5 Mariners prospects to keep an eye on this season

Seattle Mariners prospects to follow no. 3 – Sam Carlson

The picture above is from 2017 after Carlson was selected in the second round of the MLB draft. It’s been a long road back to the baseball field for the 22-year-old prospect. In 2018, Sam Carlson needed Tommy John surgery and only had three innings under his belt until a few days ago.

Sam made his 2021 debut for the Modesto Nuts and went four innings. It was the first time he threw in a minor league game since July 18th of 2017.

Despite not being on the field for a long time, Carlson looks like he built a lot of muscle and looked strong on the mound the other day. The Minnesota native is completely healthy so this year will be a big year to determine where he is in terms of development.

Sam is still only 22-years-old and it will be interesting to see how quickly he can get back into form. He was drafted out of high school so his development would have taken longer to start with, so it might be a couple of years before we see him in the big leagues. Before his surgery, he was throwing a mid 90’s fastball with a good changeup.

Whether Carlson does well or not, I am happy for him to be back out on the mound and competing. But, if he does exceed expectations this season, it would be huge for our deep pitching prospect pool.

Now onto the fourth player to keep an eye on.