Baseball America reveals updated list of Mariners top prospects for 2025 season

Every year, Baseball America publishes a list of their top-10 minor-league prospects for each organization as well as a list of players with the best tools. It's often referred to as "the source" for that type of information, so it's a bigger deal than normal for baseball fans.

They recently put out their list for their favorite standouts in the Mariners' system heading into 2025, and it goes as follows:

1. SS/3B Colt Emerson
2. SS/2B Cole Young
3. OF Jonny Farmelo
4. 2B Michael Arroyo
5. SS Felnin Celesten
6. C Harry Ford
7. OF Lazaro Montes
8. RHP Logan Evans
9. RHP Ryan Sloan
10. 1B Tyler Locklear

There are a couple of key observations to be made here. First, four of the top five prospects play in the middle infield, an encouraging sign given that it's an area of weakness for the current MLB squad. Second, despite the Mariners receiving frequent praise for their pitching development, only two of the top 10 prospects are pitchers, and they're closer to the bottom.

There have also been some slight shifts in the rankings, at least when compared to MLB's own list for 2024. A few prospects took steps forward after having great years. Jonny Farmelo jumped from No. 9 on MLB's list to No. 3 on Baseball America's. He had a strong start to his professional career, posting an .820 OPS over 221 plate appearances with Single-A Modesto. Michael Arroyo made a similar move, jumping up eight spots after torching Single-A Modesto and High-A Everett. Across 592 minor league plate appearances, he posted a .910 OPS with 23 home runs and 89 RBI. Logan Evans managed to move up two spots after pitching to a respectable 3.20 ERA over 107 innings in Double-A Arkansas.

Then there were the prospects who more or less stayed put, most notably the crown jewels of the farm system: Colt Emerson and Cole Young. Felnin Celesten stayed at the No. 5 spot and had a solid year in rookie ball, posting a .999 OPS over 144 plate appearances. Ryan Sloan fell by a spot compared to MLB's 2024 ranking but he's still yet to make a single outing since being drafted in June, meaning he's still unproven at the professional level.

Some names on the list took slight steps back but nothing was too drastic. Harry Ford had difficulties at the plate all year, posting a .745 OPS over his first 523 appearances in Double-A. Lazaro Montes fell from No. 3 to No. 7 after a solid start but saw some regression following his promotion to High-A. Finally, we have Tyler Locklear who managed to make his big league debut in 2024 to disappointing results. In 16 games played, he slashed just .156/.224/.311 and simply never got going. It was a relatively small sample size of just 49 plate appearances, but as the No. 6 prospect in 2024, fans and scouts were likely expecting more. He could still see another call-up to fill in the gaps at first base, but he's likely not the answer to the team's lagging offense.

The prevalence of such great talent is bittersweet given the front office's continued commitment to minimizing payroll over maximizing wins, but there's also a chance these young players hold the key to short-term success for the major-league roster as well. A trade involving one of these prized prospects could net an impactful major-league talent, like a new second baseman, but how will the M's proceed?