Jarred Kelenic, Seattle Mariners.
We lead off our series about the best young players on the pro teams we cover with the Seattle Mariners. The M’s are emerging from several rebuilding seasons and are ready to bring up some potential superstars to T-Mobile Park in the next few seasons. Several publications rank Seattle’s minor league system as the best in baseball.
Because the Mariners have so many good young athletes, we decided to make our Top 5 under 25 into a Top 10 under 25.
In the event that you’ve been under a rock or have given up on baseball over the last decade, the league has gotten younger. The stars of the MLB have gotten younger. Twenty years ago, players were entering their prime somewhere between 25 and 27 years old and exiting their prime somewhere around 31 to 33 years old.
The exiting prime number remains the same, with some outliers, of course. Max Scherzer and Nelson Cruz are among a few others who haven’t deteriorated at the rate that you’d expect. However, the stars of the game continue to get younger and younger.
While the Mariners have a treasure trove of talent that is 25 years of age and younger, the league has amassed an incredible wealth of talent for players that aren’t old enough to rent a car. Is that still a thing?
Vlad Guerrero Jr. (22, will be 23 in March) was runner-up for the AL MVP and, in any other year, would’ve run away with it.
Juan Soto (23) was runner-up to NL MVP and had an incredible 145 walks against only 93 strikeouts in 2021.
Ronald Acuna Jr. (24) was injured for half of the season, or he would’ve challenged for MVP on a loaded Braves team.
Ian Anderson (23) has yet to take a loss in the postseason (4-0) and has amassed a 1.26 ERA with 40 Ks in 35.2 innings.
Fernando Tatis Jr. (23). Despite three different stints on the IL, he managed 42 home runs and nearly 100 RBI, and 100 Runs.
Wander Franco (21) batted .288 with an .810 OPS in 70 games with the Rays last season and had an incredible on-base streak of 43 games that ended on October 1st.
The list could literally go on; the Seattle Mariners have a wealth of under 25 players. Among the players who didn’t make this list is last year’s first-round draft pick, catcher Harry Ford (18), who looks like a future Major League star. Outfielder Jonatan Clase (20) is another player to watch out for. In his first pro season, Clase stole 1 base for every 3.5 plate appearances.
Here are the top 10 under 25 players in the organization.
The Seattle Mariners’ second-round pick in the 2020 amateur draft out of Texas A&M gave everyone a little taste of what this outfielder could do at Everett. Zach DeLoach struggled a bit after his call-up to Double-A Arkansas, but his combined numbers were strong. Gap power, with some extra pop and a good eye, Deloach managed to bat .277 with an .841 OPS in 107 minor league games in 2021.
There are high expectations for Emerson Hancock. The sixth overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft out of Georgia has electric stuff; it’s the staying healthy part that we’re all sitting back and waiting for. The Mariners babied him in 2021 as he started 12 games but only pitched 44.2 innings, so he rarely got deep enough in games to factor in the decision. He managed a 2.62 ERA combining both stops he made in 2021, and he’s shown that his heavy fastball is hard to lift out of parks.
Drafted in the fourth round out of Niagara University by the Padres, Canadian import Matt Brash has burst onto the prospect map with his 2021 performance. While he’s likely ticketed for Triple-A to start the 2021 season, he should debut with the Mariners at some point this season.
He finished the season with a 2.31 ERA and pitched better at Double-A than he did at High-A in 2021. Brash struck out 142 in 97.1 innings and was the only minor leaguer to have a complete game shutout and a save last season.
The Seattle Mariners drafted Brandon Williamson with their second-round pick in the 2019 draft out of TCU. He ascended to the top of lefty starting pitching prospect lists after last season’s lights-out performance. His 153 strikeouts led the minor leagues, and he did it in 98.1 innings pitched.
While Williamson has always been a strikeout machine (89 in 77.1 with TCU in 2019), he really showed the organization what he could do in 2021. While he and Matt Brash are almost statistical twins, the fact that Williamson is left-handed gives him the edge.
While Ty France and Luis Torrens are fundamental pieces of the trade that brought the Mariners four players for Austin Nola. Andres Munoz could be the biggest stand out of the four players. The Mexican flamethrower touched 105 MPH in the minors and is an absolute beast when it comes to strikeouts.
Munoz lost nearly two seasons due to Tommy John surgery on his UCL. In his last healthy season of 2019, Munoz combined to strike out 88 in 58.2 innings. On the comeback trail last September, he made four rehab appearances in the minors and pitched 3.2 innings, with 7 strikeouts.
Munoz looked great in his one appearance with the M’s last year. He averaged 99.6 MPH on the 12 fastballs and got one up to 101 MPH on the radar gun.
Before the lockout, Muñoz and the Mariners agreed to a four-year contract extension for $7.5M. Don’t be surprised to see him compete for the closer role early in the 2022 season.
Of the players that are on this list, Logan Gilbert is the only one that will turn 25 during the season. The lanky right-hander was taken 14th overall in the 2018 draft out of Stetson University. The M’s promoted him to the Majors last season, and he performed amazingly at times and absolutely God-awful at others.
His August was atrocious with an 0-3 record and 9.13 ERA in 5 starts; Gilbert was one of the worst starters in the American League. However, in the what have you done for me lately world, he was undefeated over 6 starts in September with a 2.70 ERA and averaged nearly 6 innings per outing. This is why Logan Gilbert makes the list in the Top 5.
The 6th overall pick in the 2018 draft (New York Mets) is still very young. While Jarred Kelenic‘s swagger and bravado didn’t immediately translate into being a threat at the plate, he regrouped and eventually got things going in the right direction.
His strong September/Octoberperformance was good enough to get him into the top five for Mariners Top 5 under 25. He will come into the 2022 season locked into a roster spot as an outfielder, and everyone will find out what this kid is made of.
Does he overcome adversity and shine? Or will he forever mire in the failings of 2021? He still strikes out too much and is easily fooled on off-speed pitches. Plate discipline aside, Kelenic has all the tools to be a big star.
The Seattle Mariners used their 2019 first-round pick (20th overall) on Elon University right-hander George Kirby. With the talent he has, Kirby could reward the M’s by becoming a superstar. In 2019 for Elon and Everett (A), Kirby had 8 wins in 22 starts (8-2) with only 6 walks. That’s not a type-o; he had more wins than walks in 105.1 innings pitched. That’s an incredible accomplishment.
After spending 2020 at Seattle’s alternate site, he returned in 2021 to prove his earlier performance was no fluke. Kirby had a 1.08 WHIP for the entire season. It’s one thing to have pinpoint accuracy; it’s another to be an absolute flame thrower as his fastball often touches 100 MPH.
To add to his resume, Kirby finished 2021 with 80 strikeouts in 67.2 innings and gave up only 1 home run. The hope here is that he and the players listed above aren’t minor league legends; it’s that they will realize their potential and replicate these numbers in the Show.
This Dominican native has burst onto the prospect scene in a huge way, garnering Top 20 prospect status in multiple publications. Noelvi Marte started in Low-A as a 19-year-old and nearly had a 20/20 season. Marte showed power (17 home runs), speed (24 steals), patience (60 walks), and a world of potential.
His glove still needs a lot of help. He made 30 errors in the Dominican Summer league in 2019 and combined for 30 errors last season between Modesto and Everett. Sixty errors in two seasons is a lot, and with former Gold Glove winner JP Crawford anchored down at shortstop, his chances to win the position in the next few seasons are slim. Marte might be better built for a move to third-base, similar to what Machado has done with the Padres.
Manny Machado is a good comparison for Marte. A size and power combo with a decent bat and good eye. Like Machado, he didn’t start to show off his potential until after he turned 20.
Coming up through Baltimore’s system at that time, Machado didn’t take off big time until 2015, when he was 22 years old. If the comp holds true, then Marte’s age 22 season could be spectacular, and that’s next season. 2022 is the year that we’ll see the M’s number two prospect continue to grow, possibly to Triple-A.
Remember the name. By the end of the 2022 season, Julio Rodriguez may have put himself into the conversation as one of the best 25 and under players in the Majors, not just the Seattle Mariners. He might’ve been born in Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic, but Seattle fans and baseball fans, in general, will witness the birth of a superstar in 2022.
The question always is, will a minor-league superstar’s numbers translate? Who knows, but based on what this young ballplayer has accomplished, he doesn’t have much left to prove. He batted .347 in two stops in 2021 with a 1.001 OPS, 21 stolen bases in 26 attempts, and he walked 43 times against just 66 strikeouts in 291 at-bats.
The only knock so far is that he has been injured a couple of times, nothing significant enough to cause concern from the Mariners brass, but he’s had moments where he has struggled to remain healthy. 2022 is his time.
When the lockout ends and a new CBA is in place that potentially incentives teams to promote players out of spring training, we might get a full season of four of the top five under 25 players on the Seattle Mariners. The M’s might have more upcoming moves to make (adding Kris Bryant, Seiya Suzuki, and/or Luis Castillo, for example). Still, it would shock me by the end of 2022 if Kirby, J-Rod, Hancock, Deloach, Williamson, and Brash haven’t joined Kelenic, Gilbert, and Munoz at the Major League level. Probably can’t graduate them all, but who knows.
Joe Swenson is an award-winning playwright whose play “The Final Out” will be produced in November for the University of North Carolina Wilmington Theater School. You can see his play “Right as Rain” in September at The Footlights Regional Theater in Falmouth, Maine, and his play “Crossing Lines” at Stage Left Theater in Spokane, Washington, in January of 2023.