Seattle Mariners Prospect Peyton Alford Named Rule 5-Eligible Player to Watch
The Seattle Mariners are likely to be one of the most active teams at the upcoming MLB Winter Meetings, which take place from Dec. 9-12 in Dallas.
The Mariners have reportedly been in trade negotiations with several teams, although there's been few follow-up reports on whether or not the talks are progressing or stalled.
But the Winter Meetings won't affect just the major league rosters, it'll also impact the farm systems. Aside from the minor leaguers that will inevitably be moved as part of whatever deals take place, there's also the Rule 5 Draft.
The Draft takes place at 11 a.m. PT on Dec. 11. And Seattle has several prospects that will be eligible to be selected. And it seems like most of the outside interest lies in the organization's pitchers.
MLB.com recently named Jason Ruffcorn as an intriguing draft-eligible player to watch.
Baseball America recently picked a different reliever as a player to pay attention to during the Rule 5 Draft. The publication highlighted former Virginia Tech hurler Peyton Alford and had the following assessment on him:
Alford is (an) undersized lefthander who signed after the 2021 draft as an undrafted free agent out of Virginia Tech. Alford took a big step forward with his command the last two seasons, and he mixes a four-seam fastball that sits 92-94 mph with 19-20 inches of induced vertical break from a 5-foot-6 release height. The combination of ride, release and velocity from the left side makes Alford’s fastball an above-average bat-misser. His slider and curveball both do a good job of driving swing-and-miss, with whiff rates north of 35% against each and swing rates above 47%. Overall, Alford is a lefty reliever with three swing-and-miss pitches, upper-minors experience and enough command to make the jump to the majors.
Alford played all of 2024 with the Mariners' Double-A affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers. He made a career-high 43 appearances and had a career-best 2.20 ERA to go with it. He struck out 63 batters in 57.2 innings pitched and held batters to a .134 batting average while posting a 0.84 WHIP.
Perfect 8th inning by Peyton Alford. pic.twitter.com/Ln5tWYwRlF
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) September 15, 2024
Seattle has brought in a lot of arms to the farm systsem the past several months like Adonis Medina, Casey Lawrence and Yunior Marte, just to name a few. They also drafted players like Will Riley, Hunter Cranton and Brock Moore in 2024.
Regardless of how many prospects the Mariners lose in the Rule 5 Draft, it seems like they're well-equipped to re-tool. They also could look to the draft themselves to find any necessary replacements.
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