Mariners sign former World Series champ once hated by fans

The Seattle Mariners signing Leody Taveras on a Tuesday afternoon in May doesn't appear to be a league-shattering move at first glance.

But the Seattle Mariners signing outfielder Victor Robles on a random June day last year didn't make waves either, and Robles immediately became a fan favorite in Seattle and earned a two-year extension in the offseason.

So who knows? With an injury-riddled roster, a move seemed inevitable from Seattle, and you can do worse than a guy who posted a 2.9 WAR on a World Series-winning team, that's for sure.

Granted, Taveras has been pretty brutal since that 2023 season. Texas put him on waivers for a reason — that reason being he hasn't hit the ball in a year and a half. Taveras hit .229 with an OPS+ of 84 last year, started this year even worse, and his metrics look even worse than the raw numbers.

Mariners fans are very familiar with Taveras, who has spent his entire career with the Rangers — playing over 500 games for the organization before the team placed him on outright waivers earlier today. He's hit 7 home runs against the Mariners in his career, which continues in the AL West. He'll have plenty of chances for revenge games!

Taveras was a top 100 prospect in 2019 before cracking the big leagues, and never really lived up to that billing in Texas.

Mariners hoping their outfielder reclamation magic strikes twice

They say a change of scenery can transform a player. Maybe all Taveras needs is to start playing in the least hitter-friendly park in baseball! No, that doesn't really make sense, but few things do in MLB, so don't say I didn't warn you when Taveras starts mashing at T-Mobile Park.

This is more of a "we need bodies" move than anything else; Robles himself is hurt, along with Luke Raley, Dylan Moore and Ryan Bliss. But it could turn into more than that, if you believe the Mariners organization can revive the career of another top prospect outfielder whose tenure with his previous team ended with a thud.