He is the one who stayed.
That’s it. That’s the whole article, really. Félix chose to be a Mariner, at least twice by signing contracts, and then presumably continually chose to be here over the years since he was never traded.
For a stretch of at least 7 years during his nearly 15 years with the Mariners organization, Félix Hernández was one of the very best pitchers in baseball. The other years surrounding that 7 were his ascent and then his decline. 15 years. How does that seem like both an eternity and like it was over in heartbeat?