The 116-46 Seattle Mariners: Where are they now?

The 2001 Seattle Mariners caught lightning in a bottle in a way no other major league team has before or since. Just three years after the New York Yankees set an American League record with 114 wins, the Mariners put together a regular season for the ages by posting a 116-46 record. The 116 wins tied the all-time major league record for wins that had been set nearly a century earlier by the 1906 Chicago Cubs.

What made the Mariners' surge even more remarkable was that, while the 1998 Yankees were chock-full of famous players, Seattle had few “celebrity” ballplayers. A number of Mariners were on the “wrong side” of their 30s, and much of the roster has become little more than a footnote in baseball history.

Sadly for the Mariners, their regular season success did not translate to World Series glory the way it did for the 1998 Yankees. Almost as a matter of revenge for breaking their record, New York beat Seattle four games to one in the 2001 American League Championship Series. The Mariners sank back into the baseball doldrums from there, not qualifying again for the postseason until 2022.

Here's a look at some of the key members of that historic 2001 season and what they are up to now.

#10 Norm Charlton

Pitcher Norm Charlton #37 of the Seattle Mariners throws a pitch

Like several members of the 2001 Mariners, Norm Charlton was in the twilight of his career. A famed part of the Cincinnati Reds “Nasty Boys” bullpen in 1990, Charlton had settled into being an effective left-handed relief pitcher for several teams through the remainder of the decade.

In his final MLB season, Charlton assumed the same steady role with the Mariners at age 38. He posted a 3.02 ERA in 44 appearances, and is credited with four of Seattle’s 116 wins.

Now: Charlton served one year as the Mariners bullpen coach in 2008. Currently, he works as a special assignment pitching coach for the team and still lives in the Seattle area.

#9 Jay Buhner

As with Charlton, Jay Buhner was in his final MLB season in 2001. His glory days behind him, Buhner remained one of the most popular Mariners and achieved folk hero status for his wacky personality and accomplishment of making the once-woebegone Mariners into a successful organization.

Buhner debuted in the majors with the Yankees, but was traded to the Mariners in 1988 for Ken Phelps. The trade was immortalized in a Seinfeld episode where Frank Costanza berates Yankee owner George Steinbrenner eight years later: ““What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?!?!?” The clip was played during Buhner’s induction into the Mariners Hall of Fame in 2004.

Now: Buhner is still a popular figure in the Pacific Northwest as the minority owner and television spokesman for NorthWest Motorsports, a truck dealership in the Seattle area. He still frequents Mariners games.

#8 Kazuhiro Sasaki

Kazuhiro Sasaki’s MLB career burned bright and fast. Sasaki played his first 10 professional seasons for Yokohama in his native Japan before joining the Mariners in 2000. He quickly earned the closer role in Seattle with a devastating split-fingered fastball and was named the AL Rookie of the Year with 37 saves. In 2001, he earned 45 saves and was named to the first of his two All-Star Games.

Yet, just as quickly as Sasaki arrived, he departed. Citing a longing for home, he left the Mariners after the 2003 season with one year remaining on his contract. He rejoined his Yokohama team and pitched two more seasons there before retiring.

Now: Sasaki remains in Japan, where he has made a name for himself outside baseball. He has appeared on Japan’s Iron Chef television program and maintains stakes in both horse and car racing. He also has a recording career on the side.

#7 Mike Cameron

Former Mariner Mike Cameron looks on before the game between the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland

A 16-year veteran, Mike Cameron played for eight different teams in his career. However, it was with Seattle that he found his greatest success. He was an All-Star in 2001 and won the first of his three Gold Glove Awards that season.

The next season, he became only the 15th player to hit four home runs in a game, and narrowly missed out on becoming the first to hit five in a single game when his final at-bat resulted in a long fly out to the warning track. He logged 110 RBI in 2001, the only time in his career he topped the century mark.

Now: To end his playing career, Cameron signed a one-day contract with Seattle to retire as a Mariner. In 2019, he returned to the Mariners as a special assignment coach and continues in that role to this day. As part of his duties, he mentors current Seattle phenom outfielder Julio Rodriguez.

#6 Freddy Garcia

Starting pitcher Freddy Garcia of the Seattle Mariners delivers a pitch

Regarded as the staff ace of the 2001 Mariners, Freddy Garcia was the youngest starter of that season’s starting rotation. Dealt to Seattle as part of the trade that sent Randy Johnson to the Houston Astros in 1998, Garcia led the AL in innings pitched (238 2/3) and ERA (3.05) in 2001. He went 18-6 that year, widely regarded as his best big-league season.

Garcia’s Mariners career did not last long, as he was dealt to the Chicago White Sox in 2004 and ended up pitching for eight MLB teams before crossing the Pacific Ocean to pitch for the EDA Rhinos of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2014. He pitched mostly in Mexico after that, retiring and unretiring in Latin America on a few occasions between 2015 and 2018 before finally calling it quits.

Now: Garcia has fallen off the radar since throwing his final pitch for Tigres de Aragua in his native Venezuela in 2018. There is no update as to his current whereabouts, other than he is probably still living in Venezuela.

#5 Bret Boone

Bret Boone #29 of the Seattle Mariners high fives teammates

One of the main reasons for the Mariners' stratospheric regular-season success in 2001 was second baseman Bret Boone. Largely a solid, but underwhelming journeyman for his first nine MLB seasons, Boone exploded for career highs in nearly every offensive category in 2001. In addition to leading the league with 141 RBI, he hit 37 home runs with a .331 batting average that season – all totals he hadn’t reached before, nor would he again. Boone topped 100 RBI in three of four seasons from 2001-2004. Yet, he was designated for assignment in 2005 and picked up by the Minnesota Twins, with whom he played his final 14 games before he was released, effectively ending his career.

Before retiring, Boone was “outed” in Jose Canseco’s book “Juiced” that strongly implied he was among many major league stars using performance-enhancing substances.

Now: Boone currently lives in San Diego and hosts a sports podcast “The Boone Podcast." He is a regular on Twitter, as well as the golf course.

#4 Jamie Moyer

One of four 38-year-olds on the 2001 Mariners, Jamie Moyer had the best season of the quartet. Moyer was already in his 15th MLB season in 2001, when he hit the 20-win mark for the first time in his career.

Amazingly, 2001 was not Moyer’s best season, and it was far from his last. As a 40-year-old in 2003, he went 21-7 with a 3.27 ERA, topping his marks of 20-6 and 3.43 in 2001. Moreover, Moyer continued to pitch for Seattle until 2006. He then went on to pitch more than four seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, earning his lone World Series ring in 2008.

It wasn’t until 2012, at the age of 49, after 10 games with the Colorado Rockies that Moyer finally hung up his cleats after failed comeback attempts with the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays.

Now: After a long playing career that spanned four decades and eight teams, Moyer deserves his rest – and he’s getting it. He’s staying largely out of the spotlight, living in rural Washington with three dogs and keeping in contact with his two sons.

#3 Lou Pinella

Like many of the players he managed on the 2001 Mariners, Lou Pinella had a long playing career that saw him with a few flecks of gray before retirement. By 2001, however, Pinella was in the ninth season of a Seattle managerial career that had already cemented him as the greatest manager in the history of the franchise.

A two-time World Series champion as a player with the Yankees, “Sweet Lou” as he was known, had also led the Reds to the 1990 championship in a stunning upset of the powerhouse Oakland A’s.

Unfortunately for Pinella, his 10 years spent managing the Mariners was a story of “close, but not quite” as 2001 became the third time that Seattle had advanced to the ALCS without moving on to the World Series. To this day, the Mariners have never played in the Fall Classsic.

Now: Pinella moved on to manage the Tampa Bay Rays and Cubs after leaving Seattle following the 2002 season. His managerial career ended in 2010. After leaving management, he spent some time as a part-time commentator for the Cubs. These days, he is back in his native Tampa, Florida, living a retiree’s life. He remains an avid follower of his hometown Rays, watching games often.

#2 Edgar Martinez

Former Seattle Mariner and current hitting coach Edgar Martinez speaks during a ceremony

The quintessential designated hitter, Edgar Martinez is revered in Seattle after an 18-year career in which he carried a lifetime batting average of .312. While 2001 wasn’t his best season, he still logged 116 RBI at the age of 38 while hitting .306. Martinez hit two home runs in the ALDS as Seattle defeated Cleveland but hit just .150 in the ALCS loss to the Yankees.

The year 2001 was the last time that Martinez topped .300 in his career. Injuries limited Martinez to just 97 games in 2002, but he rebounded to play 286 games over his final two seasons at ages 40 and 41. But with injuries beginning to mount and his production on the slide, Martinez retired at the end of the 2004 season.

Now: Martinez remains one of the most loved and memorable Mariners of all time. His number was retired in 2017, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his 10th try in 2019. In 2021, a statue of Martinez was unveiled outside Seattle’s ballpark. He returned to Seattle as the team’s hitting coach from 2015-2018 and remains in an advisory role with the team.

#1 Ichiro Suzuki

Ichiro Suzuki #51 of the Seattle Mariners bats against the Boston Red Sox

No one enthralled the baseball world while wearing a Mariners jersey like Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro burst on the scene with Seattle in 2001 and won both the AL Rookie of the Year and league MVP awards at the age of 28. Ichiro, a Japanese native, played the first nine years of his professional career with the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball before making the move to MLB.

Between Japan and the US, Ichiro earned 17 consecutive All-Star and Gold Glove honors. In 2001, he was an instant phenomenon, hitting .350 with 56 stolen bases – becoming the first rookie to lead his league in both categories since Jackie Robinson in 1947. He led all players in voting for that year’s All-Star Game (voting was allowed in Japan for the first time).

Surprisingly, 2001 marked Ichiro’s lone postseason appearance for the Mariners. He hit .600 in the ALDS, but just .222 against the Yankees in the ALCS, mirroring the offensive troubles experienced by Seattle against New York.

Ichiro played 12 seasons with the Mariners, setting the major league record with 262 hits in 2004. He was traded to the Yankees by his request midway through the 2012 season, playing just over 2 ½ seasons in New York before signing with the Miami Marlins in 2015. After three seasons in Miami, Ichiro returned to Seattle in 2018 to serve as a part-time player/coach. He retired on March 20, 2019, after playing in both games as part of the Mariners’ season-opening series against Oakland in Japan.

Now: Ichiro served the Mariners as a special assistant for the remainder of the 2019 season. It is a role he continues in to this day. In 2022, he was inducted into the Mariners Hall of Fame. He is eligible for induction into the MLB Hall of Fame in 2025.