Sodo Mojo Presents” Top 30 Mariners Prospects- #4 Evan White

The Seattle Mariners have added a lot of prospects this off-season. However, part of their farm system improvement is some of the holdover prospects, including their 2017 first round pick.

As always, for a breakdown of our process in selecting the Top 30 Mariners prospects, read the primer by clicking here. If you want a breakdown of our first 26 prospects, you can go to the “minors” tab on the website, or click right here.

In addition, remember that our grades are based on the standard scouting scale. The scale ranges from 20-80, 20 being not MLB quality and 80 being a Hall of Fame tool. We also provide a probability score on a 1-5 scale, based on the likelihood they reach the 75% plateau of their upside. With all that in mind, let’s get started.

4. Evan White

For the Mariners to achieve their goal of the quick turnaround, they’ll need some of their homegrown prospects to develop quickly. Evan White is one of those players. Drafted out of the University of Kentucky in Round 1 of the 2017 draft.

White was a Golden Spikes semi-finalist with a unique toolset that hasn’t changed much. He is a left-handed thrower, but a right-handed batter. He is an excellent athlete who plays first base. White plays first, but power is his weakest tool.

It is a complex profile, one that many scouts have been unable to cope with, borderline insisting that White has to move to the outfield. To their credit, White is good enough to play plus defense in a corner and could handle CF well enough.

But the Mariners have never really entertained the idea. White is the premier defender at first base in all of baseball, MLB or otherwise. Some scouts believe that White is the best defender regardless of position in all of baseball.

Does elite first base defense mean more than good defense in the outfield? Probably not. But the reason some scouts don’t believe he should play first is that ” the bat doesn’t play” at first base. Now, personally, I am not a big fan of moving a player off a spot simply because the “bat doesn’t fit”.

Besides that, White showed a bit of a power surge later in 2018, giving fans the hope he can tap into the natural power the Mariners have always insisted White has. Aside from the power, White has an advanced feel for the strike zone and can drive the ball gap to gap. White may “only” hit 20 home runs but should hit enough doubles to keep his slugging percentage up.

He is a plus-runner and above-average arm and hit tools. If he can prove the power he showed in High-A Modesto is legitimate, White will skyrocket up other people’s prospect ranks.

Scouting Grades- Hit: 55 Power: 50 Run: 60 Arm: 55 Field: 80 Probability: 3/5

The power tool may have another half grade in his game and if so, this is the profile of an All-Star caliber player. White will almost certainly start the year in AA Arkansas with an outside shot of making his big league debut in 2019.

Some people have a pipe dream of White becoming the next Cody Bellinger. The comp makes a little sense, as both are plus athletes who can play the OF but are plus at 1B. However, expecting White to grow into Bellinger power is a bit ridiculous. Perhaps the best offensive comp for White is A.J. Pollock. To find a true comp is difficult because White is quite a unique profile.

Either way, the Mariners will closely monitor this season for White. GM Jerry Dipoto has already stated that fans could see White in Seattle by this season, so White isn’t far off.