Tacoma Rainiers
The Rainiers managed a three-three split on the week, pushing with a very solid Salt Lake team that has given many teams fits throughout the season. The Rainiers are understandably thin right now, and despite one of the better bullpen crews in recent years, the big league roster’s lack of health has decimated this Tacoma team’s chances of stringing together wins. Whether they can bounce back or not is yet to be seen, but it seems unlikely much will be changing for at least a few more weeks.
It’s been tough sledding for Ryan Bliss this season, but he had a fantastic series at the dish this week. Collecting 11 hits against Salt Lake hurlers, Bliss managed six extra base hits in the series including his first homer of the month and a triple over the centerfielder’s head. Bliss got a brief call up with the flurry of roster moves that have occurred the past few weeks, but now with an uphill battle for a major league spot, Bliss will need to continue this hot hitting in order to carve out his career with the Mariners. Hopefully his week in Utah is a sign of more to come.
Arkansas Travelers
It was an uncharacteristically poor showing for the Travs this week, dropping five of seven (this included a makeup of a game previously rescheduled for weather) on the series. Frisco is a tough opponent and currently leads the Texas League South, but the Travs absolutely had to have a better showing than they did this week and are now on the outside looking in for a playoff spot. Arkansas will likely have to aim for the second half if they hope to lock down their ticket to the postseason.
Kade Anderson remains the biggest story in minor league baseball. Working another scoreless outing against a very solid lineup, Anderson lowered his ERA down to 1.02 on the year and looks entirely too good for the Double-A level. His 90 punchouts across 61.2 IP are remarkable in their own right, but put next to his season-long walk count of eight (!) takes his dominance into another stratosphere. How they plan to utilize Anderson at the big league level this season is unclear, but it’s becoming more and more obvious they’ll have to give him a shot at some point.
Potential injury note: Michael Arroyo was absent from this weekend’s slate of games, seemingly shut down after Thursday’s contest. Arroyo has missed some time this year with some minor injuries and hopefully can avoid the IL; since his return at the end of May, Arroyo had really started to put things together at the plate and looked much like his old self. There’s been no official move yet, but it’s something to monitor in the coming days.
Everett AquaSox
The Frogs dropped four of six to Hillsborough this week, unable to build on some really solid play across the previous handful of series. Unfortunately for the AquaSox, this one wasn’t much of a contest; Everett stole a pair of tight one-run wins, but the Hops were consistently posting double-digit run totals and really thwarted the Frogs offensively. Tough one this week, but an easy one to flush.
Jonny Farmelo popped yet another homer this week, raising his monthly total up to six and pushing him into double-digits for the year. The young centerfielder is slashing .313/.432/.701 in the month of June and has pushed his season-long K% down to 26.5%, a more than reasonable figure given his excellent walk rate and burgeoning power. Farmelo has one of the loftiest ceilings in this entire system, and if he’s able to hold this kind of output over the next month or so, it seems likely he’ll get a crack at the Texas League before the year ends.
Inland Empire 66ers
The 66ers couldn’t eek out a draw this week and dropped Sunday’s contest to lose the series by a score of four to two. The 66ers have really struggled to get any momentum built this season, and despite some of the bats putting together solid 2026 campaigns up to this point, with little pitching to speak of, it’s been tough for this team to consistently find themselves in the win column.
Estevan Moreno absolutely torched Fresno’s arms this week and has sneakily been one of the better hitters in this Inland Empire lineup. Popping four homers on the week amongst 12 total knocks, Moreno raised his season OPS to .904 on the back of his prodigious power and is proving his draft consensus wrong in the best way possible. Last year’s 20th round pick out of Notre Dame, Moreno has primarily played third base and was formerly a shortstop for the Fighting Irish, though he’s also logged time at first and figures to be more of a true corner-infielder long term. Looking like something of a late-round steal, hopefully Moreno is able to continue his hot hitting and fuel this 66ers lineup toward a successful second half.
Mason Peters’ start was skipped this week, hopefully a scheduled pass through the rotation in order to limit the young starter’s innings in his first go around of professional ball. Additionally, outfielder Korbyn Dickerson didn’t appear in Saturday or Sunday’s contests after missing a pair of games early this week, potentially getting some days off while nursing a minor injury. Both seem to have a very reasonable path to returning shortly, but given the unknown nature of their absence, it’s worth following in the coming days. Both players have been integral to this team thus far and are amongst the best prospects in this entire system.
ACL Mariners
Both Nick Becker and Yorger Bautista had outstanding weeks at the plate for the Baby M’s, building on strong months of June that have marked serious improvements to their games. Becker reached the 20 SB mark and hit his third homer of the year, raising his season OPS to .903 while consistently manning shortstop. Becker is still whiffing too much, but his strikeout rate has been declining in recent weeks, and his gaudy walk rate helps to buoy his numbers to the excellent level he’s currently sitting at. On the month, he holds an OPS of .980 with a K% below 30%. Bautista, who logged 11 hits in five games, owns an OPS of .813 on the month and is showing off a healthy amount of slug. Both prospects possess immense ceiling and figure to be top prospects for the foreseeable future.
DSL Mariners
Gregory Pio and Juan Rijo have garnered the bulk of our coverage for this DSL squad, but this lineup is far from a two-man show. Maikol Rodriguez, Jarvis Gomez, and Fabian Gonzalez all have OPS marks north of 1.000 and are crushing the baseball right now. They join Pio and Rijo as elite offensive producers and are giving this DSL roster the best lineup they’ve had in several years.
