The best & worst Mariners free-agent contracts handed out in the last 20 years

Nelson Cruz brings the boom

In an age of long-term megadeals, Nelson Cruz approached free agency with caution and preferred to prove his merit on one-year deals. His four-year, $57 million contract with the Mariners was the only multi-year pact he signed as a free agent. Cruz was rewarded with his largest payout by AAV, and in turn, he gave the Mariners four of the best years of his illustrious career.

From 2015-2018, Cruz entrenched himself as one of the best sluggers in the Majors. Over that span, he led all batters with 163 home runs and ranked in the top 10 in RBI, slugging percentage, average exit velocity, and weighted runs created plus. Cruz dazzled beyond the numbers, regularly lofting balls deep into the night. For example, more than half of his homers in 2016 were “no doubters,” according to Statcast.

The only knock on Cruz as the Mariners’ best free-agent signing of the past two decades is his limited defensive ability. As a 34-year-old outfielder, he lacked some of the skill and mobility of his early years. Coming up with the Rangers, Cruz had a serviceable, if not stellar, glove, even leading all right fielders in total zone runs above average in 2009.

With the Mariners, Cruz moved to a full-time DH role, which could impact his legacy. According to Fangraphs, he contributed 132.3 offensive WAR, but he cost the team 62 WAR defensively over his four-year stint. Still, Cruz rivaled future Hall of Famer David Ortiz as the best DH in baseball in the mid-2010s. Over the four seasons Cruz spent in Seattle, the pair finished 1-2 in batting average, OPS, wOBA, and wRC+.

Cruz’s decision to retire as a Mariner this year likely puts him over the top as one of the franchise’s greatest free-agent acquisitions. His accolades and leadership roles after he left Seattle, which include the Roberto Clemente Award for his charitable efforts in the Dominican Republic and a role with MLB as a liaison to Latin America, continue to cement his legacy.

Robbie Ray becomes a Cy Young flop

The Mariners went back to a familiar formula: sign a guy named Robbie coming off a huge year for an AL East team to a $100+ million, multi-year contract. While the Cano deal worked in Seattle’s favor (for the most part), Robbie Ray’s five-year, $115 million signing did not.

Ray was coming off a Cy Young-winning season with the Blue Jays when he joined the Mariners in 2022. To some extent, he provided Seattle with exactly what they paid for: he ate innings, maintained an impressive 3.42 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and anchored the Mariner’s young rotation. Still, Ray struggled in a key area: pitching in high-leverage situations.

Opponents slugged .430 off Ray in high-leverage at-bats, and he gave up five homers in the 26 at-bats that Baseball-Reference deemed “late and close.” These issues reared their head in Ray’s collapse during the 2022 postseason. Against his former team in the Wild Card series, the Mariners were able to overcome Ray’s ugly start in which he allowed four runs over just three innings. In the ALDS, though, his late-game struggles doomed Seattle as he allowed the winning run to score in both Game 1 and Game 3 vs the Astros.

It was all downhill from there. He made just one start in 2023 due to Tommy John surgery, and the Mariners then traded him to the Giants. Ultimately, Seattle paid Ray more than $200,000 per inning over the course of his time with the club.

Ray’s struggles would sting less if he had garnered the Mariners much in return. Instead, the M’s received Mitch Haniger, whose massive contract is hamstringing the club this winter, and Anthony DeSclafani, whom they traded to the Twins before he even unpacked his bags. Even the trade with Minnesota resulted in a bust as Jorge Polanco had a career-worst season and had his team option declined for 2025.

Just three years after Ray’s signing, the Mariners are left with nothing but debt and disappointment.