1 guy you forgot was ever on your favorite team

February 17th, 2021

You remember them, just not some of the teams they played for. There are numerous players throughout baseball history who we remember for their prime years, and we usually associate them with one specific team. But in many cases, those stars finished their careers or spent some other part of their time in the Majors with another club, one that we may have forgotten. That could very well be the case one day with Félix Hernández, who we'll likely remember way more in a white and teal Mariners uniform than the Orioles orange he's rocking in 2021 Spring Training.

So here's a look at some players who fall into that category for each club.

American League East

BLUE JAYS: Vladimir Guerrero

No, not Vladdy Jr. His Hall of Fame dad actually signed with the Blue Jays in 2012, went to Spring Training and even played in a handful of Minor League games with the organization's Class A and Triple-A clubs. But he didn't make any big league appearances for Toronto, which would've been fitting given he began his career with another Canadian club, the Expos. More >

ORIOLES: Reggie Jackson

Before he became Mr. October, Jackson was an Oriole, getting traded to Baltimore by the A's with a year remaining on his contract. It was the dawn of the free agency era, and Oakland owner Charles Finley knew the club couldn't afford to sign Jackson to an extension. So after the 1976 season, in which he posted an .853 OPS with 27 homers in 134 games, Jackson inked a five-year, $3.5 million contract with the Yankees. More >

RAYS: Manny Ramirez

Manny needed a new place to be Manny, and that place was Tropicana Field with the Rays in 2011. He launched 41 career homers against the Rays, so why not bring him to Tampa Bay to hit some for the club, for a change? That didn't exactly work out -- Ramirez went 1-for-17 and decided to retire on April 8, 2011. Ramirez has made some brief comeback attempts internationally, but his last official MLB game came as a member of the Rays. More >

RED SOX: Bartolo Colon

Yes, you read that correctly. You probably don't remember Colon's stint with Boston because he only pitched in seven games for the Red Sox after signing during Spring Training in 2008. He had a 3.92 ERA over 39 innings before pulling a muscle while at the plate in an Interleague game. The Red Sox offered him a bullpen spot once he was healthy again, but Colon declined. It looked as though he would call it a career at that point, but he was still pitching in the Majors a decade later, including in the 2015 World Series for the Mets. More >

YANKEES: Kenny Lofton

Lofton?! Yep. Though he was known primarily for his key role as a speedy leadoff man and great center fielder with the Indians in the mid-1990s, Lofton did don Yankee pinstripes in 2004. He backed up starting center fielder Bernie Williams, appearing in 83 games while hitting .275/.346/.395. He homered in the infamous 2004 AL Championship Series against the Red Sox, but was traded to the Phillies that offseason. More >

AL Central

INDIANS: Kerry Wood

He will forever be a legend for striking out 20 Astros in 1998 with the Cubs, but Wood spent a season and a half with Cleveland late in his career. Following 10 seasons with Chicago, Wood signed with the Tribe prior to the 2009 campaign and kept his relatively new role as closer. In '09, the veteran right-hander posted a 4.25 ERA with 20 saves over 58 appearances. The next season, his ERA was 6.30 in 23 appearances when he was traded to the Yankees. More >

ROYALS: Juan Gonzalez

Gonzalez was one of the premier sluggers of the 1990s, primarily with the Rangers from 1989-99, when he belted 340 home runs. When Kansas City signed him at age 34 hoping he'd bolster the lineup, he hit .276 with five homers in 33 games, missing most of the year due to injury. More >

TIGERS: Hideo Nomo

You might be surprised to learn Nomo actually pitched for half a dozen different teams after being traded by the Dodgers to the Mets in 1998. One of those clubs was the 2000 Tigers, who made several win-now moves to open Comerica Park. This particular move didn't work out well -- Nomo posted a 4.74 ERA over 32 appearances (31 starts), giving up a career-high 31 homers. More >

TWINS: Steve Carlton

Carlton is one of the greatest pitchers in the game's history, but he will be remembered mainly for his time with the Phillies, with whom he won his four Cy Young Awards. Minnesota was the last stop on Carlton's remarkable Major League journey. In 1987, the Indians traded Carlton to the Twins, for whom he posted a 6.70 ERA over nine appearances. The following year would be his last in the Majors -- the 43-year-old left-hander gave up 18 earned runs over 9 2/3 innings before being released. More >

WHITE SOX: Andruw Jones

One of the best defensive center fielders of all time, Jones was a 10-time Gold Glove Award winner remembered most for his Braves years from 1996-2007. But over the final five seasons of his big league career, Jones played for four different teams, including the White Sox. He got off to a hot start in 2010, homering nine times in his first 22 games with Chicago, but then cooled off and finished with 19 for the season. One of those marked a milestone -- he hit his 400th career homer against the Royals on July 11. More >

AL West

ANGELS: Rickey Henderson

Henderson is probably on the list for a lot of clubs -- he played for nine MLB teams in all -- but his stint with the Angels is one many don't remember because of how brief it was. The Padres traded Rickey to Anaheim during the 1997 season, and he played in 32 games for the Halos, hitting .183 with two homers and 16 steals. More >

ASTROS: Dwight Gooden

Gooden's career was defined in New York, first with the Mets and later with the Yankees. He won the 1984 NL Rookie of the Year Award after debuting at age 19, won the NL Cy Young Award in '85, and helped the Mets win the World Series in '86. Following substance abuse problems that caused him to miss the 1995 season, Gooden made a comeback with the Yankees in '96, throwing his first and only career no-hitter. But in 2000, he signed a Minor League deal with the Astros, making one regular-season appearance for Houston. He retired following 18 appearances with the Yankees later that year. More >

ATHLETICS: Joe Morgan

Morgan burnished his Hall of Fame credentials during a tremendous career with the Reds in the 1970s, winning back-to-back NL MVP Awards in 1975 and '76, both years in which he also helped Cincinnati win back-to-back World Series titles. Late in his career, he had stints with multiple clubs, including his hometown A's, with whom he signed for the final season of his 22-year career in 1984. At age 40, Morgan posted a .707 OPS in 116 games. More >

MARINERS: Dennis Martinez

The man they called "El Presidente," who threw a perfect game in 1991 with the Expos and later helped the Indians reach the World Series in '95, made nine appearances for the Mariners at age 43 in 1997, posting a 7.71 ERA before being released. He would pitch one more Major League season, with the Braves in '98, before retiring. More >

RANGERS: Sammy Sosa

This one's interesting because Sosa actually made his MLB debut with Texas in 1989, and then played the final game of his career in a Rangers uniform 18 years later. He's most well known, of course, for his tenure with the Cubs, for whom he hit 545 homers in 13 seasons. But it all began and ended in Texas for Sosa, who hit .252/.311/.468 with 21 homers -- including the 600th of his career -- in 114 games in 2007. More >

NL East

BRAVES: Ken Griffey

No, not Junior (though can you imagine Junior with the 1990s Braves?). Ken Griffey Sr. is best known for his time as part of the Big Red Machine Reds teams of the mid-'70s, when he was a three-time All-Star. But after a stint with the Yankees, he was traded to Atlanta in the middle of the 1986 season. He was initially productive for the Braves, re-signing with them after finishing strong in '86 and having another solid campaign in '87. But Griffey struggled early on in '88 and was released, returning to the Reds a few days later. Cincinnati released him in 1990, but he was picked up by the Mariners just in time to play in the same outfield as his son. More >

MARLINS: Mike Piazza

It's true! The reason you may not remember the Hall of Fame catcher donning Marlins teal is because he only did so for eight days. The Dodgers traded Piazza to Florida, and the Marlins turned around and traded him to the Mets just over a week later as part of their rebuilding phase. Nevertheless, for five games, Piazza was a Marlin. He went 5-for-18 (.278) with a triple. More >

METS: Jeff Conine

Conine is well known for his many years with the Marlins, winning World Series titles with the club in 1997 and 2003. But at the very end of his career, he played in 21 games for the Mets in 2007, hitting .195 as New York lost a seven-game NL East lead over the final 17 games of the season. More >

NATIONALS: Iván Rodríguez

Pudge is a legend in Texas, where he spent the majority of his career and solidified himself as one of the best catchers in baseball history. But after 13 seasons with the Rangers, Rodríguez had stints with several other clubs before spending his final two years with the Nationals. In his short time in Washington, he posted a .632 OPS, but he had such an impact on the club and in the D.C. community, his name is in the Nationals Ring of Honor. More >

PHILLIES: Dave Stewart

He was a star with the A's and also helped the Blue Jays win a World Series title in 1993. But few remember Stewart was also a Phillie. In fact, he signed with Oakland in 1986 after being released by Philadelphia, where he gave up nine runs in 12 1/3 innings (6.57 ERA). When he got to Oakland, he developed a nasty forkball and became a dominant starter for the A's, helping them reach three consecutive World Series, winning it all in 1989. More >

NL Central

BREWERS: Jim Edmonds

Edmonds' best years came as a Cardinal, but most don't remember he was also a Brewer. He sat out the 2009 season after not finding any offers to his liking and signed with Milwaukee in 2010. In 240 plate appearances, he posted a solid .843 OPS with eight homers. The Brewers then traded him to the Reds, but Edmonds only played in 13 games for Cincinnati due to an injured Achilles that ultimately ended his career. More >

CARDINALS: Bobby Bonilla

Yes, Bonilla still gets that much-celebrated (at least on Twitter) annual payment from the Mets on July 1, but his career ended with the Cards. In 2001, he signed with St. Louis but was hampered by injury, hitting .213/.308/.339 with five homers in 93 games. He retired following the end of that season. More >

CUBS: DJ LeMahieu

You must be thinking twice about this one -- was he really a Cub? It's true, LeMahieu was drafted and developed by the Cubs and traded to the Rockies in December 2011. He only appeared in 37 games for Chicago in 2011, hitting .250 with two extra-base hits. That performance -- granted, he was just called up to the big leagues -- is a far cry from what he has done with the Yankees, which includes the MLB batting title in 2020. More >

PIRATES: Raul Mondesi

We remember Mondesi in Dodger blue, but in Bucs black and yellow? Not so much. Mondesi was the 1994 NL Rookie of the Year and spent the first seven seasons of his career with Los Angeles. He then played for the Blue Jays, Yankees and D-backs before landing with Pittsburgh in 2004. He only appeared in 26 games for the Pirates, hitting .283 with a pair of homers. He had to leave the team to deal with a legal issue in his native Dominican Republic, and the Pirates released him a few weeks later. More >

REDS: Billy Martin

Martin was a scrappy player and feisty manager for the Yankees during a turbulent era in that franchise's history. He also managed the Twins, Tigers and Rangers. After winning four World Series championships as a player for the Yankees from 1950-57, Martin bounced around for the rest of his playing career, with brief stints with the Tigers, Indians, Reds, Brewers and Twins. Cleveland traded him to Cincinnati in 1960, and Martin slashed .246/.304/.334 in 103 games. More >

NL West

D-BACKS: Roberto Alomar

The Hall of Fame second baseman became a star with the Blue Jays and carried that stardom with him to Baltimore and Cleveland before his run of 12 straight All-Star selections came to an end in 2002. That's when the Indians traded him to the Mets. He played for New York until mid-2003, when he was traded to the White Sox. Alomar was then 36 and signed with the D-backs, for whom he hit well, slashing .309/.382/.473 over 38 games before Arizona traded him back to the White Sox. More >

DODGERS: Greg Maddux

Yes, that Greg Maddux. Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti was so enamored with Maddux (and who wouldn't be?) from their time together with the Cubs that he acquired the veteran right-hander twice -- once in 2006 and once in '08 just before Maddux retired. Maddux posted a 3.30 ERA for Los Angeles in 12 starts down the stretch in '06, and at age 42 in '08, he made the final seven starts of his 23-year career for the Dodgers, posting a 5.09 ERA. More >

GIANTS: Duke Snider

For years it was Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Duke Snider in New York, an unparalleled center-field triumvirate. But things were quite different after the Giants and Dodgers moved out west in 1958. By '64, a 37-year-old Snider signed with the Giants and became a teammate of Mays'. But what would've been a spectacular development a decade earlier had lost its luster by this point, and the future Hall of Famer hit just .210/.302/.323 with four home runs in 189 plate appearances before calling it a career. More >

PADRES: Anthony Rizzo

He's been a cornerstone of the Cubs' franchise for the past several years, helping lead Chicago to its first World Series title in 108 years in 2016. But Rizzo was actually drafted by the Red Sox and traded to the Padres in the deal that sent Adrián González to Boston in 2010. Jed Hoyer was the Padres' general manager at the time, and when he became Cubs GM the next year under president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, Chicago acquired Rizzo to be its first baseman of the future. That worked out pretty well. Rizzo did play in 49 games for San Diego in 2011, hitting .141 with a homer. More >

ROCKIES: Dale Murphy

Murphy was a great slugging outfielder for the Braves who won back-to-back NL MVP Awards in 1982 and '83, as well as seven Gold Glove Awards. But at the very end of his 18-year career, and after spending the previous three seasons with the Phillies, Murphy signed with the Rockies just before their inaugural 1993 campaign. He only had 49 at-bats, batting .143 with one extra-base hit before calling it a career. More >