You might have missed it because MLB is terrible at marketing its own product, but today was the Futures Game, the de facto All-Star game for minor-leaguers. It was also the second day of the MLB Draft, covering sixteen rounds in a single day, and the final day of the Mariners’ current Road Trip From Hell, all conveniently happening at the same time – early on a Sunday here on the west coast. Like, 9 AM early. And also streamed on Peacock. Apparently while a helicopter hovered overhead directly next
to the on-field mics. So it’s actually more surprising if you did watch the American League prospects defeat the National League prospects, 6-1.
If you did tune in, hopefully it wasn’t too late, because Kade Anderson appeared in the game for a flash. He was the AL squad’s starting pitcher, and needed just ten pitches for his first and only inning of work. The box score will tell you that Anderson threw six of his ten pitches for strikes and the box score is a liar, because HP umpire Alex Shears engaged in a bit of nominative determinism and clipped Anderson for two pitches at the bottom of the zone that should have been ruled strikes.
Anderson’s outing will likely be overlooked in favor of Pirates prospect Seth Hernandez – who might have been a Mariner if the Angels had actually taken Anderson as everyone expected them to instead of whatever it was they did in the 2025 draft – as Hernandez had a clean 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts where his fastball touched 101 mph. Big stuff, very nasty (was gifted a strike call outside the zone, not that I’m counting).
But Anderson was a quiet assassin on the mound, a model of efficiency cutting through the top of the NL lineup. He elicited a weak contact popout from leadoff hitter Eli Willits of the Nationals on the second pitch of his at-bat on a perfectly located fastball up and in. Anderson fell behind his next hitter, the Rockies’ Roldy Brito, 2-1, as he couldn’t quite get the feel for his changeup, but then dropped in a slider Brito swung over for a weak contact comebacker cleanly fielded by Anderson. The Brewers’ Jesús Made ruined what should have been a clean 1-2-3 inning for Anderson, swinging at a 95 mph fastball in at his knees in a 1-1 count (should have been an 0-2 count) and managing to parachute it weakly into right field, where it dropped into no-man’s-land between the second baseman and right fielder. But Anderson recovered against Rockies prospect Charlie Condon, getting a first pitch flyout on a slider that was actually the hardest hit ball all day against Anderson at 97 mph. Maybe it’s a factor of pitching at Dickey-Stephens Park, but Anderson seemed to know without turning around that the ball was destined for an outfielder’s glove.
It was a stark contrast for Anderson from his last national showcase outing, the Spring Breakout game this spring training. The spring game between the Mariners and Brewers drew a lot of national attention, with one of the densest collections of Top-100 prospects in baseball, and Anderson did not perform well on the big stage. The normally pinpoint command Anderson walked an unheard-of four hitters in two-plus innings of work, struggling to land his fastball and falling behind in counts. He left pitches on the plate that got damaged, most notably a three-run homer on a hanging slider. It was a poor enough performance that it seemed to affect his prospect stock, with certain national prospect writers and fans alike quick to anoint Ryan Sloan – who pitched three perfect innings to open the game – the true ace of Seattle’s system.
Anderson has sufficiently silenced those critics as he’s torn through the Double-A level this year, obliterating hitters with his same strikeout stuff while actually cutting down his walk rate from college, making it easy to write off the spring breakout performance to the triple-digit Arizona heat and the fact that Anderson, a creature of routine, wasn’t the day’s starter. His performance in today’s Futures Game is an exclamation mark on what’s been a truly extraordinary first professional season for him, and an opportunity to stake a claim as one of the best pitching prospects in the game.
The thrill of having a two-headed pitching monster in the Futures Game means Mariners fans had to wait until the fifth inning of this seven-inning contest to see another Mariners prospect. Ryan Sloan came on in the fifth with the AL leading 6-1 and had to fight a little harder against the NL hitters. In a flip-flop from the spring breakout game, this time it was Sloan who seemed to have a little trouble with fastball command, pumping plus velocity – he was up to 100 mph on his fastball – but missing with it out of the zone.
Sloan had to battle his first hitter, Cubs top prospect Josiah Hartshorn, for seven pitches before dropping in a cutter for a groundout; the cutter was his friend again for a first-pitch groundout with his second hitter, the Giants’ Gavin Kilen. In a 1-1 count, Sloan tried to go back to the off-speed again against another Giants hitter, Dakota Johnson, who was coming in on a heater after a three-homer game for Eugene on Friday. Johnson caught a sweeper that got too much plate and was able to knock it down the left field line for a line-drive double (97.4 mph EV, not softly hit but not exactly the “laser” described on the broadcast). Sloan recovered to hang a zero for the inning, but it wasn’t easy against the Brewers’ Jesus Made – part of the same spring breakout lineup Sloan dominated this spring – who battled him for six pitches before flying out on a sweeper in on his hands. Like Anderson, Sloan also signaled for the inning-ending flyout, but couldn’t help but watch it to make sure it got caught:
It wasn’t the sharpest inning for Sloan but it was an exciting opportunity to benchmark the Sloan of the early spring against the Sloan of today. This spring, Sloan leaned almost exclusively on his heater, using it to annihilate the Brewers hitters. Today, lacking his usual fastball command, he was able to dig into a deeper arsenal, showcasing his cutter, sweeper, and changeup (Gameday is labeling it a splitter).
It’s been more of an up-and-down season for Sloan at Double-A this season – as one would expect for a pitcher as young as he is being challenged at the level – but he’s continuing to build volume and efficiency while still developing his arsenal and gaining experience against more advanced hitters, several of whom he saw up close at today’s event.
