A few Seattle Mariners prospects moved up the ladder this week

The Seattle Mariners farm system has been performing exceptionally well in 2021 and a few prospects were recently promoted this past week. Seattle Mariners prospects Ian McKinney, Brandon Williamson, and Cade Marlowe packed up their bags to head to a new clubhouse.

Seattle Mariners prospect Ian McKinney heads to Tacoma

The 5’11” left-handed starting pitcher will be flying roughly 1,800 miles to head to his new home. Ian McKinney was pitching for the Mariners Double-A affiliate Arkansas Travelers and he is now one step closer to heading to the big leagues.

The former fifth-round pick has been in the minor leagues for quite a while now after being drafted out of William R. Boone High School in Orlando, FL, but it looks like he’s starting to turn the corner. McKinney has spent five different seasons at the Double-A level and owns a career 4.04 ERA.

But in 2021, things look a bit different after posting a 2.18 ERA in Arkansas prior to his promotion to Tacoma. The Florida native struck out a whopping 50 batters in just 33.0 innings. Ian McKinney also won player of the month (May) in the Double-A Central conference.

Ian McKinney has been in the Seattle Mariners organization since 2019 after a short stint in independent baseball and it’s turned out to be a good pick-up. It will be interesting to see how McKinney does in his time in Triple-A baseball, and if he does play well, we might even see him in Seattle at the end of the year.

Seattle Mariners prospect Brandon Williamson is onto Arkansas

Brandon Williamson has been a strikeout machine just like Ian McKinney. The tall southpaw struck out 59 batters in 31.0 innings while playing for the Everett AquaSox. The former 2019 second-round draft pick also posted a 3.19 ERA and help batters to 21 hits.

The 6’6″ prospect is now making the long trip to Arkansas for his first Double-A action. Williamson is quickly climbing the Mariners farm system and it’s a very promising sign. After finishing his season at TCU in 2019, Williamson headed straight to Everett and posted a 2.35 ERA.

After the pandemic season (no season), Williamson picked up where he left off and it didn’t take long for him to move up. Brandon is the 9th ranked Mariners prospect and is not in the Top 100 MLB prospects right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see his name added to the list in the near term.

The MLB website expects Brandon Williamson to debut in 2023 but based on his trajectory, we might even see him in a Seattle Mariners uniform next year. A lot of the focus has been on Emerson Hancock, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby (for good reason), but don’t forget about Brandon Williamson. He might be the final Infinity Stone for world domination.

Seattle Mariners prospect Cade Marlowe heads to Everett

Cade Marlowe is a pretty unknown Seattle Mariners prospect but that might quickly change. The Mariners drafted him in the 20th round of the 2019 draft out of the University of West Georgia and he’s been raking since he joined the organization.

In 2019, he played for the AquaSox and hit .301 and slugged .438 in 62 games. This season he started with the Low-A Modesto Nuts and is moving back to the Everett AquaSox to join a stacked team.

The outfielder has been playing so well that he recently entered the Mariners Top 30 prospects as the 30th ranked player. In Modesto, he hit .301, hit six home runs, and also stole 11 bases.

Although there hasn’t been too much movement in the minor leagues up to this point, I expect more names to pop up as the season goes on. It’s an exciting time to be a Seattle Mariners fans.