3 former Mariners prospects about to have a breakout season in the majors

Three players who were formerly top Seattle prospects could have breakout seasons with their new teams.
ByJason Wang|
New York Yankees v Seattle Mariners
New York Yankees v Seattle Mariners | Steph Chambers/GettyImages

The Seattle Mariners haven't traded away many pieces of their acclaimed farm system over the past few years, but that doesn't mean some talent hasn't slipped through the cracks.

Whether they left in a move to acquire a big league player or simply as a result of failing to find success in Seattle's system, here are a few examples of players who were let go that now seem ready to make a splash at the highest level of the sport.

Note: Prospect rankings are according to MLB Pipeline.


RHP Joey Gerber (No. 20 in 2019)

Gerber was an eighth-round pick in the 2018 draft out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He made his debut with the Mariners in 2020, posting a 4.02 ERA over 15.2 innings out of the bullpen before returning to the minor league grind. After receiving back surgery that caused him to miss all of 2021 and further injury problems in 2022, he was designated for assignment and released.

The New York Yankees picked him up in 2022, but he wasn't able to return to action until 2024, starting in Single-A Tampa but working all the way up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre by the end of the year. In an impressive return to form, he posted a 2.43 ERA over 33.1 minor-league innings.

Following the season, Gerber elected free agency and signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Although he pitched 4.2 shutout innings for Tampa Bay in spring training, he was assigned to minor-league camp, likely an attempt for his new team to figure out how to best utilize his talents.

The Rays have been known to develop outstanding pitching talent, getting the most out of otherwise undervalued arms like Gerber. Despite starting the year in the minors, Tampa loves to utilize a wide variety of bullpen arms. As such, this could be the opportunity for him to return to big league action for the first time in five years.


LHP Adam Macko (No. 15 in 2021)

Macko was taken out of high school by the Mariners in the seventh round of the 2019 draft and had a few solid seasons as a starter in their minor league system. He was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays as part of the package that brought back Teoscar Hernández and has continued his steady progress towards the majors ever since.

He's currently the No. 16 prospect in Toronto's system and despite some bad injury luck as of late, there's still a chance he brings his talents to the big league roster.

Macko's fastball is starting to sit in the mid-90s more frequently, but his curveball remains his most effective pitch. If he wants to be a viable starter at the highest level, he'll have to do more work to flesh out his arsenal. Scouts have reported that the slider and changeup are still works in progress. He'll return to Triple-A Buffalo upon his recovery and if he performs well in his first full season there, he has a chance to be a solid arm at the back of the rotation.

While the Blue Jays have a respectable one-two punch led by Kevin Gausman and José Berríos, the rest of their rotation is a little less certain. Chris Bassitt and Yariel Rodríguez had their own struggles last year and Alek Manoah is recovering from Tommy John surgery. The team did sign Max Scherzer, but he only pitched 43.1 innings in 2024, leaving plenty of innings potentially up for grabs.


OF Taylor Trammell (No. 6 in 2021)

Trammell arrived in Seattle along with Andrés Muñoz, Ty France, and Luis Torrens in a 2020 deadline deal with the San Diego Padres. Heading into 2021, scouts highlighted his speed as well as his above-average bat. He put up decent numbers in the minor leagues and was good enough to get called up that season, but after three seasons of brief stints with the major-league squad and failing to crack the Opening Day roster in 2024, he was designated for assignment.

After a brief stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Trammell was claimed off of waivers by the Yankees. He then finally began to put up meaningful numbers in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Over his 407 plate appearances, he posted a 127 wRC+ with 18 homers and 20 doubles. Poised to be a depth piece for New York, the Houston Astros traded for him last November in an attempt to bolster their own outfield prior to the departure of Kyle Tucker.

Houston has some positional confusion to navigate in the outfield, but this could be Trammell's best shot at consistently getting major-league at-bats. FanGraphs is conservatively projecting him to receive fewer than 60 plate appearances, but ZiPS tells us more about what could happen assuming he played a full season.

Dan Szymborski's unique projection system returns numbers independent of a team's depth chart and has projected Trammell to post a 110 wRC+ and 2.0 fWAR over 417 plate appearances if given full access to playing time. He'll have to get past the likes of Jose Altuve, Mauricio Dubón, and Chas McCormick on the depth chart first. But if ZiPS is correct, his 2025 could more productive that his other four major-league seasons combined.

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