What it means for M’s that AquaSox may be ‘best team’ in minors

Apr 11, 2025, 10:33 AM

Editor, Seattle Sports

The Seattle Mariners have one the top-ranked farm systems in baseball, so it stands to reason their affiliates in the minor leagues are stocked with talent.

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One of those teams may stand above the rest, however. And it just happens to be the one that plays closer to the Mariners’ home stadium than any other.

“I look at the Everett roster this year, my goodness,” ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan said Tuesday to Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “… Everett might be the best team in the minor leagues this year.”

Passan has a point, as the High-A Everett AquaSox certainly have a number of big names on their roster to begin the Northwest League season.

The AquaSox currently feature:

• Shortstop Colt Emerson (No. 19 overall and No. 1 Mariners prospect per MLB)
• Outfielder Lazaro Montes (No. 40 overall, No. 2 Mariners)
• Infielder Michael Arroyo (No. 95 overall, No. 7 Mariners)
• Switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (2024 No. 15 overall MLB Draft pick)
• Outfielder Tai Peete (2023 No. 30 overall MLB Draft pick)

Lazaro Montes to open the year for the High-A @EverettAquaSox:
.429/.609/1.143

The @Mariners' second-ranked prospect has an extra-base hit and at least one RBI in four of five contests: pic.twitter.com/inpigGOFSq

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 10, 2025

A year away?

Passan’s comment came as an aside in a larger conversation about something directly impacting Seattle’s MLB team: depth.

Seattle Sports’ Mike Salk asked Passan how many team can withstand playing without key players like Mariners right fielder Victor Robles and George Kirby.

“A half-dozen, maybe. Depth is hard, man,” Passan said. “The best kind of depth comes from the draft and from international amateur free agent signings. That’s when you know your team is well run, when the injury bug hits like this and all of a sudden you can go to guys who have come up through your system.”

Seattle’s run of bad injury luck wasn’t even done at the time of the conversation, as starting second baseman Ryan Bliss suffered a tear in his left biceps on Tuesday night and may miss the entire rest of the season.

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So how close are the Mariners to having that kind of depth Passan spoke about?

“I think the Mariners are a year away from having that at the big league level,” he said. “… These guys (currently with the AquaSox), if they succeed this year, are going to be at Double-A next year – with Emerson potentially ascending even quicker. And once you’re at Double-A, you could reasonably get called up to the big leagues at that point. Like, you’re close enough where you can smell the big leagues.

“And when the Mariners have this sort of injury bug in the future, I think they’re going to be able to handle it. But right now it’s tough.”

ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan joins Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk at 8:30 a.m. every Tuesday during the baseball season. Listen to this week’s conversation 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.