For Immaculate Grid players and other baseball-obsessed dorks alike, here’s a look at some Seattle Mariners that many casual fans likely forgot about over the past few years.
With the MLB season now over six weeks old, I’ve been fully plugged into day-to-day action while closely following two teams – the Chicago Cubs, of course the subject of my lifelong fandom, and the Athletics, who are currently my local team before they ditch Northern California for Las Vegas in 2028.
A fun thing to talk about with other Cubs fans over the years has been the presence of “random” players – guys that you don’t even really think about when they’re on the active roster, let alone three or four years down the line when their tenure with the team is well in the rearview mirror.
The start of the Immaculate Grid game a few years ago reignited interest into this topic for myself and many others – when looking at a team’s Baseball Reference page, how many guys on a given roster would I remember, or even recognize?
During the offseason, I wrote a couple of pieces to this effect, taking a look at a handful of forgotten players that have spent big league time in Chicago over the past decade as members of the Cubs or White Sox.
With daily MLB action back in full swing, I thought it would be fun to revisit a topic like this for a team that I didn’t grow up around and isn’t one of my own – which pretty much always sends my mind directly to the Seattle Mariners.
I have spent my entire life being quite fascinated with the Mariners – I suppose that’s what being five years old during their historic 116-win campaign in 2001 will do to you. Despite their glaring lack of postseason success in my lifetime, many of the sport’s most recognizable and memorable players have donned the northwest green over the years.
Nowadays, the Mariners have a core that fans have been able to latch on to now for a few years. There’s a solid rotation providing a great mix of veterans and youth with Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert and the currently struggling Luis Castillo, as well as an offensive core centered around franchise mainstays Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford.
Yet beneath that, some truly random names have played a handful of games for Seattle over the past 10 years – guys that are mostly recognizable names on their own, but are primarily associated with another team’s colors.
Here’s a look at five recent Seattle Mariners you may have forgotten about:
1. Cameron Maybin, OF (2018, 30 games)
A career journeyman and Immaculate Grid cheat code as it is, Seattle was one of the 10 major league stops Cameron Maybin made during his solid 15-year career in which he’s most remembered as a member of the Detroit Tigers.
Maybin was acquired by Seattle at the 2018 trade deadline from the Miami Marlins, getting moved in exchange for minor leaguer Bryson Brigman and some international slot money.
While Seattle hoped that Maybin would provide a boon to their offense while adding some versatility in the outfield, his short tenure in Seattle would be less than stellar.
Across his 30 games with the Mariners, Maybin was just 22-for-91 with only four extra-base hits and two stolen bases, amounting to an underwhelming 71 OPS+ and -0.2 bWAR, the latter of which was also impacted by relatively poor defensive marks as an outfielder as well.
Though still holding postseason hopes at the deadline, Seattle finished 89-73 in 2018 – a postseason-worthy record in some seasons that fell eight games short of the second Wild Card spot in 2018, which was occupied by the then-Oakland Athletics.
As for Maybin, the veteran went on to spend the 2019 season with the New York Yankees before then splitting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season between the Tigers and Chicago Cubs. His last MLB action came in 2021, when he spent nine games with the New York Mets before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.
In addition to the aforementioned clubs, Maybin also spent time with the San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros, winning a World Series title with Houston in 2017.
2. Luke Weaver, P (2023, 5 games)
Initially entering the league in 2016 as a highly-touted starting pitching prospect for the St. Louis Cardinals, Weaver has gone on to carve out a journeyman career as both a high-leverage reliever and spot starter, routinely finding himself on a big league roster one way or another.
Weaver spent most of the early part of his career with St. Louis and the Arizona Diamondbacks, the latter of whom he was traded to as part of a massive deal that sent Paul Goldschmidt to the Cardinals.
After limited big-league time with the Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds, Weaver signed with the Mariners as a free agent in August 2023 – coincidentally coming less than a year after Weaver signed a separate deal with Seattle during the 2022-23 offseason that ended in him being granted free agency just a few weeks later.
Weaver’s time with the Mariners was rather forgettable, making one start across five appearances with the team. The right-hander yielded nine earned runs across just 13.1 innings alongside three walks and eight strikeouts while also being charged with a loss.
Just a few weeks after signing with the club, Weaver was placed on waivers and caught on with the New York Yankees to finish out the 2023 season, where he would remain for all of 2024 and 2025. Now 32 years old, Weaver is currently a bullpen arm for the fledgling New York Mets.
3. Tommy La Stella, IF (2023, 12 games)
Affectionately remembered by Cubs fans as a role player on the curse-breaking 2016 championship team, La Stella compiled a solid career over parts of 10 big-league seasons – with Seattle serving as the final stop of his career.
After spending the 2021 and 2022 seasons mired in underwhelming output for the San Francisco Giants, La Stella caught on as a free agent with Seattle two weeks after being released by the Giants in January 2023.
What both parties hoped would be a career rejuvenating signing was anything but, with the then-34-year-old La Stella going just 4-for-21 with a double and three walks across 12 games with the 2023 Mariners – amounting to a frail 54 OPS+.
Appearing in his final MLB game on April 30, 2023, La Stella was released by the team just four days later and has not played professional baseball since.
In addition to his time with Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, La Stella also suited up for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics over the span of his career, appearing in 24 postseason games across six different playoff teams as well.
4. Matthew Boyd, P (2022, 10 games, 1 playoff game)
Currently a member of the Chicago Cubs’ starting rotation who is likely remembered by most in the baseball world as a mainstay of the Detroit Tigers, Boyd made an abbreviated pitstop in Seattle in 2022 that served as somewhat of a career revival.
After 6.5 seasons as a member of the Tigers which itself followed two games with the Toronto Blue Jays to open his career, Boyd was signed as a free agent by the San Francisco Giants just before the start of the 2022 season while the southpaw was recovering from an arm injury suffered at the end of the previous season.
Having never suited up for the Giants, Boyd was traded to Seattle alongside catcher Curt Casali in early August of 2022 – just in time for Boyd to ramp up and return to action.
Working exclusively as a reliever, Boyd made his team debut on Sept. 1 and went on to dazzle over the final month of the season, posting a 1.35 ERA across 13.1 innings of work with eight walks and 13 strikeouts while compiling a 2-0 record as well.
Boyd’s solid relief helped the Mariners end their historic 21-year postseason drought, with the lefty ultimately making his playoff debut for Seattle that October.
Although Seattle was swept out of the ALDS by the Houston Astros after ousting the Blue Jays in the Wild Card Round, Boyd did find his way into some action, retiring a single batter in the 16th inning of the 18-inning marathon that was Game 3 of the ALDS – eventually ending in a 1-0 Houston victory.
Boyd returned to Detroit for the 2023 season and posted underwhelming numbers before his season came to a premature end due to a partial UCL sprain that required Tommy John surgery. The lefty signed with the Cleveland Guardians in June 2024 and ultimately returned to action late in the year, serving as the starting pitcher in Game 5 of the ALDS against his former longtime team in Detroit.
Though currently on the 10-day IL, Boyd, now 35, is in his second year as a member of the Cubs’ rotation.
5. Ken Giles, RP (2022, 5 games)
The most surprising find to me when looking through old Seattle rosters, Giles is primarily remembered by many as one of the more consistent closers of the mid-to-late 2010’s, having closed games for the Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays.
Though never an All-Star, Giles was the closer on the World Series-winning 2017 Astros and developed a reputation as a workhorse throughout the latter part of the decade before injuries greatly affected the trajectory of his career.
After a stellar 2019 season for Toronto that saw Giles post a 1.87 ERA across 53 games, the closer greatly struggled in the four games he played for the team in 2020, allowing four earned runs in just 3.2 innings. Just over a week after his 30th birthday in September 2020, Giles elected to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Since then, despite a litany of stops in other minor league systems and the Mexican League, Giles’ only MLB appearances have come with the Mariners, thanks to a two-year major league contract that the reliever signed ahead of the 2021 season – allowing him to recover from his injury during the first year of his deal.
Giles eventually returned to big league action in June 2022, ultimately appearing in just five games for the Mariners before he was eventually designated for assignment by the team that August. It’s not as if Giles’ limited action turned out to be a disaster, with the veteran allowing just one hit and four walks over the course of 4.1 innings and five games, ending the abbreviated campaign with a 0.00 ERA.
Currently a free agent, Giles last played professional ball in 2025, splitting time between Leones de Yucatan and Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican League.
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