Prospects giving first-place Mariners a good problem

May 22, 2025, 11:41 AM

Seattle Sports

Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto views the MLB seasons in thirds.

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The first third is when teams are getting a feel for who their players are and where the holes on their rosters may be, the second is when teams try to identify how they can fill the holes, and the third is when it’s time to sit back and watch how everything plays out when the final roster is assembled.

Right now, the M’s are entering the second third of that equation as they sit atop the AL West at 28-20.

“We’ve identified where our biggest needs might be,” Dipoto said during Wednesday’s Mariners pregame show on Seattle Sports with M’s insider Shannon Drayer and play-by-play voice Gary Hill Jr. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job of filling a lot of those needs internally over time. We’ve gotten so many contributions from guys up and down our lineup and unexpected contributions from the guys who hit in that back third (of the batting order), to the guys in the middle of the ‘pen, to guys who stepped in at the back of the rotation.

“And our goal now would be to see how we can augment that. Being able to do that in May is not the easiest thing in the world, but setting up the table so that you can do that in mid-June to mid-July is what the game is about.”

One of the options Dipoto and the front office have to bolster the roster is promoting from within, and Seattle has a farm system that’s touted as one of baseball’s best

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Two of their slew of top-100 prospects – second baseman Cole Young and catcher Harry Ford – are nearing the majors with Triple-A Tacoma. Former top-100 member Tyler Locklear, a first baseman, is also with Tacoma, as is 27-year-old outfielder Dominic Canzone, who’s been among the best hitters in the Pacific Coast League this season.

With the M’s rolling early and a farm system stocked with talent, it’s a scenario that Dipoto admitted the team hasn’t gone through since its current run of winning seasons started in 2021.

“It gives us great depth, and it gives us I guess a unique challenge that throughout the course of the last five years we’ve never had to look at it,” Dipoto said. “We’ve looked at a team that has generally been a contender or contender-ish for the last five years or thereabouts, and we’ve never had to look at when is the appropriate time to promote the young player who might be able to push that over the edge. Typically, the young player comes in lower-pressure situations for teams that don’t have a lot on the line, and they’re given a degree of runway or (you) just throw them the opportunity.”

Will any of the Mariners players in Triple-A who are knocking on the door for a major league promotion see the big leagues any time soon? That’s a question Dipoto and the front office are still wrestling with. They see they have players deserving of a look at the next level, but as a first-place team, they also aren’t necessarily in a spot where young players can be guaranteed the type of runway they may need at the big league level.

“I think one of the things that we have to wrap our head around is: between now and the trade deadline, if we don’t determine how much these players can contribute at the big leagues, we won’t know what our true need is when we go into the trade deadline,” Dipoto said. “But how much can you do when the team is performing the way it’s performing right now?”

Dipoto ultimately sees it as a good problem to have.

“I will take what’s happening now and the confusion that it creates in player development (and) prospect promotion,” Dipoto said, “and live with the fact that we’re winning most of the days in the big leagues.”