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Seattle Mariners farm system report: 7 early-season standouts

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2 years ago

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Seattle Mariners farm system report: 7 early-season standouts


We’re a little over a month into the minor league season, which makes it a good time to take a glance at the Seattle Mariners’ farm system. Here’s a look at seven Mariners minor leaguers who are off to strong starts.

Mariners RHP Bryan Woo to start Friday in return from injured list

OF Lazaro Montes (age 19, Low-A Modesto)

Montes, the No. 86 overall prospect in Baseball America’s Top 100, has long drawn comparisons to Houston Astros slugger and fellow Cuban native Yordan Álvarez. They both have massive frames, elite raw power and similar left-handed swings that were honed by the same hitting instructor.

The 6-foot-4 Montes is on an Álvarez-like tear right now, with five home runs in his past 11 games. He is slashing .327/.432/.564 in 27 games this season, with six homers, one triple, six doubles and a .995 OPS that ranks third in the California League. This comes on the heels of a strong stateside debut last year, when he hit 13 homers and posted a 1.001 OPS in 70 games between the Arizona Complex League and Modesto.

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Perhaps the most encouraging sign? Montes’ strikeout rate continues to drop, even as he climbs the minor league ladder. After a concerning 33.2% strikeout rate during his 2022 pro debut in the Dominican Summer League, he cut it to 25.2% last season and just 14.4% so far this year.

1B Tyler Locklear (age 23, Double-A Arkansas)

Locklear, a 2022 second-round draft pick who set the single-season home-run record at Virginia Commonwealth, continues to steadily produce at the plate. The muscular 6-foot-2 right-handed slugger is slashing .298/.421/.500 with four homers and nine doubles in 28 games this season. His .921 OPS ranks seventh in the Texas League. He also had an impressive showing in major league spring training, hitting .320 with one homer and three doubles in 25 at-bats. In his three pro seasons, Locklear has posted a .902 OPS with 24 homers in 144 games. Just about the only thing that’s slowed him down was a hit by pitch last season that broke a bone in his hand and sidelined him for two months.

RHP Logan Evans (age 22, Double-A Arkansas)

Evans, a 12th-round draft pick out of the University of Pittsburgh last summer, might be the latest revelation in the Mariners’ pitching development pipeline. The 6-foot-4 right-hander had an underwhelming college career at Pitt, but has added significant velocity and morphed into one of Seattle’s top pitching prospects since entering the system. He was touching 99 mph in spring training and his six-pitch mix includes a nasty sweeper that has massive horizontal break. The results are showing in Arkansas, where he has posted a Texas League-leading 1.57 ERA with 23 strikeouts and 11 walks in 28 2/3 innings this season. In his latest start on May 4, he threw six shutout innings of one-hit ball with nine strikeouts and no walks.

LHP Jhonathan Díaz (age 27, Triple-A Tacoma)

Díaz signed a minor league contract with the Mariners in February after spending his previous eight pro seasons in the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels organizations. The 6-foot left-handed starter made his major league debut with the Angels in 2021 and pitched 35 1/3 innings at the MLB level with them over the past three seasons. He has a 2.37 ERA in 38 innings with Tacoma this season, while totaling 42 strikeouts and just eight walks in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He is near the top of the PCL leaderboard in several categories, ranking second in ERA, second in WHIP (0.97), second in strikeout rate (27.1%) and first in walk rate (5.2%).

IF/OF Michael Chavis (age 28, Triple-A Tacoma)

Chavis, a 2014 first-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox, made his major league debut in 2019 and has played in 357 MLB games with three teams over the past five seasons. He signed a minor league contract with the Mariners in January and is off to a strong start in Tacoma, slashing .303/.394/.532 with six homers, one triple, five doubles and a .926 OPS in 31 games. At the MLB level, he has a career .238/.283/.401 slash line and 42 homers. He spent last season with the Washington Nationals, hitting .242 with two homers in 48 games.

IF/OF Caleb Cali (age 23, Low-A Modesto)

Considering his name, it’s appropriate that Cali was the California League Player of the Month in April. A 16th-round draft pick out of Arkansas last summer, Cali is slashing .360/.473/.584 with two homers, two triples, 10 doubles and a 1.057 OPS in 23 games during a scorching full-season debut. The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder leads the California League in batting average by 33 points, slugging percentage by 20 points and OPS by 53 points.

RHP Will Schomberg (age 23, Low-A Modesto)

Schomberg signed a minor league contract with the Mariners last summer as an undrafted free agent out of Davidson. The 5-foot-10 right-hander has burst onto the scene in his full-season debut, posting a 2.48 ERA with 36 strikeouts and 15 walks in 29 innings. Over his past two starts, he has pitched 11 scoreless innings and totaled 16 strikeouts while allowing just two hits and two walks. He leads the California League with a .158 opponents’ batting average and ranks fourth with a 30% strikeout rate.

More on the Seattle Mariners

• What’s the biggest problem ailing the Mariners’ offense?
• Rost: Mariners can’t waste World Series-caliber pitching
• Why Mariners should keep Josh Rojas in leadoff spot
• The Mariners who aren’t getting the credit they deserve
• Seattle Mariners place Saucedo on IL, option Hancock to Tacoma

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Seattle, WA

49ers Set to Face the Seattle Seahawks in Divisional Round

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11 hours ago

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January 11, 2026

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49ers Set to Face the Seattle Seahawks in Divisional Round


The San Francisco 49ers will continue their postseason run, next up against the No. 1 seed Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field for the NFC Divisional Round.

The 49ers defeated the No. 3 seed Philadelphia Eagles on the road during Wild Card Weekend. With the win, San Francisco advances to the NFC Divisional Round. As the lowest seed in the conference, the 49ers will face the top seed team, the Seahawks. San Francisco and Seattle will meet for the third time this season, the 49ers taking the first matchup and the Seahawks taking the second. Winner of the Divisional Round will advance to the NFC Championship, the final round ahead of Super Bowl LX at Levi’s® Stadium.

Time, date, and broadcast information for the 49ers vs. Seahawks Divisional Round contest will be announced following the conclusion of the NFL’s Wild Card Weekend.



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Seahawks Will Host Rams Or 49ers In Divisional Round

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23 hours ago

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January 11, 2026

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Seahawks Will Host Rams Or 49ers In Divisional Round


The Seahawks will host an NFC West opponent in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Whether that opponent is the Rams or the 49ers will be determined on Sunday when the 49ers play the Eagles in Philadelphia. Also still to be determined is the date and time of the game.

The Rams, who are the No. 5 seed, beat the Panthers on Saturday to advance, and since Seattle, as the No. 1 seed, hosts the lowest-seeded team that advances out of the wild card round, the sixth-seeded 49ers would come to Lumen Field if they win on Sunday. If the Eagles win, however, the Rams would come to Seattle, while the Eagles would head to Chicago to face the Bears, who beat the Packers on Saturday night.

The Seahawks split the season series with both teams, losing to the 49ers in Week 1 and the Rams in Week 11 before beating the Rams in Week 16 and the 49ers in Week 18 as part of a seven-game winning streak that helped them win the NFC West and earn the No. 1 seed.

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Next weekend’s game at Lumen Field will be the Seahawks’ first home playoff game with fans in the stadium—they hosted a wild card game in an empty stadium following the 2020 regular season—since they beat the Lions in the wild card round during the 2016 season. Prior to that empty-stadium loss to the Rams five years ago, the Seahawks won 10 consecutive home playoff games dating back to the start of their Super Bowl run in 2005. The Seahawks have reached the Super Bowl in each of the three previous seasons that they earned the No. 1 seed.



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Seattle, WA

Paul Arriola, Pedro de la Vega and the Seattle Sounders return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

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1 day ago

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January 10, 2026

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Paul Arriola, Pedro de la Vega and the Seattle Sounders return in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’


Forgotten. Absent. Inconsistently healthy. Weights of expectation.

These heroes offered glimpses and scenes of their greatness in 2025.

Paul Arriola, X Man

Paul Arriola gave us a glimpse of his former greatness before his injury. Once a DP, once the highest value transfer within MLS, once recruited to skip MLS entirely for what was at the time a much better league, Arriola’s all comps contributions per 90 would compare to wingback style players Jordi Alba and the now-gone Ali Ahmed.

Arriola slides right in that space, with his 0.57. Now, a discerning reader such as yourself will imagine small sample sizes and opponent quality. You would be correct. But Paul also put up similar numbers in MLS in 2018, 2021 and 2022. His time in MLS as a whole is .40/90 (in the realm of last season’s Christian Espinoza).

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Defining Arriola’s role is always going to be hard. He’s played as many wide roles as exist in the modern game. With Seattle, he could be a left or right winger in a four-front if they choose to run a 3-2-4-1, or a wingback in a 3-4-2-1 or a conventional winger in a 4-2-3-1. No matter his role, he’s been strong. His calls to the US National Team ran every year from age 20-27, when he put up better numbers there than he did in league play. He’s now 30.

Pedro de la Vega, the injury saga

Sounders fans know how bright Pedro can burn. So do, Lanus fans, Argentina fans, Cruz Azul fans, Santos Laguna fans, Tijuana fans, Puebla, Galaxy, Inter Messi and a smattering of other MLS teams. The Leagues Cup player of the year and wonder goal nominee is absolutely thrilling, when available.

Lanus, Argentina and Seattle also know his history of injuries. Injuries are why he’s in Seattle.

PdlV only played 41% of available minutes in all competitions. A healthy winger of his quality should be around 66% or so. His absolutely stellar all comps performance of 0.72 is on par with Hany Mukhtar, at 20th in MLS play. Pedro is ahead of Diego Rossi, Djordje Mihailovic, and Dejan Joveljić.

When you think about how the Seattle Sounders will make up ground for the inevitable decline of Danny Musovski the names Arriola and de la Vega should be bandied about.

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They weren’t merely better than the people who replaced them on the Sounders – they’re better than the majority of high-profile players in the league.

In 2025 Craig Waibel raised the floor and the peak. Injuries gave us only a few glimpses of that peak.

2026 is when the multi-competition heroic Sounders can once again show their prowess and why their presence as a top tier club is eternal.

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Catching up on Sounder at Heart

Here’s what you missed on the site this week.

Sounders

Next match: Sunday, February 22, 2026 v. the Colorado Rapids | 6 p.m. PT | Apple TV/FS1

Reign

Schedule to come next week.

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Defiance

Schedule to come.

Looking back at the news

Everything else you need to know

  1. Remembering ‘the Mia way.’ Family, teammates honor UW goalie Mia Hamant (KUOW)
  2. Winner Takes Millions: The 2026 FIFA World Cup’s $727M Jackpot (Yahoo Sports)
  3. US actions in Venezuela put the 2026 World Cup in disgraceful company (The Guardian)
  4. Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay to take West Brom job (Twin Cities)
  5. Meghann Burke on why the NWSLPA opposes the High Impact Player rule (Full times on Spotify)
  6. KC Current hire ex-USMNT star Armas as coach (ESPN)
  7. USWNT to face Argentina, Canada, Columbia in 2026 SheBelieves Cup (Stars & Stripes FC)
  8. Suwon FC Women Re-Sign South Korea’s Top Female Footballer Ji So-yun (Chosun Daily)
  9. Man admits racist abuse of footballer Jess Carter (BBC)
  10. X Didn’t Fix Grok’s ‘Undressing’ Problem. It Just Makes People Pay for It (Wired)



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