Philly Front Office

Jamie Moyer’s absurdly long 25-year career in the Majors is defined by his stops in Philadelphia and Seattle, two teams he didn’t even start with until he was 33 years old. The Seattle years consisted of his best work while Philadelphia brought him the highest team success. Let’s talk about one of the favorite sons of both cities as the Mariners come to town for a 3 game series.

Monday, August 18th at 6:45p – Ranger Suarez vs Logan Gilbert (R)
Tuesday, August 19th at 6:45p – Cristopher Sanchez vs Bryce Miller (R)
Wednesday, August 20th at 1:05p – Jesus Luzardo vs Luis Castillo (R)

3 game series at Citizen’s Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA

Jamie Moyer was born in Sellersville, PA, went to St. Joes, and grew up a Phillies fan, famously going to the 1980 World Series parade. After being drafted by the Cubs, he even made his major league debut against Steve Carlton and the Phillies in 1986. Can you imagine? There’s almost no chance that Lefty wasn’t this lefty’s hero. He won the game. Despite the local ties, Philly never seemed to show any interest in him as he would bounce around the league over the next decade.

After being traded from the Cubs to the Rangers, he was eventually released following the 1990 season. Moyer was in and out of several organizations in his 20s including the Cardinals, back to the Cubs, the Tigers, Orioles, and Red Sox, never really finding a consistent home and always fighting against a demotion to the minors. Midway through the 1996 season, at 34 years old, Boston traded him to Seattle and everything changed. How much did it change? Let’s take a look at his career through that season and then until he won the World Series 12 years later at 45:

Years	Age	W-L	ERA	Innings	ERA+	WHIP	CG	SHO	WAR
1986-96	24-34	72-79	4.44	1277.1	98	1.414	10	3	11.7
1997-2008	35-45	174-106	4.06	2469.1	110	1.273	21	6	37.4

What in the world??? How does a player with absolutely no inkling of suspicion for PEDs not only peak in his mid 30s, but ride that peak for another decade? Well, with precision, control, and the most underwhelming fastball you ever saw. No one ever accused Moyer of overthrowing. One of my favorite things about his latter years was watch young players try to hit him. They would always look ready to feast like Heddo trying to hit Henry Rowengartner at the end of Rookie of the Year. They just could not bring themselves to slow down enough to actually do it.

Up in Seattle, Moyer managed three seasons with over 5 WAR (1998-99, and 2002) and they weren’t even all the seasons he managed Cy Young votes; his 3 Top 6 Cy finishes came in 1999, 2001, and 2003. In the 2001 season, he finished 4th thanks to 20 wins that helped the Mariners to the best single season WL record in Major League history at 116-48. However, it wasn’t until the 2003 season, at 41 years old that he made his 1 and only All-Star team.

It wasn’t too much later that the Mariners would start to sputter. In 2006, the Phillies needed starting pitching and the Mariners had an aging one to offer. Jamie Moyer was finally coming home at 43 years old and after 20 years in baseball and parts of 11 seasons in Seattle. He was traded for two minor leaguers named Andy Barb and Andrew Baldwin. They were 1 and 3 years old when Moyer debuted for the Cubs.

As a Phillie, it was a fairy tale. They came up short in 2006 but won their first division title since 1993 the following year. In 2008, Moyer had one final solid season at 45 years old. The team needed every bit of his 3.71 ERA, 16 wins, and nearly 200 innings. After winning their second straight division title, Moyer lead the team to it’s first World Series title since he was a kid (not really, in 3 starts he went 0-2 with an 8.49 ERA in only 11 innings but that’s no fun).

Moyer hung on for 2 more not very effective years with the Phillies and then at 49 years old he made 10 last starts for the Rockies. Nobody cares about those though. He made his mark on both Seattle and Philadelphia even if he took his sweet time to do it.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference.