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By the time he turned 30, Hernandez seemed well on his way to Cooperstown. The 2010 Cy Young Award winner, Hernandez was twice the runner-up for the honor to go along with 4th, 7th, and 8th-place finishes as well.

He recorded his 2,000th inning in his age-28 season of 2014. The next year he struck out his 2,000th batter. In doing so he joined Hall of Famer hurlers Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, Bert Blyleven as the only men to reach 2,000 IP and 2,000 Ks before their 30th birthdays. With 11 big league seasons under his belt, Hernandez had 143 wins, 2,142 strikeouts, and a 49.9 WAR.

Then everything changed.

In his age-30 season of 2016 injuries limited Hernandez to just 25 starts – his fewest since his rookie campaign. He finished the year with 11 wins and a 3.82 ERA.

Never again did he reach double-digits in wins or post an ERA below 4.00.

From 2017-2019, Hernandez went 15-27 with a 5.42 ERA. After going 1-8 with a 6.40 ERA at the end of that run in ’19, the Mariners granted him free agency.

Hernandez felt he had something left to offer, and signed with the Braves in January, 2020. As the coronavirus delayed the start of the season, Hernandez opted out due to health concerns.

The following February he signed a minor league contract with the Orioles. The deal stipulated that Hernandez be granted free agency if not added to Baltimore’s 40-man roster by the end of March. When the Orioles failed to do so, Hernandez elected to retire.

His 15 seasons in Seattle make him the greatest pitcher in Mariners history. He stands as the Mariners franchise leader in starts, wins, ERA, strikeouts, and WAR.

In an emotional ceremony in August, 2023 King Felix was inducted into the Mariners Hall of Fame.

Shown here is a PSA-authenticated signature of Hernandez on a ticket to his final minor league start. Pitching for Triple-A Tacoma, Hernandez was dominant. He threw four no-hit innings, and struck out seven. Five days later he made his big league debut in Detroit.

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In 2007 the Mariners named 20-year old Felix Hernandez as the starter for their April 2nd Opening Day contest. When he took the mound Hernandez became the youngest hurler to get the Opening Day nod since Dwight Gooden in 1985.

Six days shy of his 21st birthday, Hernandez pitched 8 scoreless innings in the 4-0 victory of the Oakland Athletics. He allowed three hits, two walks, and had a personal best – since surpassed – 12 strikeouts.

Shown here is a 1984 Topps traded card autographed by Gooden. The Mets right hander was 20 years, 144 days old when he made the Opening Day start on April 9, 1985.

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On June 23rd, 2008 Felix Hernandez hit a grand slam off of Mets starter Johan Santana at Shea Stadium. The homer was the 4-RBI hit by an American League pitcher since the advent of the designated hitter rule.

Before Hernandez’ clout, the last AL pitcher to leave the yard with the bases loaded was Cleveland’s Steve Dunning on May 11, 1971. King Felix’s hit was also the first-ever home run by a Mariners pitcher.

Hernandez’ previous appearance on June 17th was also memorable. In the fourth inning he struck out the side on 9 pitches to become the 13th American League pitcher to throw an immaculate inning.

Shown here is the receipt signed by Johan Santana to received his ring for the 2009 All Star Game.

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Felix Hernandez struck out David Ortiz on August 25, 2010 to record his 1,000th career strikeout. By doing so he became the fourth-youngest hurler to reach the mark. Only Bob Feller, Bert Blyleven, and Dwight Gooden reached the 1,000-K mark earlier.

Though injuries derailed Hernandez’ career, he finished with 2,524 career strikeouts. That figure remains tops in Mariners franchise history.

Shown here is an autograph of Hall of Famer Ortiz, the 1,000th strikeout of Hernandez’ career.

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For decades, conventional wisdom held that wins and losses were the best way to assess a pitcher’s performance. Today as more accurate ways of evaluating a hurler’s effectiveness emerge, victories and defeats mean less and less.

To find an example of just how pitcher evaluation has changed, one must look at the 2010 American League Cy Young vote. That year CC Sabathia led the Junior Circuit with 21 wins. Fourteen pitchers posted 15 or more victories. Despite this, 13-game winner Felix Hernandez earned the Cy.

Though he record was a pedestrian 13 wins and 12 losses, Hernandez was was clearly the most effective American League pitcher. The right-hander led the Junior Circuit in innings, ERA, innings per start, fewest hits per nine innings pitched and WAR. He was second in strikeouts, WHIP, and complete games.

The 13 tallies in the win column are the least in a full season by a Cy Young-winning starting pitcher. Those 13 victories ties Fernando Valenzuela for the fewest earned by a Cy Young starter. Valenzuela earned his hardware in the strike-shortened 1981 campaign.

Shown here is a 1980 Topps card featuring Dodger future stars. It is signed by Jack Perconte, Mike Scioscia, and Valenzuela.

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On August 15, 2012 Felix Hernandez retired all 27 batters he faced in order to record Major League Baseball’s 23rd perfect game. Twenty-one thousand, eight hundred and eighty-nine were on hand Seattle’s Safeco Field to watch King Felix author his masterpiece.

The Mariners right-hander struck out 12 and retired the side via Ks in both the sixth and eighth innings. Of his 113 pitches, 77 were strikes.

For Hernandez’s feat, umpire Joe West served as crew chief and first base umpire. Shown here is a 5×8 stat card that highlights West’s career. The umpire signed it in the bottom right corner.

On April 21st the same season in the same park, the White Sox Phillip Humber authored his own perfecto against Hernandez’ Mariners. This marked the first time in baseball history that a team was on each side of a perfect game – as both the victor and as the defeated – in the same season. Safeco Field is also the only park to host two such gems in the same year.

Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants twirled the season’s second perfect game 54 days after Humber. Cain’s 14 strikeouts on that June 13th night tied Dodger Sandy Koufax for most Ks in a 27-up-and-27-down performance.

The three perfect games in 2012 remains the record for most gems in a single season.

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Felix Hernández entered the the April 16, 2016 contest vs. the Yankees with 2,158 strikeouts. The total left him four shy of Randy Johnson franchise mark.

In the first inning Hernandez got Alex Rodriguez looking and Carlos Beltran swinging to pull within two Ks of tying the Big Unit.

Four innings later in the fifth, Hernandez struck out first baseman Mark Teixeira to lead off the frame and and Didi Gregorious to end it. That tied him with Johnson for the Mariners team mark.

Having thrown 106 pitches, Hernandez was lifted. The chance to break Johnson’s record would have to wait.

In his next start came one week later against the Angels. Hernandez wasted no time making the mark his own.

After the Seattle right-hander retired the first Anaheim batter on a pop up behind short, #2 hitter Rafael Ortega came to the plate. On a two-ball two-strike pitch, the Venezuelan-born Hernandez threw his fellow countryman a changeup. Ortega tipped the pitch with his bat into catcher Chris Ianetta’s mitt to give Hernandez the record.

Hernandez tacked on 361 more strikeouts to extend the record to 2,524 before retiring in 2019.

Shown here is a lineup card from September 26, 1993 signed by Randy Johnson. The lineup card is a historical one. In the contest Johnson struck out 13 Oakland batters to put his season total at 301. It was the first of Johnson’s six 300-strikeout seasons.

 

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Felix Hernández beat the Tampa Bay Rays on May 9, 2016 for his 146th career victory. With the win, Hernandez moved ahead of Jamie Moyer to become the Mariners franchise winningest pitcher.

Hernandez won plenty more for Seattle, eventually pushing his Mariners win total to 169.

In the collection is this Jamie Moyer autographed Strat-O-Matic card from 1996. Bucknell University math major Hal Richman originated the Strat-O-Matic game in 1961. Advertised in Sports Illustrated and sold out of Richman’s basement, Strat-O-Matic gave its players the ability to make managerial decisions based on MLB statistics.

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The honor of pitching on Opening Day goes to the team’s most respected pitcher. From 2009-2018 that man for the Mariners was Felix Hernandez.

Ten-straight Opening Day assignments is a feat achieved by only three others. Before Hernandez’ earned his 10th Opening Day bid only Robin Roberts, Tom Seaver, and Jack Morris earned more consecutive Opening Day nods. Among the four, only Hernandez made all of the starts for one team.

Morris got the ball to begin the season in 14-straight years from 1980-1993, pitching for the Tigers, Twins, and Blue Jays. Seaver’s run of 12-straight Opening Day appearances came from 1968-1979, with 10 for the Mets and two for Cincinnati. Roberts made a dozen consecutive starts to begin the Phillie season then made one more with the Astros in 1966.

Shown here is a handwritten letter from Tom Terrific, baseball’s all-time leader in Opening Day starts with 16. Dated 12/10/1971, the letter includes high praise from the then-27 year old Seaver about his college baseball coach Rod Dedeaux.