Mock Draft & Prospect Roundup

At pick 22, the Prospects Live team has the M’s selecting RHP Cade Kuehler from Campbell University. They had high praise for the 6-foot-1 righty, “Kuehler has tremendous arm talent, up to 99 with significant carry on his heater. He features a nasty slider that flashes plus, as well as a changeup that has proven to induce swing-and-miss from lefties.” Selecting Kuehler would add him to a list of college pitchers drafted by Seattle in the first round including George Kirby and Logan Gilbert.

With their second pick, 29th overall, Prospects Live mocked high school shortstop Walker Martin to Seattle. Perfect Game lists him at 6-foot-2 185 pounds, and has a 99th percentile max exit velocity at 98 miles per hour. Prospects Live said, “There’s a little bit of Chase Utley in his game.”

Finally, they projected that Seattle would take Will Sanders, a right-handed pitcher from the University of South Carolina. He stands tall at 6-foot-6, and “can pump 97 to the mound with ease, many scouts expecting there’s more to come. He’s got one of the better changeups in the class, and flashes a solid slider in the low-to-mid 80s.”

With having three top 30 selections in the 2023 draft, Amateur Scouting Director Scott Hunter will have many different ways to approach the draft, but it will be interesting to see how the Mariners decide to attack the draft.

Mariners Minor League Signings
The Mariners agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed pitcher Tommy Milone, and assigned him to the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. The veteran lefty pitched 16.2 innings last year at the big league level for Seattle, and pitched 40.1 innings for the Rainiers. He has bounced around a lot, and has been a swing man between the bullpen and the rotation and the big leagues and the minors.

So far since the season ended, the Mariners have added a handful players on minor leaue deals, all pitchers. The club did re-sign IF Riley Unroe, but he was then selected in the Rule 5 Draft. In addition to Milone:

Prospect Rankings Update
The 20th annual Jason A. Churchill Mariners Prospect Rankings will be available in late February right here at Prospect Insider. I have unearthed a few nuggets as he goe through the process.

• There will be a new Top 3 prospect — maybe two — and there could be a new No.1.
• Added commentary includes three players Churchill feels he might be too low on, and three he maybe high-man on.
• Top 10 rankings by raw upside
• The 5 most likely Top 30 prospects to see the majors in 2023
• Churchill’s personal MLB Top 50 — here is his Top 25 from last winter: FULL

FTR, Churchill had Mariners RHP George Kirby at No. 18 overall last February — generally 20-30 spots higher than any notable publication. He also ranked Tigers 1B Spencer Torkelson No. 9 when most had him Top 2 and some had him No. 1. His top 3?

1. Adley Rutschman, C — Orioles, 5.3 fWAR, 5.2 rWAR, ROY2
2. Bobby Witt Jr., SS — Royals, 2.3 fWAR, 0.8 rWAR, ROY4
3. Julio Rodriguez, OF — Mariners, 5.3 fWAR, 6.2 rWAR, ROY1

MLB Pipeline’s current Mariners Top 10 with Churchill’s current/pre-2023 ranking in parenthesis:

  1. Harry Ford, C (1)
  2. Emerson Hancock, RHP (4)
  3. Gabriel Gonzalez, OF (7)
  4. Cole Young, SS (6)
  5. Bryce Miller, RHP (2)
  6. Walter Ford, RHP (9)
  7. Taylor Dollard, RHP (11)
  8. Tyler Locklear, 3B (19)
  9. Zach DeLoach, LF (29)
10. Lazaro Montes, OF (8)