Yesterday the Mariners’ Double-A affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers, announced their 2026 roster, highlighted by the inclusion of the Mariners’ two top pitching prospects, Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan. That unfortunately doesn’t leave a lot of frontline starter talent for High-A Everett, but the AquaSox will still boast five of Seattle’s Pipeline Top 30 prospects, and three of the top ten.
OF Jonny Farmelo (#6) returns to Everett after battling an ACL tear in 2024 and a related stress reaction in his
ribs in 2025, both of which curtailed his plate appearances in his first two professional seasons. Farmelo got a long look with the big-league club this spring, making up for some of those lost plate appearances, and showcased his top-of-the-scale speed at times, motoring around the bases and showing why he has the nickname “Jonny Ferrari.” Farmelo has a solid sense of the zone, running double-digit walk rates anywhere he’s played, and immense raw power, but needs to work on his bat to ball skills.
Another Mariners prospect who has dealt with health issues in his young career is SS Felnin Celesten (#7), who also returns to Everett. Like Farmelo, his primary goal will be staying on the field consistently, and to continue refining his approach in the box: the switch-hitter’s strikeout rate spiked to over a third in his brief time at Everett last year, and the raw power he flashed at times in the California League got swallowed up in the heavy upper-Northwest air. Celesten has made improvements in his fielding and now looks like someone who could stick at short full-time; he’s not immune to making a blunder at the six, but this spring he was reliably making the routine plays and black diamond-level ones.
MLB Pipeline’s #8 prospect for the Mariners will also join Everett, this one a newcomer in catcher Luke Stevenson. Stevenson is young for a college player, just 21, but has experience commanding a staff and could be a quick mover, especially if the team wants to reunite him with Anderson and Sloan in Double-A. The problem is there are still lingering questions over what kind of player Stevenson will be, as the soft-spoken, painfully earnest catcher is weirdly a divisive prospect among scouts. Some scouts see a whiff-prone average defensive catcher who sells out for power, and others see a potential power/defense threat at a premium position reminiscent of a young Cal Raleigh (it’s me I’m others). Similar to Raleigh, Stevenson tore up the Cal League, although at a lower level now; this year he’ll have a chance to try to match Raleigh’s otherworldly numbers at High-A, and shift the national conversation around his prospect potential, much like Cal did in 2019.
Other Pipeline Top-30 prospects at Everett include OF Carlos Jimenez (#21) and RHP Lucas Kelly (#29). Jimenez makes his High-A debut after being with Modesto the past two years. Kelly, a sidearm reliever drafted in 2025, is well-known to AquaSox fans, punching out a hitter for the final out of Everett’s championship-winning Game 4 against the Eugene Emeralds. The ASU product only pitched in a half-dozen games in Everett, so he returns to the AquaSox, but could be a quick mover so long as he keeps pounding the zone.
Here’s the complete roster:
Post-hype prospect to watch: RHP Walter Ford
It sucks to put one of the Mariners’ own post-hype prospects here rather than a reclamation project from another org, but sadly, Ford’s career hasn’t taken off yet after he was drafted with some fanfare in the competitive balance rounds in 2022. The stuff just hasn’t really taken off, and while he commands the zone well, the upside is starting to look much lower than it did. But hey, maybe now that he’s the only prospect in the system named Ford he’ll get some Highlander, there-can-be-only-one power back.
Will be ranked on the Top 30 before the end of the year: Christian Little
He didn’t have very long at Everett last season, but we at the site are buyers of the former pre-draft hype prospect. Little has the pedigree, the size, and the stuff, and this year will be huge for his development. Read John’s prospect writeup on him and get yourself out to Everett to see him and judge for yourself.
Sleeper prospect: RHP Casey Hintz
This is cheating because Hintz has been talked up by everyone from Justin Toole to Justin Hollander this spring, but witness him anyway: the former Arizona sidearmer is exactly the kind of prospect who moves quickly through this system. If he’s throwing strikes, expect to see him in Arkansas soon.
