Major League Baseball

Former Mariners Pitcher Jamie Moyer's Cooperstown Case

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:59 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Anthony Hill/FanSided via SoDo Mojo

Jamie Moyer, who played for the Mariners and many other teams throughout his 25-year MLB career, will be up for hall of fame induction in 2018. He is a compelling candidate to get enshrined into Cooperstown, but can his candidacy for the Hall stand as strong as his body did over his lengthy career?

Among the legends who will be eligible for the hall of fame induction in 2018,  Jamie Moyer is one of the most polarizing figures on the ballot. Voters and fans alike are debating whether Moyer’s accolades throughout his body of work are worthy of the call to Cooperstown.

Moyer was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 6th round of the 1984 draft. He made his Major League debut with the Cubs on June 16th, 1986. He earned his first Major League win against Steve Carlton and the Phillies that day.

After spending the back half of the 1992 season in the Detroit Tigers minor league system, Moyer’s pitching career seemed to be kick started.

Moyer would pitch until 2012 when he signed with the Colorado Rockies. That year, he became the oldest pitcher in Major League history to win a game. Whether you believe in “kill the win” or not, winning a game at age 49 is quite the feat.

That year, he became the oldest pitcher in Major League history to win a game. Whether you believe in “kill the win” or not, winning a game at age 49 is quite the feat.

Over his career, he would gather 269 wins, which ranks 29th among all hall of fame pitchers, and is one more than legendary Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer. Moyer also accumulated 4,074 innings, which, if inducted, would make him 1 of 31 pitchers in the Hall to pass 4,000 innings.

Jamie Moyer finished top-6 in the Cy Young voting in 3 seasons, most notably finishing 4th in 2001.

Over his career, he finished in the top-15 in ERA in six seasons. Moyer also finished top-20 in wins in 12 seasons while also pitching two 20 win campaigns. He finished top-15 in WHIP (Walks and Hits divided by Innings Pitched) five seasons in his career.

In today’s game, teams love when their pitcher makes all of his starts and can go deep into games. Moyer was able to live up to that challenge during his career.

Over his more than two dozen campaigns in the league, Moyer pitched more than 200 innings in 10 seasons. He eclipsed 150 innings in 18 seasons while making 25 starts in 17 seasons.

The one knock on Moyer, however, is his career ERA. If he were to be inducted into Cooperstown, he would have the highest ERA in the Hall. But if you look at his career wins and IP’s, it makes it easier to overlook his slightly high ERA.

Jamie Moyer’s Mariners Career

If Moyer is to get inducted into Cooperstown, he will certainly go in wearing a Seattle Mariners cap.

Over his 11 year career with Seattle, Moyer went 145-87 with a 3.97 ERA. He threw 20 complete games, six of which ended up being shutouts. With the Mariners, he owns a 113 ERA+, a 4.38 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) and a 1.25 WHIP over those 11 seasons.

As far as Mariners pitching records, Moyer is consistently in the top 2 or 3 of them all. He usually trails only Hall of Famer Randy Johnson or future inductee to Cooperstown Felix Hernandez.

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Among Mariners records, he is 2nd in wins with 145, 4th in games with 324, 2nd in innings with 2,094, and 10th in WHIP with a 1.25.

Moyer does have a World Series title to his name, helping the Philadelphia Phillies win it all in 2008.

When looking over his hall of fame case, he has a great shot of getting in. Moyer compares well statistically to his pitching counterpart Mike Mussina.

Mussina, in his 4 years on the ballot has gained 31% of positive traction. He projects to eventually get the call to the Hall.

Moyer and Mussina are very tight in some major pitching statistics except Moyer outdoes Mussina in IP by 500 frames.

If and when Moyer gets that call to the hall, he will not be a first-ballot hall of famer like Nolan Ryan or Pedro Martinez.

However, if the voters see him as he was, a pitcher who was always there to take the ball and always competed and won games, he will eventually get that prized call to Cooperstown.

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