A Mariners icon just got honored in a totally unexpected way by ESPN

Both the Mariners and MLB free agency have been around for 50 years, and it's fair to say the two sides are not a match made in heaven. The Mariners have tried a fair number of times to score hits in free agency, but mostly have misses to show for it.

But, hey, they'll always have Jamie Moyer.

We'll be honest that the thought wouldn't have occurred to us if not for Bradford Doolittle of ESPN. He crunched the numbers on the best and worst free-agent signings of all-time, and one result was Moyer's two-year, $3.7 million deal with Seattle from 1996 landing at No. 15 on the list.

Not bad! In fact, it's downright eye-popping considering that the Moyer signing somehow ranks above all-timers like Max Scherzer to the Nationals, Reggie Jackson to the Yankees and, yes, even Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers.

Did the Jamie Moyer signing really deserve to get GOATed by ESPN?

With respect to Doolittle, it is fair to question whether he went about making his rankings in the best way. Rather than strictly considering the life of the original contract, he considered the totality of each player's continuous time with the organization in question.

To wit, Moyer's initial two-year agreement with Seattle opened a door that he didn't walk out of again until 2006, when the Mariners traded him to the Phillies. He had to sign multiple contracts on top of that first one in order to stay in Seattle for a decade.

Even so, who doesn't love an opportunity to appreciate Moyer?

He's one of the all-time real ones just in general, as he played 25 years in the majors and didn't throw his last pitch until he was 191 days past his 49th birthday. And that was all while he never had more than lukewarm heat, as the Mariners famously immortalized in 2002.

As Mariners pitchers go, Moyer is firmly in the inner circle. His 34.2 rWAR ranks third all-time among Seattle pitchers behind only Randy Johnson and Félix Hernández, whose company he keeps in the Mariners Hall of Fame.

In fact, you might be surprised how many teams haven't had a trio like that since the Mariners came into the league in 1977. They're one of only eight teams with as many as three 30-rWAR pitchers for the last 50 seasons, with only five able to claim greater representation on that list.

So even if Moyer as an all-time great signing is kind of a hard sell, we don't mind buying it. It may have been just a two-year deal at the beginning, but it proved to be the start of a beautiful friendship.