Mariners’ Goldsmith: Colt Emerson the ‘No. 1 thing that stood out to me’

As the top prospect in the top farm system in baseball, there is a lot of attention on Seattle Mariners shortstop Colt Emerson this spring training.

He’s living up to the hype, and perhaps exceeding it, according to Mariners broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith.

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Goldsmith joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday morning, and the first question he fielded was about what he’d seen at the Mariners’ camp in Arizona. His answer was surprising, and that should mean something.

“The No. 1 thing that stood out to me has nothing to do with this year’s big league club, more than likely. I haven’t seen a young prospect, a young player seem more comfortable as himself than Colt Emerson,” Goldsmith said.

In a spring training camp full of major league players, some of whom have been All-Stars in recent seasons, it’s a 19-year-old kid with just over 100 minor league games under his belt that has grabbed the attention of a veteran play-by-play announcer entering his 13th year calling big league baseball. That’s something.

Emerson’s play on the field has made waves ever since he was selected 22nd overall by the Mariners in the 2023 MLB Draft out of John Glenn High School in New Corcord, Ohio.

He had a combined slash line of .374/.496/.550 for a 1.045 OPS between two teams in 24 games in his first pro season. Last year, he had a .293 average and .867 OPS in 40 games in short-season Single-A ball. And while he scuffled some in 29 games with High-A Everett late last year, he then had an impressive 13-game run in the Arizona Fall League with a .370 average and .973 OPS.

Entering this year, Emerson is the No. 16 overall prospect as ranked by Baseball America, and the No. 20 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline.

It’s not just the play of Emerson that jumps out to Goldsmith, though.

“I haven’t seen a young prospect, a young player seem more comfortable as himself than Colt Emerson,” he said. “I mean, truly.”

Goldsmith saw Emerson play in Cactus League action and last week’s Spring Breakout prospect showcase game against the Cleveland Guardians. He’s also had a chance to talk to him.

“It really is remarkable to me that a kid that young, who just – he was in high school, like, yesterday, right? – who has seen his prospect stock go from already really high to even higher… just be so at ease and so relaxed.”

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Emerson’s major league arrival isn’t expected to be until 2026, and that’s a pretty aggressive estimate as it is. Even with those expectations, he isn’t falling into a trap players even older than him tend to while playing in spring training games.

“(Emerson does) not feel this need like he has to come in a big league camp and blow the doors off and be ‘the man.’ Obviously he’s not going to make the big league team (out of spring training), but we’ve all seen it before when young players come up and they try to do too much,” Goldsmith said. “They swing too hard. We’ve seen a lot of guys come up in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning in Cactus League games who are 19, 20, 21 years old and swing so hard that they truly fall down because they’re trying to hit it 500 feet.

“I’ve never seen a young player that at ease and that confident and that in control of who he is as Colt Emerson. And who knows what his future will hold, what his ceiling will be, but I understand why the club is so high on him and why the industry truthfully has become so high on him even since being drafted in the first round. He’s a really impressive young man.”

“Sooner than we all might think”

Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard related Emerson to another player who arrived at Mariners spring training as a teenager with a lot of hype – Jarred Kelenic. And honestly, it’s tough not to make the comparison considering they kinda look like each other, especially when it comes to seeing them in the left-handed side of the batter’s box.

Kelenic, now 25 and entering his second season with the Atlanta Braves, hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations he had as a highly touted prospect. According to Huard, who saw Emerson up close while Brock and Salk broadcast their show for a week from Mariners camp earlier in spring training, there’s a noticeable difference in the way he carries himself compared to how Kelenic did.

“I think (Emerson’s disposition) is what the Mariners would have hoped, and certainly Atlanta would have hoped, that they could get out of a Jarred Kelenic,” Huard said. “And this kid seems to have it at 19 years of age.”

Goldsmith responded to that with a story.

“(Emerson) was telling me a story about when he played in a Cactus League game against the Padres, and the Padres had basically all big leaguers in the lineup, and the Mariners likewise. Colt was kind of one of the few guys (in the game) who won’t be in ‘the show’ this year, and he said as he was walking over to the ballpark from the practice side of things, you know, I don’t care who’s over there. I don’t care who I’m playing against. I’m just going to do what I do. I’m going to play like I play, and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s Manny Machado at third base, if it’s Fernando Tatís in right field.

And we’ve all heard of players trying to trick themselves. Like, I remember talking to Jarred Kelenic and him telling me ways that he tries to trick himself. And I don’t care what position you play or how young or old you are, one of the things that I’m always amazed with is just how how well big league ballplayers can trick themselves into thinking and believing something. And for him to be able to kind of have that mindset and buy into it, which is obviously the hardest part – anybody can say, ‘Well, just think this’ – but to actually be able to buy into it and have it impact your play in a positive way I think is really impressive to me regardless if you’ve never played in the show or if you get 10 years.

And so for a young man of his youth to be able to do that and to play as well as he did (in spring training is really impressive).

Now here’s the kicker from Goldsmith.

“I can’t wait to see what his season has in store and and when he’ll reach Seattle. I mean, the more I spend time with him and watch him play, I keep thinking it might be even sooner than we all might think.”

Hear the full Brock and Salk conversation with Seattle Mariners broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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