The only player in this year’s top twenty that joins our rankings from another major league organization, Alex Hoppe has received more coverage this offseason than he’s likely ever gotten in his life. In what will be his third stand alone article in the span of three months, our staff placed Hoppe 16th in the Mariners system as he’s yet to debut and has full prospect status. If you’ve read the prior articles on him, there’s probably going to be some rehashing here. If not, fantastic! Welcome to the Alex Hoppe experience.
Hoppe, a 2022 sixth rounder out of UNC-Greensboro, has an intriguing array of stuff in his arsenal. With velocity being his primary calling card, Hoppe leans on a 98 MPH fastball that’s peaked as high as 101, but he’ll mix in a cutter at 93, slider at 88, and changeup at 89 as well. For a pure relief prospect, the arsenal here is rather complete; Depending on what the M’s seem to be intrigued by (postulated on here by our own Nick Vitalis), there’s a ton of stuff to work with from a developmental standpoint.
On the field, Hoppe worked to a 4.76 ERA in Triple-A this past year, an admittedly not good mark. This, however, is ameliorated slightly by his 3.83 FIP and 27.9 K%. The walks are a major problem still (12.3 BB% last season), but at least there’s some swing-and-miss to his game that makes the control issues more bearable.
This is assuredly not a finished product at present (something that doesn’t necessarily bode well for a now 27 year old), but the makings of a good pitcher is in there somewhere. The fastball-slider combo looks promising enough to work with, and swapping his subpar cutter in favor of his changeup looks like some low-hanging fruit that could lead to quick results. The borderline extreme over-the-top release point is another interesting tidbit with Hoppe that will be something to note moving forward; he’s a mold-breaker from the Seattle norm in that respect.
Now with one Mariner appearance under his belt this Spring Training (no need to look at the box score), Hoppe has officially made his organizational debut and will likely serve in an up-down bullpen role over the next several years. Even as somewhat of a mystery product, a reliever with three option years that can top 100 MPH is certainly not a bad thing to have in the system. Hopefully he can take to the teachings of the pitching lab to heart and find new levels of success with his new home.
