This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer's Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
WEST SACRAMENTO -- He’s only been back from major knee surgery for four games, but Mariners outfield prospect Jonny Farmelo has already flashed all of his elite tools since returning, creating even more optimism about a recovery process that went far faster than most envisioned.
Farmelo went 5-for-19 last week at High-A Everett with two homers, one triple, one double, five RBIs, six strikeouts and zero walks, playing three games in center field and one at designated hitter, with a scheduled off-day in the middle.
In the field, he also made a running and sliding catch in the right-center gap, which was perhaps more telling given that he suffered the torn right ACL on a non-contact play when making a catch last June at Single-A Modesto.
“In every injury, there's always that moment of, we call it 'getting pushed off the high dive,’” Mariners assistant general manager Andy McKay said. “Whether it's a pitcher, OK, at some point, you have to let it rip. As a runner, you've got to forget about everything, track the baseball and go get it. That’s a big step for guys. And based on the video, it certainly looked like he was going hard for it.”
His range and speed made him a clear-cut center fielder from the get-go. He can hit for average and power, finishing last season, albeit abruptly, with a slash line of .264/.398/.421 (.819 OPS) in 46 games at Modesto. And once on the basepaths, he’s always a threat -- to leg out infield singles, extend liners an extra 90 feet, along with the 18 stolen bases he had.
“When we always talk about floors and ceilings, he's got the skill set and the tools, but he's also got the makeup,” McKay said. “And that makeup and that character kind of create the floor, and then the skills create the ceiling. He's got both.”
McKay was an instrumental figure in the Mariners selecting Farmelo with the No. 29 overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft when Seattle had three picks in the top 30 and also took Colt Emerson and Tai Peete with the others. By most measures, both within the organization and by third-party outlets like MLB Pipeline, the Mariners’ aggressive strategy to go all-in on that year’s loaded high-school class should pay off in a big way.
And Farmelo returning -- and looking every bit like his pre-injury self so far -- is a big part of why.
“When I went and met with him in his house,” McKay said of the pre-Draft interview process, “I just got a sense of, not only [how] is this guy wired, but also how smart he is, how proven he is.”
That longstanding relationship was a big factor in why McKay stayed in touch with Farmelo throughout the outfielder’s recovery last year and into the offseason.
Farmelo, who turned 20 last September, suggested that the two read a mental skills book together, landing on “The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance,” by W. Timothy Gallwey, with a foreword by former Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. It was first published in 1974 before mental skills became mainstream in athletic performance.
McKay’s specialty has always been on player and staff development, mental skills and education programs across the organization, which made the two-man book club that much more enticing.
“We just kind of went through it, chapter by chapter,” McKay said. “He's always looking for ways to get better, and during [the recovery] period, there just were not many ways. ... If you're learning lessons around perspective, if you're learning lessons around approach and routines and things like that, you can actually come back better having missed all of his time. And whether he has or hasn’t, time will tell. But that was kind of the goal.”
The tentative plan for Farmelo is for him to play four games per week, with a DH day baked in, then progress to five and, potentially, a full six (the Minor Leagues are off on Mondays). They won’t rush that progression, but so far, things have gone as good as could be.