Our first MLB Monday entry for November 2025 takes a look at the career of former Seattle Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager. We thought of him recently as we watched the Ms get as close to the World Series as they’ve ever been, before losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Kyle is the older brother of Corey, someone we’ve looked at here on the Daily McPlay before, obvi.

The Seattle “star” made his MLB debut in 2011, and he played all 11 years of his career with the Mariners. He earned one All-Star nod in 2014, while also winning his only Gold Glove that season as well in posting 6.3 WAR overall. His best season, though, came with little fanfare two years later as he put up 6.9 WAR at age 28 in 2016. The sky seemed the limit at that point for Seager, but it actually was his peak, unfortunately.

He then entered a slow decline which concluded in 2021, at age 33, when he still managed to hit 35 home runs and generate 1.9 WAR. He pretty much chose to walk away on his own terms, after the Seattle front office decided not to pick up the 2022 option on his contract, instead buying him out for $2M. Seager had made over $75M from 2018-2021 with the Mariners, and he decided to spend more time with his family

Fair and respectable.

Seager probably could have played longer, but he found the grind of the sport to be overwhelming. We know the kind of shenanigans his little brother probably pulled to stay relevant in the sport, so we respect Kyle for being a better person than that. After all, he clearly could rake the ball still at age 33 (to the tune 100 OPS+ in his final season) while playing average defense (0.0 dWAR in his final year) to earn more money.

He said, “No, thanks.”

More players should be like Kyle Seager. His 7.7 career dWAR demonstrates his impressive defense at third; his career 112 OPS+ shows he was an above-average hitter. He probably should have made a second All-Star team in 2016, of course, as he earned MVP votes in both 2014 and 2016 with his impressive seasons noted above. One thing that probably hindered his legacy was the fact he never got to the postseason in Seattle.

The Mariners infamously went from 2001-2021 without appearing in the October playoffs. That wasn’t Seager’s fault, of course, as he averaged 4.0 WAR per 162 games played throughout his 11-year career. It was just bad timing to be a good player for a struggling franchise at the wrong time. That 20-year streak without the playoffs was the longest active streak at the time for major-sport franchises and playoff droughts. Ouch.

Again, this certainly had nothing to do with Seager’s play, and his loyalty goes without saying as he probably could have forced a trade or signed somewhere else at some point. But he chose to stay in Seattle; that says even more about his character, really. The fact he set career highs in both HRs (35) and RBI (101) in his final year reveals someone, again, who prioritized his off-the-field life at a time when he could still play.

Yeah, he was just a career .251 hitter, and his career OPS (.763) isn’t stellar. But combined with the consistency and the defense, he carved himself out a nice life experience in a beautiful city—while making more than $100M in the process. He still ranks as a Top-50 player in MLB history at third base, which is not Cooperstown-worthy, but it is still noteworthy. As we like to say, most of us would give our left testicle, eh?

Indeed.