Seattle Mariners prospect Jose Corniell made his professional debut in the Instructional League
Jose Corniell is the Seattle Mariners’ 24th ranked prospect in the system. Corniell was signed during the 2019-2020 international amateur signing period, so the 2020 minor league season would have been his first taste of professional baseball. With the minor league season canceled, his chance to pitch against other professionals had to wait until late 2020 in the Instructional League held in Arizona.
According to Mariners PR’s Twitter account and its multiple posts of statistics from Arizona, Corniell threw three innings during the seven-week span of practices and games. I will say that Mariners PR did not publish stats from every single Instructional League game so my numbers are most likely off from the real numbers.
In those three innings Corniell pitched, he faced 12 batters and threw 44 pitches. He only struck out two batters but he did not allow any hits or walks according to the available sources. The Dominican Republic born pitcher can touch the mid-90s with late life, according to MLB.com.
From my approximations, his average fastball velocity during the Instructional League was 91mph. The good news is that Jose Corniell’s fastball velocity might get higher and higher. Jose is just a teenager and has not fully built into his body yet. He is currently 6’3″ tall and weighs in at 165lbs.
The 24th ranked Mariners prospect has a decent curveball and solid changeup. To this point, he has not been stretched out as a starting pitcher and will probably remain a relief pitcher in the near term. Since he is so young, there is no need to overwork him. The focus should be to get him on a great workout plan to build muscle and work on maturing as a pitcher.
At the same time, baseball is not all about the physical elements, and Corniell still has a lot to learn from coaches as he grows into his body. He is projected to make a 2024 MLB debut, but I have no clue how accurate that is. Jose Corniell is a part of a very young group of Seattle Mariners pitching prospects including Connor Phillips, Juan Then, Sam Carlson, and others. For now, make sure to keep an eye on his name in the Mariners farm system.