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Ranking the Seattle Mariners’ draft classes from Dipoto era
The Seattle Mariners will be on the clock soon.
The first day of the 2025 MLB Draft kicks off at 3 p.m. Sunday with the first three rounds taking place. The Mariners will make four selections that day, including the No. 3 overall pick. The draft concludes Monday with rounds 4 through 20.
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Under president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto and vice president of amateur scouting Scott Hunter, the Mariners have developed a reputation as one of baseball’s best draft and development teams. A look back at each class beginning when Dipoto was hired as general manager and Hunter as director of amateur scouting in 2016 shows plenty of hits from the organization.
Which class in the Dipoto-Hunter era is the best? We’re going to take a look back at each class and attempt to rank them from best to worst. Below is a look at the picks from the first five rounds of each draft, other notable picks and reasoning for each ranking.
Seattle Mariners draft class rankings
1. 2018
• First round (No. 14): Logan Gilbert, RHP
• Second round (No. 54): Josh Stowers, CF
• Third round (No. 90): Cal Raleigh, C
• Fourth round (No. 118): Michael Plassmeyer, LHP
• Fifth round (No. 148): Nolan Hoffman, RHP
• 33rd round (No. 988): Penn Murfee, RHP
Overview: A draft that featured a pair of All-Stars who have shown they are capable of being legitimate Cy Young and MVP candidates has to come in at No. 1 here. Logan Gilbert has emerged as the ace of a very talented starting rotation and one of baseball’s best pitchers. Cal Raleigh is currently in a two-man race for AL MVP and is baseball’s best catcher. In fact, the 16.1 WAR Raleigh has produced to this point in his career is more than the combined 13.3 WAR produced by all six catchers picked in front of him.
Seattle also got a stellar season-plus out of reliever Penn Murfee, a 33rd-round pick, before he had Tommy John surgery and was eventually released in 2023. Two other pitchers the Mariners picked – 21st-rounder Grant Anderson and 36th-rounder Justin Wrobleski (who didn’t sign) – have also reached the big leagues with other teams.
2. 2021
• First round (No. 12): Harry Ford, C
• Second round (No. 48): Edwin Arroyo, SS
• Third round (No. 83): Michael Morales, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 113): Bryce Miller, RHP
• Fifth round (No. 144): Andy Thomas, C
• Sixth round (No. 174): Bryan Woo, RHP
• 20th round (No. 594): Troy Taylor, RHP (did not sign)
Overview: The Mariners started to see this fruits of this draft class early with both Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo becoming fixtures in the rotation after debuting in 2023. Elbow issues have put a damper on Miller’s 2025 campaign, but the right-hander already has a sub-3.00 ERA season under his belt. Woo, who had a 6.36 ERA in college, just made his first All-Star team and looks like the biggest steal of the draft.
Harry Ford, a top 100 prospect who was just selected to his third Futures Game, could end up making this draft class look even better. The pick of Edwin Arroyo in the second round is also notable since he was second-best prospect moved in the trade that brought starting pitcher Luis Castillo to Seattle in 2022, a move that helped end the Mariners’ 21-year playoff drought.
3. 2023
• First round (No. 22): Colt Emerson, SS
• First round (No. 29): Jonny Farmelo, OF
• First round (No. 30): Tai Peete, SS
• Second round (No. 57): Ben Williamson, 3B
• Third round (No. 92): Teddy McGraw, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 124): Aidan Smith, OF
• Fifth round (No. 160): Brock Rodden, SS
• 11th round (No. 337): Brandyn Garcia, LHP
• 12th round (No. 367): Logan Evans, RHP
Overview: For as good as the drafts above were, the 2023 draft class has a chance to be best on this list once everyone has played out their big league careers. Colt Emerson and Jonny Farmelo have become two of the most exciting prospects in Seattle’s talent-rich farm system and appear to be important pieces for the future of the franchise. Ben Williamson and 12th-round pick Logan Evans have already reached the majors and made key contributions this season to a Mariners team that’s in the hunt for an AL wild playoff berth.
Brandyn Garcia, an 11th-round pick, has reached Triple-A and could crack the roster as a reliever at some point this season. And there’s still plenty of untapped potential with Tai Peete, who is in High-A at just 19 years old. Oh yeah, the M’s also used fourth-rounder Aidan Smith and sixth-rounder Brody Hopkins to acquire Randy Arozarena last July. Pretty good stuff.
4. 2019
• First round (No. 20): George Kirby, RHP
• Second round (No. 59): Brandon Williamson, LHP
• Second round (No. 76): Isaiah Campbell, RHP
• Third round (No. 76): Levi Stoudt, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 126): Tim Elliot, RHP
• Fifth round (No. 156): Austin Shenton, 3B
• 20th round (No. 606): Cade Marlowe, OF
Overview: The Mariners went heavy on pitching early in this draft and hit in a major way by taking George Kirby in the first round. Kirby was the first of Seattle’s core of homegrown starting pitchers to make an All-Star game and has been one of baseball’s best strike-throwers since he debuted in 2022.
Most of the rest of the notable picks in this draft were used as trade chips. Brandon Williamson, Austin Shenton and Levi Stoudt were each used to acquire players who helped the Mariners end their playoff drought. Williamson was the headlining prospect sent to the Cincinnati Reds in the deal for Eugenio Suárez and Jesse Winker in 2022. Shenton wasone of two players sent to the Tampa Bay Rays for reliever Diego Castillo in 2021. And Stoudt was one of four players moved to land Luis Castillo. Seattle also got some value out of 20th-rounder Cade Marlowe in 2023.
5. 2022
• First round (No. 21): Cole Young, SS
• Second round (No. 58): Tyler Locklear, 3B
• Second round (No. 74): Walter Ford, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 126): Ashton Izzi, RHP
• Fifth round (No. 156): Reid VanScoter, LHP
• 12th round (No. 366): Troy Taylor, RHP
Overview: The Mariners’ 2022 draft class very much falls into the category of being too early to make any definitive statements on. Much of the value of this draft could end up falling on the shoulders of Cole Young. Now at second base in the majors, Young quickly became one of Seattle’s top prospects. Considering the fact that he is one of just two high schoolers taken in the 2022 first round to reach the big leagues (the other is No. 1 pick Jackson Holliday), he’s lived up to that billing so far.
The rest of the class is still very much up in the air. Troy Taylor seemed like the latest late-round pitching gem uncovered by Seattle during a surprising debut season in 2024. However, he struggled in the majors this season and has also had troubles in Triple-A. Tyler Locklear was briefly a top 100 prospect and got a taste of the majors last season, but has yet to make an impact at the big league level. Second-rounder Walter Ford has also lost much of the prospect hype he had after being taken out of high school. He ended 2023 as Seattle’s eighth-ranked prospect, per MLB Pipeline, but is no longer in the organization’s top 30.
6. 2024
• First round (No. 15): Jurrangelo Cijntje, switch-handed pitcher
• Second round (No. 55): Ryan Sloan, RHP
• Third round (No. 91): Hunter Cranton, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 121): Josh Caron, C
• Fifth round (No. 154): Charlie Beilenson, RHP
Overview: This is another class that’s far too early to judge, but the early returns on Seattle’s first two picks look promising. Switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje was named to this year’s Futures Game and is a top 100 prospect ranked eighth in the Mariners’ system by Pipeline. With his unique ability to throw with both hands, there’s a lot of intriguing upside. Speaking of upside, there might be even more with Ryan Sloan. Sloan is putting together a solid season with Single-A Modesto at just 19 years old, and he’s also cracked Pipeline’s top 100 rankings.
7. 2016
• First round (No. 11): Kyle Lewis, OF
• Second round (No. 50): Joe Rizzo, 3B
• Third round (No. 87): Bryson Brigman, SS
• Fourth round (No. 117): Thomas Burrows, LHP
• Fifth round (No. 147): Donovan Walton, SS
• Seventh round (No. 207): Matt Festa, RHP
• 40th round (No. 1,197): Adley Rutschman, C (did not sign)
Overview: We’ve gotten to the territory of recent Mariners drafts that just weren’t very good. However, part of the reason this class comes in so low is some unfortunate injury luck. First-rounder Kyle Lewis looked like Seattle’s center fielder of the future after winning Rookie of the Year in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. As we all know now, Lewis would play just 54 games in a Mariners uniform after that season as he dealt with recurring knee issues and freak injuries like being concussed by an errant pitch. With that said, the 2.4 WAR Lewis produced as a Mariner is the most by anybody in this class.
One fun note is that Seattle took a high school catcher out of Oregon named Adley Rutschman in the 40th and final round. He didn’t sign, but it’s a good look on the scouting department that they took a future No. 1 overall selection nearly 1,200 picks into the draft.
8. 2020
• First round (No. 6): Emerson Hancock, RHP
• Second round (No. 43): Zach DeLoach, OF
• Second round (No. 64): Connor Phillips
• Third round (No. 78): Kaden Polcovich, 2B
• Fourth round (No. 107): Tyler Kennan, 3B
• Fifth round (No. 137): Taylor Dollard, RHP
Overview: The 2020 draft has to be graded on a curve. It was only five rounds and it came after the college season was cancelled by the COVID pandemic. However, it’s one that doesn’t look very good for the Mariners even with all that considered. First-rounder Emerson Hancock has shown some good signs of progress this year while helping an injury-riddled starting rotation, but names like future All-Stars Garrett Crochet and Pete Crow-Armstrong were still on the board with the sixth pick.
This class may look a bit better if it weren’t for an injury to fifth-rounder Taylor Dollard, though. Dollard reached Triple-A Tacoma by 2023, but a torn labrum forced him to miss most of the season and all of 2024. He recently made his return in June and is currently pitching in High-A.
9. 2017
• First round (No. 17): Evan White, 1B
• Second round (No. 55): Sam Carlson, RHP
• Third round (No. 93): Wyatt Mills, RHP
• Fourth round (No. 123): Seth Elledge, RHP
• Fifth round (No. 153): David Banuelos, C
• 11th round (No. 133): JP Sears, LHP
• 36th round (No. 1,083): Heston Kjerstad, CF (did not sign)
Overview: The best thing to come out of this class for the Mariners was that third-rounder Wyatt Mills was one of two players traded to get Carlos Santana from Kansas City in 2022. Outside of that, this was a rough draft. The most productive player Seattle picked never ended up playing for the team. Left-hander JP Sears, an 11th-round pick, has become a decent big league starter for the Athletics, but the Mariners traded him to the Yankees in a 2017 deal for reliever Nick Rumbelow, who had a 7.58 ERA in 19 innings with the Mariners.
Seattle does have a Gold Glove from this class, though. First-round pick Evan White won one at first base in 2020, but the University of Kentucky product never showed the ability to hit big league pitching, missed most of the next three seasons with injuries and was traded to Atlanta after 2023. This was also the second year in a row where the Mariners picked a future top-two pick by the Orioles in the later rounds. Heston Kjerstad, a 36th-rounder who didn’t sign, went on to be the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft.
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