For a while, the name of the game in the Mariners’ farm system was pitching. Logan Gilbert and George Kirby were the standard-bearers. Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo represented the non-first-round set to form most of a very successful big league rotation.
Now it’s time for the bats to shine.
The Mariners have seven players in the Top 100 and all of them are hitters. You could put together a pretty good lineup with the players in the top half of the new Top 30 alone, moving some infield pieces around to make it work:
C Harry Ford
1B Tyler Locklear
2B Cole Young
3B Colt Emerson
SS Felnin Celesten
OF Lazaro Montes
OF Jonny Farmelo
OF Yorger Bautista
And don’t think there aren’t more arms coming as a next wave. The Mariners have done an outstanding job of finding mound talent in later rounds, with guys like Logan Evans, Michael Morales and Brandyn Garcia all on the way. And they went after arms in last year's Draft, with everyone excited to see what Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ryan Sloan can do in their first full years. All of this adds up to a very deep and talented system that should continue to feed players to the big league roster.
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Here’s a look at the Mariners' top prospects:
1. Colt Emerson, SS/3B (MLB No. 20)
2. Lazaro Montes, OF (MLB No. 42)
3. Cole Young, SS/2B (MLB No. 49)
4. Harry Ford, C/OF (MLB No. 64)
5. Felnin Celesten, SS (MLB No. 73)
Complete Top 30 list »
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the 2024 preseason list to the 2025 preseason list:
Jump: Brandyn Garcia, LHP (2024: NR | 2025: 16)
Sometimes a college reliever can be a starter. Garcia spent three years at Quinnipiac then transferred to be a reliever at Texas A&M. He was a Day 3 draftee and got a chance to start and ran with it. He pitched his way to Double-A in his first full season and finished with a 2.25 ERA and 10.4 K/9 rate.
Fall: Dawel Joseph, SS (2024: 17 | 2025: 28)
You don’t want to put too much weight into a debut in the Dominican Summer League. But there are expectations for a player that gets $3.3 million to sign. He’ll be playing this year at age 18, so there’s time for him to figure things out, but he often looked lost at the plate, without any real approach, when hitting .133/.274/.173 over 47 games.
Best tools
Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools – 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average. Players in parentheses have the same grade.
Hit: 65 -- Colt Emerson
Power: 65 -- Lazaro Montes
Run: 65 -- Jonny Farmelo
Arm: 65 -- Yorger Bautista
Defense: 65 -- Ben Williamson
Fastball: 70 -- Hunter Cranton
Curveball: 50 -- Logan Evans (Michael Morales, Cole Phillips)
Slider: 55 -- Hunter Cranton, Ryan Sloan, Jurrangelo Cijntje, Logan Evans, Jeter Martinez, Teddy McGraw, Brock Moore)
Changeup: 60 -- Ryan Sloan
Control: 50 -- Ryan Sloan (Logan Evans, Michael Morales)
How they were built
Draft: 21 | International: 8 | Trade: 1
Breakdown by ETA
2025: 8 | 2026: 7 | 2027: 6 | 2028: 6 | 2029: 1 | 2030: 2
Breakdown by position
C: 2 | 1B: 1 | 2B: 2 | 3B: 3 | SS: 6 | OF: 4 | RHP: 10 | LHP: 1 | TWP: 1