Baseball America’s Prospect Rankings Show the Top of Seattle’s System is Changing
Colt still reigns supreme, but some considerable shifting has occurred throughout the system
It’s long been recognized around the league that the Seattle Mariners possess one of the league’s best farm systems. With the vast majority of their players having excellent 2024 seasons, this sentiment has changed very little as we enter the new year. The complexion, however, of who and where each player is ranked, may be shifting across the industry.
Baseball America’s recent rankings of the Seattle system may pique the interest of the average Mariner prospect head for its considerably different ordering outside of the standard 1-2 punch of lefty shortstops at the top. Despite going down with a dramatic knee injury midseason, CF Jonny Farmelo was catapulted over the likes of Harry Ford, Lazaro Montes, and other long time stalwarts of the system into the top tier of Mariner farm hands. With some of the loudest tools in all of the minor leagues, Farmelo has intrigued evaluators enough to mark him as a premiere prospect after just 221 PA in Modesto last season. His power/speed combination is just that good, even after you factor in his torn ACL. With reports stating he’s not expected back until midseason next year, Farmelo will fall a bit behind his peers in games played. Should he return to his former self, Mariners fans have a whole lot to love.
Perhaps the most personally intriguing development, young RHP Ryan Sloan cracked the top ten without having thrown a professional pitch. The large teenager was lauded coming out of high school in last year’s draft and was firmly a first round talent, however the M’s were able to snag him in the second round in thanks to the large signing bonus they provided him. The big-bodied Sloan has already hit 99 on the radar gun and has two secondaries that grade out well, but to thrust a teenager with no professional experience into a loaded top ten is incredibly exciting to see and speaks to what the industry thinks the young man is capable of. It’s more than likely we won’t see Sloan in affiliated ball this season, but he’s a promising young arm to monitor for next season.
Offseason rankings can be somewhat of a futile process for many reasons, but to see how well connected writers think speaks volumes to how MLB clubs view these players and indicates the next wave of talent has only grown deeper in the past ~12 months. There is sure to be considerable change throughout the next calendar year in thanks to both promotions to the big league club and tremendous draft capital in next year’s draft, however to see the younger prospects trending so positively is a fantastic sign for the future. It’s not always easy being a Mariner fan, but this crop of future Mariners is sure to give fans a lot to root for in the coming years.