All-time Mariners' outfield of best players who got away

CF - Adam Jones - (2/8/2008) Adam Jones, George Sherrill, Tony Butler, Chris Tillman, and Kameron Mickolio to the Baltimore Orioles for SP Erik Bedard.

Ah, yes. You know the infamous Adam Jones trade would be mentioned at some point. Jones easily gets my nod here starting at CF, in what could have been a cornerstone player in the organization for years to come, had we not succumbed to the notion that Erik Bedard would be the secret ingredient to bringing playoff baseball back to Seattle. Although Bedard put up a respectable couple of years in Baltimore before the trade, no one can argue that his combined 3.2 WAR from 2009-2011 was worth trading Adam Jones.

Jones, by the way, would flourish in Baltimore. He went on to be a 5-time All-Star, 4-time Gold Glove Award winner, and even finished 6th in MVP voting in 2012. It'd be one thing if it were a 1-for-1 player swap, but we even wound up giving Baltimore 4 additional players in the deal. Most notably, Relief Pitcher George Sherrill and SP Chris Tillman. Both were voted into an All-Star game later in their careers.

With all that being said, unfortunately, having Adam Jones in a Mariners uniform for the rest of his career can only be done in our dreams. With a combined WAR of 44.6 given to the Orioles just between Jones, Sherrill, and Tillman, we can undoubtedly agree that Jack Z whiffed on this deal. This trade, among others previously mentioned, can't be changed, but we can at least add him to our all-time lineup of former players in the Mariners' organization who thrived elsewhere.