What landing No. 3 pick means for Mariners’ draft strategy

The offseason didn’t feature as much Seattle Mariners news as usual, but it did provide one of the most unlikely things to go in the team’s favor in quite some time.

Local product ecstatic about second chance with hometown Seattle Mariners

After finishing with the second-best record among non-playoff teams in 2024, the M’s had the second-worst odds among eligible teams in MLB’s draft lottery for the No. 1 overall pick in 2025. Seattle didn’t end up with the top pick, but it catapulted from being expected to land a mid-first-round pick all the way to pick No. 3 during the lottery held in December.

Mariners vice president of amateur scouting Scott Hunter was asked this week on the Hot Stove what his reaction to the team landing the No. 3 pick was.

“Uncontrollable giggles,” Hunter said during a conversation with Mariners broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. “I’m sitting there with my assistant, Tyler Warmoth, and we said that we’ll just go down and watch and see what happens. Maybe we’ll gain a spot or two in the draft. Maybe we can get to around 10 or something like that.

“And as it kept going, we started just laughing and joking with each other going, ‘Is this really possible?’”

Indeed, it was possible. The Mariners secured their highest pick of the Jerry Dipoto era, and the highest since it took catcher Mike Zunino at No. 3 overall in the 2012 MLB Draft. It’s also just the second top-10 pick since Hunter took over as director of amateur scouting in 2016.

With the No. 3 pick, Hunter now has the chance to add a major piece to a farm system that already has the most top-1oo prospects (seven) in both of Baseball America’s and MLB Pipeline’s rankings, and that is rated as the No. 1 overall system by The Athletic’s Keith Law.

“This is a great opportunity for us that we can not only hopefully keep this thing rolling with our top prospects and build our system, but also continue to do it in other rounds,” Hunter said. “… We can make some decisions and not have to wait around.”

Hill was curious as to how the jump in picks impacts the Mariners’ draft strategy in 2025.

“I think it definitely narrows the field a little bit of like who we’re gonna pick (in the first round),” Hunter said. “Our filters can be a little harder because the top three picks in the country are really big. I mean, you got to be special to be in that area, and we’re gonna assess that. But we really are at a point now where every player in the country is open.”

There’s something else the Mariners have in their favor.

“If we have interest (in a top draft prospect), we might be able to make something work because we have one of the biggest bonus pools in baseball,” Hunter continued.

Hunter said the larger bonus pool puts the Mariners in a situation where they can be creative, much like they were when paying over the slot value for No. 22 overall pick Colt Emerson in 2023 and second-rounder Ryan Sloan last year.

“There’s so many windows of opportunity that it really doesn’t start to take fold until and really become clear until we get a little closer to the draft, but it keeps everything wide open for us,” Hunter said.

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. The Hot Stove Show airs on Tuesdays from 7-9 p.m. leading up to spring training.

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