Seattle Mariners Top 30 Prospects: 30-26, Lets Do This

The time is finally here. We are finally starting to unveil our Top 30 Seattle Mariners Prospects. After deliberations and debate, we are proud to show what we came up with.

Before we start our breakdown, I highly recommend you read our primer, which details our process. Once you have read that, some of our decisions could make more sense. We are ranking our Top 30 Mariners prospects from 30 all the way to number 1.

Along with a brief breakdown of each prospect, you will see grades for tools on some players. All grades will be based on the standard “20-80” scouting scale. If you’re unfamiliar, the numbers are just a quick way to assign a value to a skill. A 20 grade is terrible. An 80 grade is Hall of Fame level. 50 is considered MLB average.

A player with 50-grade skills across the board is a solid big league regular. These grades are mostly opinion, and players outperform their tools all the time. In addition to these grades, we will also give a probability scale from 1-5. This scale represents the likelihood that the prospect will reach the big leagues and perform to their ceiling. With all that in mind, let’s get started.

30. Sam Delaplane, RHP

Kicking off our list is a former 23rd round pick of the 2017 draft. Sam Delaplane is a small frame reliever who has put up big numbers early in his professional career. Drafted out of Eastern Michigan, Delaplane has always had a knack for missing bats, despite his lack of overwhelming stuff.

Standing at just 5’11” and 170lbs, Delaplane’s fastball sits in the low 90’s but has touched 95 on occasion. He has a hard slider to back up the decent fastball and earns good marks for his work ethic in perfecting his craft.

His first foray into professional baseball saw him dominate the Arizona League, striking out 47 batters in 31 innings while issuing just 8 walks. Delaplane followed up his impressive debut with an even better season at A-Ball Clinton, posting a 1.99 ERA, and 100 strikeouts in 59.2 innings.

Thus far, Delaplane has been a groundball machine, producing 1.67 groundballs to every flyball. His ability to limit extra-base hits, induce soft contact, combined with his skill of missing bats, gives him a realistic chance to be a solid mid-reliever, with the ceiling of a setup man.

He will likely get to start the year in High-A Modesto, a challenging place for pitchers. However, Delaplane’s stay with the Nuts may be short and could end the season all the way up in AAA Tacoma if he continues to produce at his current level.

Scouting Grades: Fastball: 50 Slider:55 Command: 50 Probability: 3/5