Seattle Mariners: Taylor Trammell might not be the future star he’s advertised to be
When the Seattle Mariners traded Austin Nola to San Diego, one of the players they got in return was highly rated prospect Taylor Trammell. His numbers, however, indicate he’s trending in the wrong direction.
Everyone is so on board with this Austin Nola trade, and I am too. Except I am probably on board for a different reason than you. The most common theme for why they like the trade is the newest Seattle Mariners outfield prospect, Taylor Trammell. I’m not high on him at this point.
Great start
Trammell is a young (22-years-old) exciting outfield prospect that looks like another great addition for the M’s organization. The Cincinnati Reds initially drafted him in 2016. In his first year of pro baseball, he played 61 games, batted .303, hit a pair of home runs, and stole 24 bases, with an OBP of .374 and 795 OPS. Not too shabby for rookie ball.
The next year at Single-A ball is when Trammell started gaining national attention. He played 129 games, batted .281, hit 13 home runs, and stole 41 bases, with an OBP of .368 and .819 OPS. Whoa! That is quite the jump.
This is where things get sour for me. Outside of the number of games, Trammell played, the rest of the numbers don’t show much improvement.
Struggling with better competition
So far, Trammell has only reached Double-A ball. Cincinnati worried about his productivity and long term viability. Consequently, the Reds were ready to move him to San Diego as part of the three-team deal that landed them Trevor Bauer. At the time of the trade, he was the Reds’ top prospect and 30th on the MLB Pipeline Top 100 Prospects list. Maybe Cincy saw the handwriting on the wall and gave up on Trammell.
A career .270 hitter in the minors, of Trammell’s production happened before he advanced to Double-A. Since he moved up to tougher competition, he has struggled. Maybe Seattle mariners GM Jerry DiPoto missed something on the scouting report.
It’s not uncommon to see prospects struggle as they advance. Typically they don’t struggle this bad. San Diego made some adjustments to his swing to help tap into his power. But it came at the cost of connecting with the ball. Eventually, he added some additional pop. Trammell homered twice in his final four regular-season games of 2019 and three more times in the postseason.
Trammell is still young and has shown the ability to taking coaching and apply it. While he still has promise, I am not sure, at this point, if Trammell will live up to the projection of a great Major League outfielder with the M’s. Especially when you consider the Seattle Mariners have Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, Julio Rodriguez, and Mitch Haniger. The players ahead of him will make it very difficult to succeed with Seattle.
reminder that Taylor Trammell’s last official at-bat of 2019 (and as a Padres prospect) was a go-ahead grand slam for the @sodpoodles in the top of the 9th inning of the Texas League championship game pic.twitter.com/FxLSlkNFKZ
— Céspedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) August 31, 2020
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Trammell got packaged with someone else in the offseason for a better prospect.