Seattle Mariners Draft Review

by John Sickels on Jun 9, 2025 7:00 PM EDT Comment 13 comments

More photos » John Froschauer - AP

Former Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr, first overall pick in the 1987 draft. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Marching on with the AL West, here is the Seattle Mariners.

Seattle Mariners
1S) Taijuan Walker, RHP, California HS: A tremendous athlete and basketball talent, Walker is raw as a pitcher but has a strong arm and great projectability. He will also need considerable development time.

2) Marcus Littlewood, SS, Utah HS: Doesn't have great tools, will probably move to second base, but a "baseball rat" type with a decent bat.

3) Ryne Stanek, RHP, Kansas HS: Could have been a first rounder if he'd gone to school in California or Florida. Can hit 95 MPH and quite projectable but needs work with secondary pitches and mechanics.

4) James Paxton, LHP, Grand Prairie: Should have signed last year with the Jays. Still interesting but not throwing as hard as he used to. Could be a bargain if he gets 94-95 heat back.

5) Stephen Pryor, RHP, Tennessee Tech: Big arm, can hit 97 and has promising slider, but command problems made him erratic and sometimes ineffective in college.

6) Christian Carmichael, C, Hawaii HS: Very good defensive catcher, bat is questionable.

7) Mickey Wiswall, 1B, Boston College: Produced big power in college, but not everyone thinks he'll do the same with wood.

8) Jabari Blash, OF, Miami-Dade JC: Outstanding tools, but college career marred by erratic behavior, was kicked off team in April. Could be bargain, could be rapid bust.

9) Luke Taylor, RHP, Washington HS: Very projectable arm, should be signable for home state team away from college at Hawaii.

10) Tyler Burgoon, RHP, University of Michigan: Undersized at 5-10, but hits 93 MPH and has a vicious breaking ball. Could move fast in relief role.

FOUR OTHERS OF NOTE: 11-Jon Keller, RHP, Iowa HS; 12-Stephen Romero, 3B, Oregon State; 17-Jordan Shipers, LHP, Missouri HS; 17-Danny Lopez, SS, University of Pittsburgh

COMMENT: The Mariners drafted several very interesting projectable arms in Walker, Stanek, and Taylor, but all of them will need a lot of development work. Littlewood strikes me as an overdraft by a round or three, but he has good makeup. Paxton could be great, but who knows? If he lives up to his potential, Blash could be the best of all, but that is a huge if. Overall, I'm not hugely impressed with this at first glance...there are a large number of questionmarks here, and the onus is now on the coaching staffs to make this work.

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Read More: 2010 mlb draft, Seattle Mariners

Comments

I agree

I don’t particularily like the strategy involved either - mariners loove to draft pitching but, in that ballpark you need to develop HITTERS to win there.
But, hey, what do i know?

by casejud on Jun 9, 2025 9:43 PM EDT reply actions

Huh?

Looking past your argument about how the Mariners should be drafting to suit their ballpark (I’ll respond to that below)…how can you say at this point that the Mariners “love” any particular draft strategy? This is year two with the current domestic scouting department. In those two years, the team has made 22 picks in the first 10 rounds. 13 of them have been hitters.

by slamcactus on Jun 9, 2025 11:54 PM EDT up reply actions

could be very good or very bad

baseball rules.

by doublestix on Jun 9, 2025 9:46 PM EDT reply actions

The Bavasi regime hurt our farm system

we have had some pretty fair drafts with high upside players such as Chris Tillman, Adam Jones, Brandon Morrow to name a few. Its only the 2nd year of GMZ and he does have a very good background in scouting (As evidenced by Milwaukee) and hopefully can have the same impact in Seattle.

5 MORE YEARS OF FELIX!

by Marinerfanjake on Jun 9, 2025 10:01 PM EDT reply actions

Mr Bavasi

. . . was a terrible GM but, he didn’t trade Brandon Morrow - that was Jack Z

I have high hopes too. i would have liked to see more hitting talent drafted since our mariners are so Terrible at it but, I gather that wasn’t the strength of this draft.

by casejud on Jun 9, 2025 11:09 PM EDT up reply actions

The worst thing...

that a team can do is make draft choices based on the present-day deficiencies of the big-league squad. Especially a team that doesn’t pick until 43rd overall. The chances of drafting a hitter that late who has a chance to be ready within the next 1-2 seasons is slim to none. Projecting 4 years out…well, given the Mariners’ very, very shallow crop of pitching prospects, pitching’s going to be an issue then, too. Maickel Cleto is pretty much the only legitimate starting pitching prospect the team has below Double-A.

For my part, I love this draft. Walker had major helium in the couple weeks leading up to the draft - much like Nick Franklin did last year, and nobody gave the organization the benefit of the doubt then, either. Stanek and Paxton have first-round arms, and I love the low risk (financially speaking), high reward Blash selection in round 8.

The Ms didn’t have a top pick, so they drafted a bunch of high ceiling, low certainty guys instead. This is much, much better than the Bavasi regime’s strategy of spending every mid-round pick on low upside college arms like Justin Thomas and Robert Rohrabaugh.

by slamcactus on Jun 9, 2025 11:59 PM EDT up reply actions

I saw a lot of Taijuan Walker

at least six starts or so. . . Main thing he needs is experience, very raw, and sometimes looks uncomfortable, but huge upside. Big arm, great athlete, I was sitting next to their crosschecker who is a really cool and nice guy (Butch Bacala). . . they also took a guy from my alma mater in Frankie Christian in the 19th, which I think is a big of an overdraft. He can hit, but is a hs CF who doesn’t really have the range (for me) to stay in CF as a professional, and doesn’t really have the pop for a corner. Aside from the bat, he doesn’t really have a plus tool, and I’ve seen him play at least ten to fifteen games.

by SoCalSoxFan on Jun 10, 2025 1:56 AM EDT reply actions

Spelling?

Thought it was Ryne Stanek

by blackoutyears on Jun 10, 2025 10:51 AM EDT reply actions

yeah

Yes, it is. will fix.

by John Sickels on Jun 10, 2025 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions

Extremely risky

Lots of high risk high reward guys with red flags. I don’t know why you’d take those kinds of risks especially when the farm system needs a major infusion of talent.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jun 10, 2025 11:49 AM EDT reply actions

When your first pick is the 43rd overall, you take what you can.

Last season, they went with more college players than prep kids, to get the advanced clubs more stocked. This season, they’re taking projects.

I don’t really see an issue with that.

Fans are typically idiots.

by The Typical Idiot Fan on Jun 10, 2025 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions

This.

I really fail to see what kinds of players the team could have targeted with the picks they had. Short of Castellanos, who will have a much higher price tag than Walker, I don’t see a top-rated name on the board they passed on. And it’s not like Castellanos was a consensus top half of the top round talent or anything. I trust the Ms scouting department enough to defer to their valuation of these guys.

by slamcactus on Jun 11, 2025 12:48 AM EDT up reply actions