own at that spot. It’s unlikely that anyone will ever catch number one, and he’s in a completely different stratosphere of tiers. One that starts with H.O.F.

Mariners #1 DH: Edgar Martinez – 65.3 fWAR

Out of every single one of these, this is the one that was clear and away the most obvious. Yeah, there’s Griffey and A-Rod. Even Ichiro. But it’s Edgar Martinez. You could argue he’s the greatest Mariners player of all-time. There’s no argument at all here at DH.

Nelson Cruz was pretty darn good in his time with the Mariners. He had a 13.2 fWAR over that first three-year stretch. However, Edgar had a run that was much better. Check out these numbers.

• 1990 – 5.5
• 1991 – 5.7
• 1992 – 6.0
• 1993 – 0.2
• 1994 – 3.0
• 1995 – 7.0
• 1996 – 5.9
• 1997 – 6.1
• 1998 – 5.5
• 1999 – 5.3
• 2000 – 5.3
• 2001 – 4.7

He was hurt in 93, and the lockout happened in 94. Outside of those years, look at the amazing consistency by Edgar. The dude hit and hit and hit, and then he hit some more. Shoot, from 1995-2000, Edgar would hit .332/.449/.579, averaging 42 2B and 29 HR, with 103 R and 110 RBI, with an OPS+ of 164. His worst combined season numbers would be .322/.423/.554, with 31 2B and 24 HR, along with 86 R and 86 RBI. Imagine that being your worst combined numbers in a six-year stretch.

Edgar is the GOAT at DH, and to me, it’s not that close. Long live Edgar.