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Here we are, 11 days into the 2015 postseason. The Wild Card and Division Series are finished. The Royals, Blue Jays, Cubs, and Mets have all punched their tickets to the glory that is the Championship Series. It's been a pretty entertaining postseason so far, replete with great pitching matchups, drama, dingers, and BAT FLIPS.
As we all know, the Mariners were not good enough to participate in the playoffs this year. (Sad.) However, quite a few ex-M's did manage to somehow find their way onto playoff rosters. Much has been made (at least in the parts of the Internet that I frequent) about ex-Mariners in the postseason this year. There have been a few good jokes and TONS of bad jokes (#whydotheyalwaysgetbetter) made about these gentlemen. But exactly how well have these players performed thus far in the postseason? Let's find out!
By my count, 16 players who used to throw/hit baseballs in Seattle have appeared in the 2015 playoffs. Eight out of the 10 playoff teams have had at least one ex-Mariner find their way into the box score. The Rangers and the Cubs each had three such players! Only the Mets and the Cardinals have proven themselves to be immune to the zombie Mariners plague.
Ex-Mariner Hitters
| Player | Team | PA | HR | R | RBI | AVG | OBP | SLG | wRC+ | pLI | WPA |
| Adrian Beltre | Rangers | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.444 | 0.500 | 0.444 | 165 | 0.83 | 0.08 |
| Alex Rodriguez | Yankees | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -100 | 1.24 | -0.12 |
| Austin Jackson | Cubs | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.125 | 0.000 | -59 | 0.46 | -0.04 |
| Chris Denorfia | Cubs | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.250 | 0.000 | 0 | 0.27 | -0.02 |
| Chris Gimenez | Rangers | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.250 | 0.250 | 0.250 | 27 | 1.71 | -0.13 |
| Justin Ruggiano | Dodgers | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -100 | 0.46 | -0.04 |
| Justin Smoak | Blue Jays | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 0.000 | -100 | 1.28 | -0.19 |
| Kendrys Morales | Royals | 20 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.263 | 0.300 | 0.737 | 178 | 1.06 | 0.55 |
| Luis Valbuena | Astros | 21 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.176 | 0.333 | 0.353 | 97 | 0.70 | 0.07 |
| Michael Morse | Pirates | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 489 | 0.29 | 0.01 |
| Shin-Soo Choo | Rangers | 23 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0.238 | 0.273 | 0.381 | 72 | 0.95 | -0.15 |
| Total | 110 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 0.201 | 0.268 | 0.351 | 71 | 0.92 | 0.02 |
Ex-Mariner Pitchers
| Player | Team | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA | FIP | xFIP | pLI | WPA |
| Chris Young | Royals | 4.0 | 15.75 | 4.50 | 2.25 | 4.38 | 1.50 | 0.70 | 0.02 |
| Oliver Perez | Astros | 0.1 | 0.00 | 27.00 | 27.00 | 12.14 | 16.56 | 2.34 | -0.25 |
| Mark Lowe | Blue Jays | 1.0 | 18.00 | 18.00 | 0.00 | 5.13 | 5.13 | 2.49 | 0.02 |
| R.A. Dickey | Blue Jays | 4.2 | 5.79 | 0.00 | 1.93 | 1.85 | 4.38 | 0.55 | 0.11 |
| Fernando Rodney | Cubs | 0.2 | 13.50 | 13.50 | 0.00 | 4.63 | 6.85 | 1.76 | 0.05 |
| Total | 10.2 | 10.97 | 5.06 | 2.52 | 3.60 | 3.90 | 0.92 | -0.05 |
Here a few bullet points highlighting
- In total, ex-Mariners have accounted for 7.1% of the total plate appearances and 2.8% of the total innings pitched in the 2015 postseason.
- These players have combined for an incredibly lackluster WPA of -0.03.
- Chris Gimenez and Justin Smoak have had the highest leverage plate appearances among ex-Mariners so far; they have (unsurprisingly) combined for a WPA of -0.32 in 15 plate appearances. That is very bad. What were their managers thinking?!?
- The worst performance by an ex-Mariner was turned in by Oliver Perez. In Game 2 of the series against the Royals, he entered in the bottom of the sixth with the Astros leading 4-2. At that point, they had a win expectancy of 72%. Perez faced three batters, giving up two singles and a walk. He did not record an out. By the time he left the game, Houston's win expectancy had dropped to 44%. The Astros would go on to lose that game (four to five) and the series (two games to three).
- Conversely, Kendrys Morales has been on fire, picking up three home runs and six RBI to complement a wRC+ of 178. He's had about as much offensive production this postseason with the Royals in 20 PA as he did last year in the month of July with the Mariners (103 PA). Because of course he does.
Assuming there aren't any roster shakeups, half of these players have earned the right to continue playing baseball this season. It'll be fun to follow along and see how they do. At this point I'm 1) rooting for lots more high-quality baseball and 2) rooting against the Royals. Let's make it happen, baseball gods.