Seattle Mariners: 3 prospects who could make the opening day roster

The Seattle Mariners have one of the best farm systems in the league and have plenty of players who are MLB ready. So which prospects could make the opening day roster? 

Everywhere you read will tell you that the Mariners have one of the top 10 farm systems in the MLB, and when other sites and publications come out with their rankings for 2021 I would not be surprised if almost all of them have them in their top 5. On MLB.com the Mariners also have 6 prospects in their top 100 rankings, which is tied for most in the league with Tampa Bay.

However, how many of those prospects are MLB ready? In the Mariners’ top 30 on MLB.com 12 of their prospects have expected arrival times in the majors of 2020 or 2021, with 6 of those players already making their MLB debuts.

So out of the other 6 players who are projected to come up this year, or were projected to come up last year and did not, as well as any other players who might be close to making their debut, Who could make the opening day roster?

There are plenty of players who will undoubtedly make their MLB debut next year like Jarred Kelenic and Logan Gilbert, but there are really only three in that group of guys who have not debuted yet who could make the opening day roster. MLB salary rules also make it more and more likely that guys get called up a few weeks into the season because if they remain in the minors for a set amount of time, they will not have enough “service time” in the MLB come 6 years from now and will remain under team control for another year.

So who are those three?

Cal Raleigh

Cal Raleigh is a longshot to make his MLB debut on opening day, but it could happen. There are only two players ahead of him on the Mariners roster at the catcher position as Tom Murphy figures to be the opening day starter and Luis Torrens, who the Mariners acquired last year in the Austin Nola deal, figures to be his backup.

However, Murphy is coming off of a 2020 season that saw him get 0 action as he missed the entire season due to injury, if he were to struggle in spring training or get injured again, Raleigh could slide into one of the two roster spots for a catcher.

Another reason that Raleigh has a chance to debut on opening day is that he had a great Instructional League this fall. Instructional League was huge for some Mariners prospects this fall as none of them got to play in any real games against competition other than other Mariners since last march in Spring Traning, and Raleigh took advantage of the opportunity and was one of the Mariners best hitters.

As I said, Raleigh has a chance to make the opening day roster, but my guess is that he is called up sometime mid-season if Murphy or Torrens are struggling or get injured.

Jarred Kelenic

Jarred Kelenic is one of the best prospects in baseball, and is in almost every rankings top 15 for the entire league. Many regard him as a future perennial All-Star with eye-popping minor league stats like an .882 OPS in 751 plate appearances, and there is no doubt that he will be up in the major leagues at some point in 2021.

Many wanted Kelenic to be called up in 2020 but the Mariners made the smart move in a year that they weren’t competing by not losing a year of team control to only bring up Kelenic for 30-40 games.

My prediction is that Kelenic does not make the opening day roster as the Mariners want to use the service time rules to their advantage so they get an extra year of control. However, the first possible day that he can come up and remain under team control through 2027 he will be up.

There is a chance that he is not called up in the first few weeks of the season however if the Mariners outfield is hitting well and there is no spot for Kelenic in the lineup, but injuries and poor performance with one of Seattle’s 3 starting outfielders is bound to happen, so Kelenic will be up before the All-Star break.