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

With Spring Training underway and a lot of new names on the team, it's a good time to think about the players who didn't just leave this offseason, but in the past as well. WEe already went through and looked at the best players to have played on the Mariners in the infield that ended up leaving, and now it's time to move onto part 2.

This lineup is comprised of outfielders and the utility spot which the Mariners had at control of at one point in time. Players that either played for the Mariners, or who just spent time in their Minor League system. All players who the Front Office let go of in one way or another that we wonder what could have happened had they stayed in the PNW.

LF - Tyler O'Neill - (7/21/2017) OF Tyler O'Neill to St. Louis for SP Marco Gonzalez.

We love to see 1-for-1 player swaps, and this one honestly wasn't too bad of a trade for either side. Would you take Tyler O'Neill over Marco Gonzalez? I think you would at this point. But, Marco filled a need for us at the time on the pitching staff and even was our "Ace" for a couple of those years. Not to mention having his presence and personality in the clubhouse was a big plus. O'Neill has put up a 10.0 WAR over 6 seasons in St. Louis, with the majority of that coming from his 6.1 WAR season in 2021. This was also the only year he played in over 100 games.

He is still young at 28 years old, and heading into a new situation in Boston could help revive his career. We know he has the potential to be a good player in this league, having put up a .281 BA along with 34 HRs in 2021, but only time will tell.

With the Mariners receiving Marco Gonzalez in return for O'Neill, I am not overly disappointed in the deal. Would he be nice to have still? Sure. However, this trade ultimately filled a major need for the M's at the time. If we are talking for the 2024 season, though, I would hands down take O'Neill over Marco and his flaming 89mph fastball. O'Neill hasn't been an All-Star at this point in his career, but having him certainly would have been good for this team, hence why the Mariners were rumored to have been interested in trading back for him this offseason before he was shipped out to Boston.

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.

UT - Chris Taylor - (6/19/2016) Utility-Man Chris Taylor to the Dodgers for SP Zach Lee.

Although Chris Taylor has never been anything crazy special in the MLB, he was able to help the Dodgers make multiple playoff pushes and even was an All-Star in 2021. At the time of the trade, I was not thinking too much about it as the pitching was certainly a need at the time. Unfortunately for the M's, though, Zach Lee would never play a game for them.

Lee has only appeared in 4 games in his MLB career, whereas Taylor keeps doing his thing year after year in L.A. As a player who can pretty much play anywhere on the diamond, Taylor is a really valuable piece, especially for contending teams. A Dylan Moore on steroids (not literally). Knowing Jerry Dipoto as much as we do now, it is somewhat surprising that he made this trade as he seems to love stockpiling versatile utility players as much as he can.

Again, this is no Ortiz, Varitek, or Adam Jones trade. But, Chris Taylor certainly would have been an upgrade over Dylan Moore these past few seasons, even though I could watch Moore's Grand Slam vs. Houston 100 times a day. Stay tuned for the next entry in the series when we move on to the pitching staff.