Mariners and Corey Patterson part ways

Today, 30-year old outfielder Corey Patterson opted out of the minor league contract he signed with the Mariners back on December 9th of last year.  The Mariners were his 6th organization after playing with the Cubs, Orioles, Reds, Nationals, and Brewers.

Griffin Cooper of our Seattle Mariners site, Sodo Mojo, was kind enough to provide some thoughts on the Patterson news for us:

Corey Patterson probably signed his deal with the Mariners hoping he had an outside chance at breaking camp.  Once it became apparent that he would be spending the entire season in Triple-A, he decided he’d be better off getting back on the market and waiting for an outfielder-desperate team to come knocking. Another factor is probably Cliff Lee’s injury – with him out for at least a couple of weeks, the Mariners probably start the season with a 12-man pitching staff, which mean’s Ryan Langerhans starts the year in the minors.  With both Langerhans and Michael Saunders sitting in Triple-A, Corey Patterson was, at best, the third outfielder in line should an injury occur, or should the team switch to an 11-man pitching staff.

He was the Cubs first round pick, 3rd overall, in the 1998 draft and had star written all over him.  His prospect status reached it’s peak in 2001 when Baseball America ranked him as the #2 prospect in all of the minor leagues.  Patterson made his major league debut in 2000 and steadily improved through 2003.  That year he hit 0.298/.329/.511 with 13 HR and 16 SB in 83 games.  Corey would go on to play in 157 games the following season with 24 HR and 32 SB, and  a superb 33.8 UZR/150 in CF.  He finished the 2004 season with a WAR of 4.9 and the only real downside was his 168 to 45 SO to BB rate.

Since the 2004 season Patterson has struggled to recapture the magic at the plate and started to drop off defensively as well, though in that area he has managed to retain some of that value to this day.  His -0.4 WAR in 2009 came on the heels of a -1.2 WAR in 2008 which leads one to wonder if he has reached the end of the road when it comes to getting extended playing time in the major leagues.