Back when he signed that Mariners deal, were they using WAR? He also came off like a 48 HR season with the Dodgers, so yeah never came even close to those numbers with the Mariners. Those were probably the expectations of fans and the sports media. A lot of emphasis was still placed on traditional offensive statistics like BA, HR and RBI totals across baseball amongst writers and in the sports media. As well, don't think much emphasis was placed on defensive abilities as it is today when it comes to contracts and determining how really valuable a player is.