Several Former Seattle Mariners Players Among Highest Earners in Baseball History
Many great-to-Hall of Fame-level players have suited up for the Seattle Mariners in the 48 years of the franchise.
The Mariners have boasted some of the game’s most electrifying and generational players such as Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Randy Johnson and even the late, great Rickey Henderson.
And several of those former Seattle players are among the highest-paid athletes in the history of the game.
According to a graphic shared by BrooksGate (@Brooks_Gate on “X”), four former Mariners players are among the top 25 highest-earners in the history of the game: infielder Alex Rodriguez (No. 1), infielder Robinson Cano (No. 11), pitcher Felix Hernandez (No. 18) and infielder Adrian Beltre (No. 20).
The graphic shared the team that paid the athletes the most money.
Rodriguez earned roughly $455.15 million, mostly from the New York Yankees; Cano earned $252 million with Seattle paying him the most; Hernandez earned almost all of his $221.33 million career earnings from the Mariners and the lion’s share of Beltre’s $220.03 million came from the Texas Rangers.
Rodriguez began his career with Seattle and played with the organization for seven years from 1994-2000. He didn’t become one of the highest-paid players in the game until he left the organization for the Rangers. Cano didn’t sign with the Mariners until the 10th season of his 18-year career but was one of the most productive hitters in the history of the organization during his five-season stint from 2014-18.
Beltre, a 2024 Hall of Famer, didn’t cement his case for Cooperstown, N.Y., until he joined Texas in 2011. He played with Seattle from 2005-09 and earned the first two five career Gold Glove awards in 2007 and 2008.
Hernandez pitched the entirety of his 15-year major league career with the Mariners. Over that time he was a six-time All-Star, one-time MLB wins leader, two-time American League ERA leader, one-time AL Cy Young winner (2010) and pitched the only perfect game in franchise history on Aug. 15, 2012, against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
