Top Seattle Mariners Prospect Hits First Professional Home Run in Pacific Northwest
The Seattle Mariners have one of the best farm systems in baseball and have made a lot of recent moves in the last couple of weeks that fans should be (and are) excited for.
Several Mariners rookies debuted with the team's Low-A affiliate Modesto Nuts, multiple pitching prospects have won weekly honors and one of the team's top prospects — Colt Emerson — was promoted to the team's High-A affiliate Everett AquaSox at only 19 years-old.
Emerson has played six games so far with Everett. His first home game was on Tuesday.
In Emerson's first professional game in the Pacific Northwest — Emerson hit his first home run with the AquaSox.
Colt Emerson crushes his first Northwest League HR! pic.twitter.com/q3ZMtoPmJH
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) August 14, 2024
Emerson was drafted by Seattle in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft out of high school. And he's managed to progress quickly in the team's farm system despite going through multiple injuries.
According to a tweet from @MiLBMariners, Emerson has hit .315 with with five home runs and 40 RBIs while scoring 68 times in 71 professional games. That's not including his stretch during the California League playoffs where he hit .550 with a 1.291 OPS during the Nuts championship run a season ago.
Colt Emerson in the first 71 games of his professional career:
— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) August 14, 2024
.315/.454/.464/.919, 84H, 23 2B, 1 3B, 5HR, 68R, 40RBI, 57BB, 51K, 13HBP, 2SF, 16/18 SB.
Not included are his 4 postseason games when he hit .550/.591/.700/1.291 in Modesto’s 2023 championship run.
And that's just Emerson's offense that has gotten recognition. Emerson has played second base, third base and shortstop in his short professional career so far and has helped turn 32 double plays this season alone. He's helped turn 30 at shortstop.
And Emerson has started to receive recognition across league circles for his season.
Emerson recently was ranked the No. 1 prospect in the Mariners farm system and the No. 30 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline's latest rankings. He's ranked the No. 1 Seattle prospect and No. 14 prospect overall according to Baseball America.
In an article published by MLB.com's Daniel Kramer — Mariners Director of Player Development Justin Toole said the following about Emerson:
"His compete and his motor stand out the most. He loves the game and loves working to get better as a player. When you pair that with him being a really excited player, it's exciting."
Emerson is projected for a 2026 call-up according to MLB Pipeline. In just one year, Emerson has likely already put himself in the Seattle's long-term plans in the infield. And he's still only getting started.
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