Seattle Mariners Kyle Seager gets 1000th career hit with the team, making him the ninth Mariner to do so.
With the Seattle Mariners leading the Minnesota Twins 5-3 in the top of the eighth inning on Saturday, Kyle Seager stepped up with runners on first and second and nobody out. After fouling off the first pitch, he lined a Zach Duke curveball into right-center for his 1000th career hit, all with the Seattle Mariners. The milestone knock made him the ninth player in Mariners history to reach that level.
Twenty-one of the 30 current MLB teams have more hitters with 1000 career hits than the Mariners, but you have to remember the M’s have only been around since 1977. The New York Yankees have 41 players who had 1000 career hits in a Yankees uniform, the most in all of baseball. Their franchise dates back to 1901, when they were known as the Highlanders.
House That Hank Built
The leaderboard for a number of players with 1000 or more career hits for each franchise is dominated by the teams that have been around the longest, as you’d expect. All of the top 16 spots are held by franchises that date back to at least 1901.
The Yankees (41), Giants (37) and Indians (36) own the top three spots. The Orioles (28), White Sox (28) and Braves (26) are bringing up the rear.
When it comes to the 14 expansion teams to join MLB since 1961, the Mariners are in the middle of the pack. The Ranger (established in 1961) and Astros (1962) each have 13 hitters with at least1000 career hits.
The Rays (1998) have three such players, and the Diamondbacks (1998) have two. The unfortunate team is the San Diego Padres, who have been around since 1969 and have just three hitters with 1000 career hits—Tony Gwynn, Garry Templeton, and Dave Winfield.
The #Mariners Kyle Seager singles to right field, his second hit today and career hit #1,000. He's the 9th player in Mariners history to reach 1,000 hits.
— Mariners PR (@MarinersPR) April 7, 2018
Now that Seager has joined the Mariners’ 1000 hits club, he can continue moving up the list for the rest of the season. He should be able to catch Harold Reynolds (1063 hits), Dan Wilson (1071), and Raul Ibanez this year (1077). Alvin Davis (1163) and Jay Buhner (1255) could be caught and passed in 2019. It gets a little tougher after that.
Seager’s contract with the Mariners goes through 2021, with a team option for 2022 when he’ll be 34 years old. A reasonable projection would have him with between 1500 and 1550 hits at the end of the 2021 season, should he stay healthy and not be traded away. At that point, he would still be around 300 hits short of Ken Griffey, Jr., who had 1843 hits as a Mariner. Edgar Martinez is another 405 hits ahead of Griffey, and Ichiro sits at the top of the mountain, 98 hits beyond Edgar.
According to Ryan Divish, when Seager was told he needed 3,300 more hits to catch Ichiro’s combined total in MLB and NPB, he said, “At the rate, I’m going, I think if I play till I’m about 73, I will catch him. So I’m on a good pace.” Of course, that assumes Ichiro retires at some point. If Seager is playing when he’s 73, Ichiro might be still out there at 87 years old.
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You never know what will happen in a player’s career, but Seager has a solid chance to move up to fourth on the all-time hits list for the Mariners, behind three legendary players. He hasn’t won the batting titles that Ichiro or Edgar Martinez have or the home run titles that Griffey has, but he’s been a consistent and productive player who just passed an impressive milestone.