Next step for Mariners to turn top farm system into World Series contender
Feb 3, 2022, 4:27 PM
Jarred Kelenic and manager Scott Servais talk before a Mariners game against the Angels on Oct. 1. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Mariners enter the 2022 season in a very enviable position.
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Not only did they finish the 2021 season with 90 wins as one of MLB’s biggest and brightest surprises, but they also own the No. 1 farm system in baseball according to Baseball America’s recently-released rankings. That marks a remarkable turnaround for the Mariners since the start of their rebuild after the 89-win 2018 season when they had baseball’s lowest-ranked farm system.
Obviously farm system rankings don’t necessarily equate to wins and losses, but seven of the nine teams to have Baseball America’s No. 1 farm system from 2011-20 went on to reach the World Series shortly after. Those teams also had something that, to date, the Mariners don’t currently possess much of.
Baseball America Editor-In-Chief JJ Cooper joined 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy on Thursday and explained what the Mariners really need despite having the publication’s top-ranked farm system.
That need? Veteran talent to pair with the team’s highly-rated hitting prospects like Julio Rodríguez and Noelvi Marte and the plethora of young arms on the way led by George Kirby.
“If you just look at the teams that have succeeded, I struggle to come up with many teams who haven’t had something like that,” Cooper said. “I think the Braves, the World Series defending champs right now, did it as well as anyone with a rebuild.”
The Braves won the 2021 World Series just a few seasons after having Baseball America’s No. 1 farm system in back-to-back years (2017 and 2018).
Atlanta added elite prospect talent to the big league roster like Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson over the past few seasons, but those players joined a roster that had one of baseball’s premier hitters in first baseman Freddie Freeman.
“So they had a MVP-caliber talent who was right in the heart of the order in the middle of his career,” Cooper said.
Freeman, who was the National League MVP in 2020 and is now a five-time All-Star, had two All-Star nods before Atlanta had Baseball America’s top-ranked farm system.
Freeman and other veterans on Atlanta’s roster meant the Braves’ youngsters who were promoted to the big leagues didn’t have as much pressure on them.
“They didn’t have to be the guy from Day 1 because there was this middle of the order bat,” Cooper said.
Cooper also pointed to the Los Angeles Dodgers (2020 World Series champs) having Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen on the roster when Corey Seager, Walker Buehler and Will Smith all debuted. Additionally, the Kansas City Royals (2015 World Series champs) had veteran arms like James Shields, Johnny Cueto and Edinson Vólquez as well as veteran utility man Ben Zobrist to lead a team loaded with young talent.
“That’s a small market team that made it work. And when they did that, they had kind of some more of those veterans to go around the young talent coming up,” Cooper said. “You’re gonna have to do that in some way, shape, or form (if you’re the Mariners).”
Another reason that’s so key for the Mariners? Another American League team – Detroit – has Baseball America’s No. 6 farm system and is trying to turn the corner from rebuilding to contending at the same time the Mariners are.
“I look at the Tigers right now who are trying to also kind of take a rebuild to another step and obviously, that’s something that they’ve done,” Cooper said. “They went out and they they spent some money in free agency. They brought in Javier Báez, they’re bringing in guys to be kind of more of those veterans to go around kind of a young core of talent. I think that is kind of a key for Seattle going forward as well.”
The good news on that front, Cooper said, is the Mariners can easily go that route should they choose.
“Seattle has some advantages over a lot of these other rebuilds because we know that Seattle is a team in a market where it’s not unrealistic to think that it has the money to spend to bring in some of that talent,” he said.
Listen to the full interview with Cooper at this link or in the player below.
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