Now nearly two months into the minor league season, the Mariners have had plenty of young farmhands show off their immense talent across the minor leagues. With midseason reranks rapidly approaching, let’s check in on Lookout Landing’s top ten preseason prospects.
SS Colt Emerson – MLB – .255/.347/.469, 10.1% BB%, 27.2% K% in AAA
Colt will soon be graduating from these ranks and is currently manning the hot corner for the big league ballclub, but the 20 year old shortstop had really started to get
things going in Tacoma after a tough start to the year. He’s displaying more pop, commanding the zone at a rate more in line to his career averages, and his stellar defense remained throughout despite his woes at the plate. It’s a fair critique to question if his whiff “problems” should have kept him down in the minors a hair longer, but with that decision already made, it will be trial by fire for Colt as he looks to establish his permanent foothold in the major leagues.
LHP Kade Anderson – AA – 34 IP, 1.85 ERA, 51K, 5BB
It’s tough to poke holes in Kade Anderson’s professional career thus far. He had his first clunker last week and got hit around quite a bit, but his numbers remain pristine due to his utter dominance prior. Still just 21 years old, Anderson’s polish is unmatched across minor league baseball and has already pushed him into a near-consensus top ten prospect in all of baseball. He’ll be ready to roll in the big leagues by the start of next season at the latest.
RHP Ryan Sloan – AA – 27.1 IP, 4.94 ERA, 32K, 10BB
Sloan got off to a rough start at Double-A, losing feel for his arsenal and leaving pitches out where they could get damaged more often than usual. He’s since turned things around and cut his ERA by multiple runs, looking far closer to the version of Sloan we’ve grown accustomed to seeing over the past year and change. Sloan was aggressively sent to Double-A Arkansas as a 20 year old, and despite his numbers looking worse than they did last season, he’s looked like he belongs. Far from flawless, but encouraging nonetheless.
2B/LF Michael Arroyo – AA – .254/.325/.401, 7.5% BB%, 21.9% K%
Arroyo’s numbers haven’t been up to the caliber we’ve come to expect from Arroyo, and interestingly enough, he’s been a rare exception to the usual “Dickey Stephens Park Rule”. Posting significantly better numbers in the “pitcher’s paradise” of DSP than away, Arroyo’s had a weird year thus far and feels like the product of some small sample size nonsense. He’s walking much less than usual, but his strikeouts are right in line with his career norms and the slug has only ticked down just a hair. If he’s able to get his walk rate back to where he usually sits, he’ll be a menace atop this lineup in no time.
CF Jonny Farmelo – A+ – .236/.368/.414, 16.4% BB%, 28.1% K%
Farmelo has had one of the more difficult seasons to pin down so far. With a walk rate north of 16%, Farmelo’s OBP is in a fantastic spot right now, pairing incredibly well with his game-breaking speed on the basepaths. That said, he’s struggled with bat-to-ball, marking a second straight season we’ve seen him with elevated whiff rates. His swing is unorthodox and can get stiff at times, and there is legitimate reason to be concerned about his contact rates moving forward, but we’re still early enough in the season where it’s hard to truly panic about a player posting more than reasonable numbers on the whole. He’s producing, but we’re still in wait-and-see mode for the time being.
RF Lazaro Montes – AA – .243/.362/.529, 14.7% BB%, 30.7% K%
One of the most impressive bats to start the season, Lazaro Montes has been locked in at the plate since returning to the Travs lineup in 2026. Having a solid if unspectacular year offensively at Double-A last season, Montes has left little doubt he’s figured out Texas League pitching, slugging his way to an OPS just south of .900. Better still, when removed from the confines of DSP, Montes’ line improves drastically, raising his season OPS over the 1.100 marker with an unbelievable amount of power. The whiff is still very much present, but with the level of slug he’s able to get to in-game, it truly has not mattered. He’s got a big up arrow next to his name.
C Luke Stevenson – A+ – .265/.447/.449, 24.2% BB%, 26.5% K%
Yet another bat that’s impressed this season, Luke Stevenson has picked up right where he left off in his brief stint of pro ball last season. Currently walking at a gaudy 24.2% clip, Stevenson has been an on-base machine early in his career and owns a career OBP over .450 through ~250 PA’s. His K rate has risen this season after a recent “slump”, but his outstanding eye and impeccable defense gives him an exceptionally high floor for someone with evident bat-to-ball issues. Tapping into more power is the next step for Stevenson; he’s shown he can lay off balls and poses a constant threat to reach base, but damaging mistakes more consistently will take him from an already elite hitter to a truly special offensive threat.
SS Felnin Celesten – A+ – .341/.442/.504, 14.7% BB%, 18.6% K%
The biggest riser of the season so far, Felnin Celesten has revitalized his prospect stock after a disappointing 2025 season and looks like a blue chip prospect right now. On a torrid month-long streak offensively, Celesten is clobbering the ball all over the field and has brought an advanced approach to the plate, walking nearly as often as he’s striking out. With smooth defense on the diamond and some speed on the basepaths, Celesten should be a lock to stick at shortstop and could easily move to any infield spot should he need to. He’ll be ranked significantly higher in midseason prospect reranks.
SS Nick Becker – ACL – .265/.468/.353, 27.1% BB%, 35.4% K%
ACL statlines are weird. Becker is striking out a ton, but he’s getting on base nearly half the time and also has 10 stolen bases through eleven games. Becker was drafted for his raw tools and was always likely to be a slower mover through the system, but the whiff is certainly something to monitor as the sample size grows. Statline scouting in the ACL is immensely difficult due to the varied nature of the talent at the level, but with solid numbers through his first handful of games, Becker remains an exciting player that’s still several years away from debuting.
NOTE: #10 prospect Griffin Hugus is dealing with a major arm injury and has not pitched yet. It sounds as though he’ll make his debut in 2027.
