Felix Hernandez
King Felix earned his crown through one of the most dominant stretches in modern pitching history, yet never threw a single playoff pitch. His 2010 Cy Young award — won with just 13 victories for a dreadful Mariners team — perfectly captured his greatness and tragedy in equal measure.
The Venezuelan right-hander's 2014 masterpiece tells the complete story. That 2.14 ERA represented a 175 ERA+, meaning he was 75 percent better than league average while his teammates managed just 87 wins. Over his peak years from 2009-2014, Hernandez averaged 232 strikeouts per season with a 2.92 ERA, elite numbers wasted on consistently terrible Seattle clubs.
His 2,524 career strikeouts and 124 ERA+ cement his place among the era's premier starters, but the real measure of King Felix lies in those six All-Star selections spanning a decade of excellence for teams that rarely sniffed respectability.
Career · Hitting
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | SEA | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2006 | SEA | 31 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2007 | SEA | 30 | 4 | 0 | 1 | .250 | .500 | 66 |
| 2008 | SEA | 31 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1.000 | 5.000 | 667 |
| 2009 | SEA | 34 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .143 | 19 |
| 2010 | SEA | 34 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2011 | SEA | 33 | 7 | 0 | 0 | .143 | .286 | 40 |
| 2012 | SEA | 33 | 3 | 0 | 2 | .333 | 1.000 | 138 |
| 2013 | SEA | 31 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .167 | 23 |
| 2014 | SEA | 34 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2015 | SEA | 31 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2016 | SEA | 25 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2017 | SEA | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 2018 | SEA | 29 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| 2019 | SEA | 15 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| Career | 419 | 50 | 1 | 7 | .080 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | SEA | 12 | 84.3 | 4 | 4 | 2.67 | 160 | 77 | 0.996 |
| 2006 | SEA | 31 | 191.0 | 12 | 14 | 4.52 | 100 | 176 | 1.335 |
| 2007 | SEA | 30 | 190.3 | 14 | 7 | 3.92 | 114 | 165 | 1.377 |
| 2008 | SEA | 31 | 200.7 | 9 | 11 | 3.45 | 125 | 175 | 1.385 |
| 2009 | SEA | 34 | 238.7 | 19 | 5 | 2.49 | 173 | 217 | 1.135 |
| 2010 | SEA | 34 | 249.7 | 13 | 12 | 2.27 | 179 | 232 | 1.057 |
| 2011 | SEA | 33 | 233.7 | 14 | 14 | 3.47 | 114 | 222 | 1.220 |
| 2012 | SEA | 33 | 232.0 | 13 | 9 | 3.06 | 131 | 223 | 1.142 |
| 2013 | SEA | 31 | 204.3 | 12 | 10 | 3.04 | 127 | 216 | 1.131 |
| 2014 | SEA | 34 | 236.0 | 15 | 6 | 2.14 | 175 | 248 | 0.915 |
| 2015 | SEA | 31 | 201.7 | 18 | 9 | 3.53 | 112 | 191 | 1.180 |
| 2016 | SEA | 25 | 153.3 | 11 | 8 | 3.82 | 109 | 122 | 1.324 |
| 2017 | SEA | 16 | 86.7 | 6 | 5 | 4.36 | 100 | 78 | 1.292 |
| 2018 | SEA | 29 | 155.7 | 8 | 14 | 5.55 | 75 | 125 | 1.400 |
| 2019 | SEA | 15 | 71.7 | 1 | 8 | 6.40 | 70 | 57 | 1.535 |
| Career | 419 | 2729.8 | 169 | 136 | — | — | 2524 | — | |
Each pitch type this pitcher throws regularly, placed by how the ball moves — sideways break across, rise or drop down the side. Each dotted ring holds about the middle 85% of the league’s pitches of that type, so a cluster sitting outside its ring is movement most pitchers don’t have.
The dots — a sample of this pitcher’s regular-season pitches, placed by movement: left–right is horizontal break, up–down is induced vertical break (what the pitch does beyond gravity). The view is handedness-neutral — positive break is toward the pitcher’s arm side for lefties and righties alike, so every sinker runs right and every sweeper breaks left, whoever throws it.
The dotted rings — about the middle 85% of where each pitch type lands league-wide (a 2-standard-deviation spread), measured from 7.5 million regular-season pitches since 2015. A cluster sitting well outside its ring is movement most of the league doesn’t get. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.