Big day for top Seattle Mariners prospects in split-squad games

Several of Seattle’s promising youngsters gave Mariners fans a glimpse of their bright future.

As the clock struck noon in Seattle, the M’s started not one, but two games down in the Arizona desert. The San Francisco Giants paid visit to the Mariners in Peoria, while Seattle shipped off a secondary team to Camelback Ranch for a matchup with the Chicago White Sox.

Seattle’s top pitching prospect, Logan Gilbert, took the mound in Peoria and delivered two solid innings of one-hit ball with a strikeout. Gilbert was mid 90s with the fastball, but struggled a bit with the control of his breaking stuff. Still, he managed to complete his outing relatively unscathed and overall put in an impressive effort for his first time out there against Major League talent.

Meanwhile, at Camelback Ranch, Gilbert’s Arkansas rotation mate Ljay Newsome also fared well versus a White Sox lineup that posed several of their Opening Day starters, including top prospect Luis Robert. Newsome lost his lone battle with Robert, surrendering a double that almost left the park, but the 23-year-old righty kept Chicago out of the run column in his two innings of work while logging a pair of strikeouts on Yoan Moncada and Nomar Mazara, both looking.

Jack Anderson joined the party of “young Mariners pitching prospects striking out White Sox starters looking” (working title). Anderson’s submarine delivery proved too much for Jose Abreu who—you guessed it—struckout looking. In the same inning, Anderson also worked an infield popup to put away Eloy Jimenez.

Penn Murfee also fired off a couple of strikeouts, getting both Robert and James McCann swinging.

The fun didn’t stop there, however, as two of the Mariners’ top hitting prospects put a walloping on a pair of Chicago’s young, hard-throwing relievers. In the fourth, Cal Raleigh obliterated a 97 mph offering from Codi Heuer for a solo home run. An inning later, Tayron Guerrero became a victim to the sweet swing of Jake Fraley, who sent his 101 mph(!!!) fireball to the moon. Fraley also added an RBI to his line with a sacrifice fly in the second inning.

There were plenty of hot bats to stay behind in Peoria, as well. Jarred Kelenic and Jose Siri logged a hit each, while Shed Long drove in a run on an RBI double.

As of writing this, Julio Rodriguez has now checked into the game in Peoria, and with the way today has gone, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do something special as well.