Former Seattle Mariners Reliever Impressed With Organization's Pitching Development
SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners have had a lot of team legends over the years. Some have reached the heights of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, others occupy a spot in the franchise's Hall of Fame, and others are simply remembered for being one of the betters players tenured during a down period.
Former major league reliever Tom Wilhelmsen is an example of one of those better players.
Wilhelmsen pitched for the Mariners from 2011-15 and part of 2016. He was originally selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the seventh round of the 2002 MLB Draft. He made his debut with Seattle in 2011.
During his time with the Mariners, Wilhelmsen had a 3.11 ERA with 311 strikeouts in 337.1 innings pitched across 296 appearances (two starts).
Wilhelmsen returned to the team during their opening week warm-up event on Sunday and discussed his career, A highlight from his time in Seattle was a GIF of him dancing, which made the rounds on social media in anticipation of him returning for the event.
"It's pretty awesome," Wilhelmsen said. "A lot of great memories here. It's great to see the fans in the park, put on a Mariner jersey again. Really happy to be here. ... I'm at camp with the M's right now and that day, everyone came up to camp and showed me (the GIF). I'm getting a lot of praise, which is really cool. But people seem to forget that made No. 1 not top 10 on ESPN. So that's kind of a cool accolade, I guess."
The Bartender is back!
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) March 17, 2025
Tom Wilhelmsen is joining the fun and will be serving good vibes at Opening Week Warm Up presented by @Starbucks this Sunday.
🍻 https://t.co/mrQgmSLJ7X pic.twitter.com/yfrcmubrJc
Being back in a Mariners jersey brought forth many memories for Wilhelmsen. Chief among them was the combined no-hitter he threw with starter Kevin Millwood and relievers Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge and Brandon League on Nov. 8, 2012 against the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0. Wilhelmsen had the save in that contest.
In the past several years, Wilhelmsen has helped coach the current pitching staff. He downplayed his contributions to the team Sunday.
"It's really awesome," Wilhelmsen said. "I haven't been too involved. I've helped out during the spring last year and this year. But during the season, I was kind of hands off. The credit does go there, though. All those pitchers."
Wilhelmsen's second and last stint with the team as a player came in 2016. It was the second year of the Jerry Dipoto era and seeing how the pitching staff and depth has developed under Dipoto has been interesting for Wilhelmsen.
"It's pretty impressive, really," Wilhelmsen said. "I don't know all the numbers, per se. But it's obvious they're doing some really good things. They're doing the right things. That goes all the way to the scouting department, to the player development guys, and then the people behind teh scenes that are cruching numbers. ... it just shows that it is successful and it is working."
Wilhelmsen expressed his belief that, at Seattle's current trajectory of drafting and development, there could be a World Series "or two" in there in the future.
Whatever the future the Mariners and their pitching staff hold; Wilhelmsen seems to be one of the latest past stand-outs that will at least have a part in the future of the team.
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