Baseball America Predicts Intriguing Seattle Mariners Lineup For 2028
The Seattle Mariners have one of most impressive minor league systems in MLB. The organization boasted eight players on Baseball America's top 100 prospects list, more than any team in the majors. MLB Pipeline also listed five Mariners prospects on their list.
Seattle's farm system can pay dividends as soon as 2025 with middle infielder Cole Young expected to factor into the team's major league plans at some point. The Mariners top pitching prospect, Logan Evans, is also expected to get a look in the major leagues at some point.
Baseball America released their updated list of the top 10 Seattle prospects on Thursday. And with their list, they included a projection of what they expect the lineup to look like in 2028.
Baseball America predicts the lineup to look almost entirely different, with catcher Cal Raleigh and franchise star Julio Rodriguez being the lone holdovers from the current roster.
Here's how Baseball America predicts the order shaking out:
Catcher: Cal Raleigh
First base: Tyler Locklear
Second base: Michael Arroyo
Third base: Colt Emerson
Shortstop: Cole Young
Left field: Harry Ford
Center field: Jonny Farmelo
Right field: Julio Rodriguez
Designated hitter: Lazaro Montes
On the inverse, Baseball America predicts the starting pitching rotation to stay almost exactly the same except for one hurler:
No. 1 starter: George Kirby
No. 2 starter: Logan Gilbert
No. 3 starter: Bryan Woo
No. 4 starter: Bryce Miller
No. 5 starter: Logan Evans
Closer: Andres Munoz
The projections anticipates the starting rotation from 2024 to main intact aside from Evans taking over for veteran Luis Castillo.
It should be noted that the projections come with the caveat that the Mariners don't make any other moves or trades from outside the organization.
There's also the assumption that Seattle will keep all of their top prospects and they all will get promoted to the majors, or won't traded away.
There's also a few takeaways from the predictions. The first thing is that, in the hypothetical 2028 order, Raleigh is the only player older than 27 years-old. Kirby and Gilbert would also be the only starters in the rotation are age 30 or older.
The predictions also expect Rodriguez to make the shift over from center field to right field.
Baseball America has Ford making the transition from catcher to left field, Farmelo to take over for Rodriguez at center field and Montes to play in the majors as a designated hitter. Montes has been playing in the outfield during his time in the minor leagues.
Catcher Harry Ford makes his first career appearance in left field!
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 7, 2024
The @Mariners' second-ranked prospect -- who has both a plus run tool and arm strength -- expands his defensive horizons for the Double-A @ARTravs. pic.twitter.com/Ue8R4F2GbO
It's not likely that all of the prospects in Baseball America's projections will make it to the majors with the team. But if even half of them have the success the publication anticipates, then the Mariners' future is in good shape.
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