Everett Boasts Loaded Lineup with New Additions & Draft Recap

Now that the All Star break has come and gone the Seattle Mariners have promoted for some of their top prospects to a new minor league affiliate. The club promoted shortstop Cole Young to the High-A Everett AquaSox along with outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez. These two rank inside of Jason Churchill’s top 10 Mariners prospects and will be joining number one prospect Harry Ford in Everett.

Based on MLB Pipeline’s top 30 Mariners prospects, the AquaSox will have three of the organizations top four prospects in their lineup. Once Bryan Woo graduates from the list the three best Mariners prospects will be in Everett, which will make for a very exciting lineup for the AquaSox.

This gives Everett’s roster some of the most highly ranked prospects in the Seattle organization. This lineup will be in contention for one of the most loaded lineups in the minor leagues . The Mariners organization has seen talented minor league teams in the past, some of which competed for league championships. In 2019 the Double-A Arkansas Travelers had a very talented team that had Logan Gilbert, Justin Dunn, Justus Sheffield, Kyle Lewis, Cal Raleigh, Evan White, and Jarred Kelenic on the roster at various points throughout the season.

That team was very talented and the trio of Ford, Young, and Gonzalez are all ranked inside MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospects. That group will eventually be joined by Seattle’s 9th ranked prospect Tyler Locklear who had a strong 48 games before getting hit by a pitch that broke his wrist.

Here is what the Everett lineup looked like on Friday July 12 with Young and Gonzalez added to the mix.

There are a couple new kids on the block

First pitch is at 7:05 pic.twitter.com/HEYFfMDBX1

— Everett AquaSox (@EverettAquaSox) July 14, 2023

Since Young and Gonzalez were promoted to Everett, they have both been on fire. Young is slashing .391/.517/.652 with one home run and is walking over twice as much as he has struck out. It is a small sample size at just 29 plate appearances in 6 games but it is encouraging to see the 19-year-old hitting. Gonzalez has also been hot at the plate and has been hitting for power. He is hitting .308/.379/.808 with four home runs over the same sample size.

Both of these young teenagers have made a large impact for the AquaSox and fans should go out to Funko Field to see them play. Currently the Everett lineup has four top ten Mariners prospects according to Jason Churchill’s rankings, including two top five prospects.

The club also promoted Alberto Rodriguez to Double-A Arkansas after he put up impressive offensive numbers in the first half.

Modesto Nuts (A) – California League

Everett AquaSox (A+) — Northwest League

Arkansas Travelers (AA) – Texas League

Tacoma Rainiers (AAA) – Pacific Coast League

Mariners Draft Recap

The MLB Draft finally happened and the Seattle Mariners made 22 selections over the course of the three days of the draft. The organization drafted three left-handed high school hitters with their first three picks on day one: Colt Emerson, Jonny Farmelo, and Tai Peete. These three players were all inside Joe Doyle’s top 55 ranked players on his board over at Future Stars Series.

Emerson is a shortstop from Ohio who was Doyle’s 19th ranked prospect heading into the draft. There are some similarities between Emerson and Cole Young who Seattle drafted last year in the first round. He is known for his bat and he is a favorite of Doyle’s.

“Colt Emerson is just an 80-grade human being.”

Here’s what @JoeDoyleMiLB had to say about #Mariners first-rounder Colt Emerson during our pre-draft chat a couple weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/E9BC0SMgPM

— Locked On Mariners (@LO_Mariners) July 10, 2023

Jonny Farmelo is a very talented young outfielder from Virginia who was ranked as MLB Pipeline’s 39th best prospect. He is a very strong athlete who “is a physical athlete with a lot of tools to like. He’s a plus runner, which helps him on both sides of the ball, and has shown the ability to find the barrel consistently and drive the ball to all fields. There’s plenty of bat speed, and he’s quick to the ball, with more power to come as the 6-foot-2 left-handed hitter matures.”

.@JonnyFarmelo can swing it. #SeaUsRise pic.twitter.com/jUJ4F1TPuc

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 10, 2023

Finally, Tai Peete was their 30th overall selection who is also a shortstop. He is a Georgia native who has some very high upside in the eyes of MLB Pipeline who ranked him 53rd on their draft board. They view Peete as a young hitter “With an electric left-handed swing and projectable strength and leverage in his 6-foot-2 frame, Peete sports well-above-average raw power. He needs more polish at the plate, as he rarely uses the opposite field and is less effective when he lapses into trying to launch balls as far as possible. He’ll also have to prove he can make consistent contact against quality pitching after struggling to do so previously. ”

The sky’s the limit for @TaiPeete. #SeaUsRise pic.twitter.com/QnWYMyNMbk

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 10, 2023

After selecting these three talented high schoolers, the organization went the college route with their next two selections. The club drafted Ben Williamson with their second round selection out of William and Mary. Williamson was an under-slot selection at 57th overall so that the Mariners could allocate their bonus pool money to other players, but that does not mean this was a wasted pick.

Doyle had this to say in his writeup about the third baseman, “Williamson has above-average to plus raw power and he’s tapped into it in games. He’s also a mature hitter posting more walks than strikeouts and registering really healthy contact and chase rates. He’s an average defender with a solid average arm at the hot corner and projects to stick there at the next level. Scouts will need to decide if they buy into the talent as Williamson hasn’t had the chance to face top tier pitching in his collegiate career, but to this point he’s more or less dominated what he’s been presented.”

After selecting Williamson, the organization drafted their first pitcher of the draft, right-hander Teddy McGraw from Wake Forest. He was “A potential first-rounder before he got hurt” according to MLB.com and “He may have more upside than fellow Wake Forest right-hander Rhett Lowder”. However the reason that the Mariners were able to nab McGraw in the third round was because he had elbow surgery before the college season started this year. He had Tommy John surgery in high school and had to have another procedure early this year that kept him out this season. There is immense upside with McGraw but there is also large risk due to his injury history.

In the fourth round Seattle selected Texas high school outfielder Aidan Smith, and signed him for $1.2 million dollars, over double the slot value for the pick. Doyle likes the talent that the righty has, ” A 6-foot-3-inch gazelle, Smith can really run and has posted plus run times in district games. Scouts like the bat an awful lot and foresee a potential middle-of-the-order stick with above average power upside and a gap-oriented swing that should hit for average immediately. Smith can go get it in the field too and has at least a shot to stay in centerfield at the next level, though most expect he’ll grow off the spot.” Smith will turn 19 over the weekend but he will still be one of the youngest outfield prospects in the Mariners system.

After selecting Smith, the Mariners drafted middle infielder Brock Rodden from Wichita State. Doyle had Rodden ranked as his 202nd prospect on his draft board and said, “Rodden, pound for pound, might have some of the best power in the class. Now don’t get it mixed up, it’s still largely fringe-average, maybe average raw power, but that juice coming from Rodden’s size is impressive. He’s a twitchy, bouncy infielder who can run a little bit as well, though his arm squarely has him positioned at second base as a pro.”

In the sixth round Seattle drafted right-handed pitcher Brody Hopkins from Winthrop. Below is Doyle’s writeup on Hopkins.

Here’s @JoeDoyleMiLB on the Mariners’ 6th round pick, No. 107 on the board. pic.twitter.com/lrbuauiF6c

— Jason A. Churchill (@ProspectInsider) July 10, 2023

In the next two rounds the organization went with back to back college rightys with Ty Cummings from Campbell and Ryan Hawks from Louisville. Doyle had this to say about the Campbell product, “Cummings is a metric animal with a high-spin fastball up to 97, comfortably resting 93-95 with serious arm-side run. It’s the definition of a turbo sinker. Cummings throws a two-plans slider with more sweep than depth, but it’s been a bat-misser.” Below is Doyle’s take on Hawks.

The Seattle Mariners go with Ryan Hawks in the 8th round. Got a lot of very good looks at him. Low slot righty with a fastball that carries through the zone. Changeup is an out-pitch. Slider flashes. Reliever type. pic.twitter.com/wKeyHFZEZS

— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) July 10, 2023

With their 9th and 10th round selections the Mariners took two college outfielders: RJ Schreck from Vanderbilt and Jared Sundstrom from UC Santa Barbra. According to Doyle, “Schreck has a ton of strength in his core and really leans back on pitches he punishes. He can pummel a baseball. His rate stats and batted ball metrics are really strong as well. Schreck is a below average defender and he lacks the arm to handle right field. He’s likely destined for left field where his bat must do the talking through his development.” Sundstrom slashed .328/.401/.678 in just over 200 plate appearances this year and also hit 15 home runs. Below is one of his homers.

Rearranged the score board..@sundstrom_jared #PartyOutFrontpic.twitter.com/mFTGFn521N

— PartyOutFront® (@partyoutfront) May 16, 2023

The rest of the Mariners draft class can be found here on the MLB Draft Tracker. These new prospects will be fun to see in the Seattle farm system and hopefully some of them will see some time this season in games before getting their first full season assignments next spring.

Mariners Prospects in the News

Brandon Gustafson of Seattle Sports wrote about what Mariners prospects Jonatan Clase and Harry Ford experienced at the Futures Game.

Mariners President of Baseball Operations Jerry Dipoto talk with Brock and Salk of Seattle Sports why the organization drafted three high schoolers with their first three picks of the MLB Draft.

MLB Pipeline picked their favorite pick for each team in the draft. Click here to find out which of Seattle’s picks was their favorite.

Jason Churchill wrote about the ten best draft classes in baseball and see who he thinks is the Mariners best draft pick.

The Seattle Mariners affiliates have been the best in all of minor league baseball in several offensive categories including runs, walks, and doubles.

Raking on the farm. #SeaUsRise pic.twitter.com/5j5X2jZ5Ig

— Mariners Player Development (@MsPlayerDev) July 14, 2023

Multiple Mariners prospects have been promoted to the Major Leagues for the first time recently. Right-handed pitchers Devin Sweet and Prelander Berroa were promoted from Double-A Arkansas to help in the bullpen. Outfielder Cade Marlowe was called up to take the spot of Jarred Kelenic who fractured his foot and was placed on the Injured List.