The 10 Best Draft Picks the Mariners have ever made in the MLB Draft

I've done a couple of Draft articles recently. Looking from every single first round pick they have made up to the 5 times that they royally screwed up in the draft. Let's go a bit positive though, and look at the good side of the draft.

This ended up being a bit tougher than one would expect. Unless I had a massive brain lapse, trying to search for anything out there that lists collective WAR after being drafted by a player, and relating that back to the team they were drafted by... well, it doesn't make for the easiest thing to search. Just a lot of first round pick information that comes back. Not a lot about the "best" picks.

I was able to piece it together between a few different places, researching and reading through to try and find everyone. If I missed someone (note, this doesn't count international or FA signings or trades), please let me know.

However, I think I was able to find them all. Luckily, a couple of them are super easy, and you can probably guess who they are. For the rest, it's a mix of some darn good players still. Even if they didn't do it as Mariners. It's why I've listed their WAR with the Mariners, and then their career WAR in parenthesis. Here are the ten best draft picks in the history of the Seattle Mariners.

Jason Varitek: 1994: Round 1, Pick 14, 0.0 (24.2) WAR

I mean, I understand what the Mariners were thinking here. They had Dan Wilson. He was a great defensive catcher and a decent enough hitter. Although he didn't break 100 for OPS+ ever, he did have between 90-100 on four different occasions. The Mariners were probably good with that.

So, they looked to a team that needed a catcher in order to get relief help for, what they hoped, would be a bunch of playoff runs. They would send Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe (arguably the worst trade in Mariners history) off to Boston for Heathcliff Slocumb.

I wish they would've traded for Heathcliff the Cat instead.

Slocumb would pitch 1.5 years with the Mariners. A 4.97 ERA across 84 games, with a 1.635 WHIP (sorry, I just threw up a little) during his time in Seattle.

Meanwhile, Varitek would go on to be a fixture in Boston Sports, anchoring two different World Series Champions for the Red Sox. Every single WAR was accumulated there, as Varitek would retire with a .256/.341/.435 slash line and a career 99 OPS+, 24.2 WAR and never had a negative dWAR season behind the plate. Moving on to someone who actually put on a Mariners uniform...

Dave Henderson: 1977: Round 1, Pick 26, 7.7 (27.6) WAR

The Mariners first-ever franchise pick in the draft was Dave "Hendu" Henderson. Younger fans may only know him as the lovable announcer who was in the Mariners booth for a decade. He actually played here for 5.5 seasons and was a good building block for the young and inexperienced team.

With a .257/.317/.433 line, Henderson had a nice mix of power as he would hit 79 HR for the Mariners and 114 2B while swiping 25 bags. An average defender, Henderson would find solid success after leaving the Mariners, both at the plate and in the field.

MVP votes in both 1988 and 1991 for the Athletics would come alongside his only All Star appearance in 1991. It was a great four year stretch that saw him hit .275/.338/.456 with a 125 OPS+ and 84 HR, a big part of Oaklands success at the time. His WAR was stellar, with a combined dWAR of 5.6 and a total WAR of 20.8.

Shoot, that would've been nice for Mariners fans. He definitely still had good memories here, as it's where he ended up as het got back into baseball to call games.

Rest in Peace, Hendu.

Mike Moore: 1981: Round 1, Pick 1, 17.8 (27.9) WAR

This was just a fantastic pick by the Mariners back in 1981. The only other real option at the top was Joe Carter, who was known for his prolific bat and walk-off heroics in the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays.

However, Mike Moore actually had a much better career than Carter. He also had a better career than Ron Darling, who was taken 9th that year. Not just that, but he actually stuck around in Seattle for a while, and holds the current spot of third best first round pick to amass stats for the Mariners.

To go along with that, Moore actually has one of the best statistical pitching seasons in Mariners history by someone not named Big unit or Felix. His 6.3 WAR in 1985 is the 8th-best mark in team history. He followed it up with another good season in 1986 at 4.6 WAR. Check out his combined stats from those two seasons.

1985-86: 3.89 ERA, 71 GS, 513 IP, 25 CG, 1.312 WHIP

Sure, it might not seem that impressive, but all the innings that he ate up and the limited runs he gave up while doing so made for a really strong run from Moore. Especially on a team that just wasn't good, going 141-183 over those two seasons.

The team would'nt re-sign him after the 1988 season, and he would head south to Oakland. It was the start of a nice three year stretch where he started 101 games with a 3.35 ERA and 112 ERA+, while throwing 651 IP. He ended up being a real nice pick by the Mariners, even if he wasn't even the best pitcher that they took that year in the draft.

Tino Martinez: 1988: Round 1, Pick 14, 7.7 (29.0) WAR

The 90's were an odd time for Mariners first baseman. It seemed like we had a lot of pretty good ones, but we could never keep them around. I was a young kid at the time, so maybe my perception was skewed. It did seem like Tino/Sorrento/Segui were a nice trifecta of first baseman though.

My memory served decent, as their stats were good. Nothing special, but if you can get an average of about 2.0 WAR per season from that spot, i'll take it. Especially when you don't need them to be a top 3 player on the team.

The Mariners had a chance for more though if they would've been able to keep Tino around. He shined in 1995, making the All-Star game with a slash line of .293/.369/.551 and an OPS+ of 135. Unfortunately, the Mariners traded him to the evil empire. Making around $4.5M a year there for the next six seasons, he would put up a WAR of 15.2, actually finishing second in the MVP race in 1997 (behind some Kid), and giving the Bronx Bombers a nice piece at first.

Tino was a bit better than the Mariners first baseman while at the Kingdome, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise as the Mariners ended up with John Olerud in 2000 to start his five year run here in Seattle. Would it have been better to have Tino, or did they make the right choice with Sorrento, Segui, and Olerud?

Tino: 96-01: 15.2 WAR. .279/.348/.488
M's: 96-01: 16.2 WAR. .291/.373/.483

Look at that. Sure, it's a bit skewed by Olerud having an 8.9 WAR, but Tino also had an 8.3 WAR stretch over two years in NY. Looking back at it, even though the Mariners lost the trade when they sent him to the Yankees, it ended up working out in the long run for the M's.

Derek Lowe: 1991: Round 8, Pick 214, -0.8 (33.1) WAR

Do you know what the MAriners really could've used during the late 90s and early 2000s while they were making their playoff pushes? The answer is a stud starting pitcher who ate up innings, didn't allow a ton of runs, was incredibly healthy, and actually threw some in the pen at the beginning of his career.

You know, who could've just thrown in the pen instead of Heathcliff Slocumb.

Maybe someone like, I don't know... Derek Lowe?

As part of that Varitek trade from earlier, the Mariners sent Lowe to the Red Sox. Check out these two sets of numbers.

1998-2001: 13 GS, 278 games, 415.1 IP, 3.23 ERA, 1.254 WHIP, 150 ERA+, 85 SV
2002-2010: 300 GS, 1844 IP, 205 IP per season, 3.90 ERA, 1.303 WHIP, 112 ERA+, 137-97 W-L

Oh, and he had a 35.1 WAR over that timeframe as well. How nice would that have been to have? Just a consistent pitcher eating innings, performing admirably as a #3 starter over and over.

But nooo, the Mariners needed a bad relief pitcher. Uggh. Moving on to someone who makes me happy, and not just because we are bald-headed brethren.

Kyle Seager: 2009, Round 3, Pick 82, 36.9 WAR

Okay. Time to get back to being happy and joyful.

The Mariners had long needed a third baseman. It had been a rotating door of has-beens and hopefuls for a long time. We thought it would be solved with Adrian Beltre, but it turned out that Seattle would be the least efficient of his four stops.

The M's easily could've taken Chris Dominguez or Wade Gaynor, two other 3B prospects who went in that same range. instead, they went with the senior out of North Carolina, and boy oh boy was it the right pick.

Kyle Seager would end up being one of the best players to ever put on a Mariners uniform, and he still ended up being underrated in Mariners lore. .251/.321/.442, but it was the first seven years of his career when he really flourished, with a 29.6 WAR and a slash of .263/.332/.447.

Consistency was what made Seager so nice to have in Seattle, seemingly hitting .265 with 25 HR each of those years after his rookie season. A good defender as well, Seager was usually in the Gold Glove conversation although he ended up just winning once in 2014. He ended up retiring a Mariner at the conclusion of the 2021 season, and unfortunately goes down in M's lore as another great player who never got to see the playoffs.

Miss you, Seags.

Mark Langston: 1981: Round 2, Pick 35, 19.2 (50.0) WAR

This was foreshadowed earlier, and makes me realize that the Mariners crushed it that year in the draft. Knowing that you get Mike Moore and then Mark Langston in back-to-back rounds is really impressive. Especially when the guy you drafted later was the better one, and the main reason for the Mariners acquiring one of the most dominate pitchers in the history of baseball via trade.

With Langston, though, the Mariners found another innings eater. This one had good strikeout stuff as well. Langston actually led the American League in strikeouts in three of his first four seasons, tallying 204, 245, and 262. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but is helped when you throw 225, 239.1, and 272 innings over those seasons.

While he was good with the Mariners, he was also quite wild. He would walk 4.3/9, a total of 575 walks across 1197.2 IP between 1984-1989. The best years of his career would come with the California Angels from 1991-93, when he would amass a combined 19.0 WAR, with two seasons above 7.3.

The next six, which were the last six he threw, something changed. He was never below a 4.63 ERA and had a total ERA of 4.99 and a WHIP of 1.496. He still goes down as one of the best players the Mariners have ever drafted, and would be, if not for two of the all-time greats to ever play the game of baseball.

Ken Griffey Jr: 1987, Round 1, Pick 1, 70.6 (83.8) WAR

You may notice that this isn't the last slide. If we were going by greatest Mariners player, most fun player to watch, best swing, or nicest smile, then it would definitely be Griffey. Alas, I've been doing this by career WAR, so here we are.

It's super easy to talk about Griffey. Yet, at the same time, it's tough because you don't want to sound like a broken record. We all know the accolades, the accomplishments, the stats. I want to talk about the more personal part of it this time instead.

I was born in 88. That means that I was getting into baseball around the age of 5 or 6, Griffey mania was in full swing. It made it so fun and easy to become a Mariners fan. The most exciting and electric player in the game was wearing the jersey of the local team, and that's who I got to root for. Luckily, my old man loves baseball, and we got to go to a lot of games even though Seattle was 2 hours away.

I was there when he broke his wrist, and I was there when he came back. We saw plenty of balls leave the yard, incredible catches, and heartbreak as well. I remember chasing Griffey's car down the street at some point waiving and hoping for an autograph (it didn't happen), robbing "homeruns" like Griffey on balls that I would throw over a clothes hanger that we had in our yard. Watching him in the playoffs in 1997 agains the Orioles.

If not for Griffey (and Edgar and Randy), maybe my dad would've pointed me in a different direction for baseball. I'm not a Seahawks fan because my dad didn't like them, so I went a different route. Maybe it wouldn't be my favorite sport, and I would've went with basketball or football or some off the wall sport. Thanks to Griffey, my heart will forever be one that belongs to the Mariners.

Now, with a young son myself, I get to hope and try and instill that same love and feeling for the game into him, only this time it's with Julio Rodriguez.

Alex Rodriguez: 1993: Round 1, Pick 1, 38.1 (117.6) WAR

A-Rod. It's not a stretch to say that when you bring up the most polarizing names ever to don a baseball jersey, that he is up there at the top of the list alongside guys like Bonds, Clemens, and Rose, and it all started in Seattle.

No one in modern history has come into the game and dominated as quickly and at such a young age as A-Rod did. Many players would struggle to put up any of these numbers throughout their entire career, yet this is the line that a 20-year-old Alex Rodriguez put up in 1996 for the Mariners.

.358/.414/.631. 36 HR, 15 SB, 54 2B, 141 R, 123 RBI, 161 OPS+, AS, SS, 2nd in MVP, 9.4 WAR

Are you kidding me? That's something most people would shoot for in MLB the Show, and it would still be hard to do at 20 years old in that game. Yet, A-Rod did that in the majors at just 20. It's insane. And yes, that's his age 20 season since his birthday is in late July.

That being said, it's all clouded in distrust. When did he start taking performance enhancers? What statements from him can you believe? He is pretty good with the media and has an inherently likeable persona, so many people forgive him faster than you would someone like Clemens or Bonds or even Rose, who are easy to hate and mistrust.

It still hangs over him, as enough people distrust him that he isn't getting many HOF votes, and will likely be left out. If we can forget about the bad taste he left while leaving and the PED clouds, we are left with a SS who was incredibly fun to watch and have on the Mariners throughout the start of his career.