Early MLB draft winds may be blowing Mariners in totally opposite direction from 2025

The 2026 MLB Draft is still two months away, but that isn't stopping people from thinking about what new talent the Mariners might add to the organization.

With the college regular season ending in little more than a week and high school seasons ending shortly after, the front office has pretty much all of the data they'll need to make a decision and recent projections suggest they'll be taking a different approach than last year.

Early mock drafts have the Mariners prioritizing position players in the first round

Keith Law of The Athletic recently published his version of how he thinks the first round of the draft will go and with the 24th overall pick, he believes Seattle will select outfielder A.J. Gracia out of the University of Virginia.

Gracia has had an exceptional college career, spending his first two college seasons at Duke before transferring to Virginia for the 2026 season. Across 775 college plate appearances, he has slashed .305/.449/.570 with impressive power from the left side, accumulating 34 doubles and 41 home runs. Defensively, he has split time between right and center field.

The Mariners have earned a reputation as an organization that prioritizes pitching development, a trait that's exemplified by their current rotation that's full of homegrown talent. Furthermore, their first selections in the past two years have been pitchers, Kade Anderson (2025) and Jurrangelo Cijntje (2024), and last year's crop of pitching prospects has been especially fruitful thus far.

However, that doesn't mean they've neglected promising bats. From 2021 to 2023, all five of their first-round picks were position players and include notable names like Colt Emerson and Cole Young. Of the Mariners' top 10 prospects, just two are pitchers.

In reality, Seattle is simply doing what every team should be — taking the best talent available. Drafts in other American sports leagues are configured in a way where organizations have to think about current roster needs but in baseball, it's often several years before a player that's drafted actually makes his debut, if they make it at all.

Law says as much in his mock draft, stating that he has "heard more bats than arms at the Mariners' pick, but that's also what's mostly on the board at this point." He also pointed out that there are a few high school pitchers available but Seattle hasn't used their first pick on such a player since Taijuan Walker in 2010 and the last one they took in the first round hasn't had the greatest start to the year.

Even if the team's approach to this year's draft seems off-base, at this point the Mariners' front office has earned the benefit of the doubt. The work of Jerry Dipoto has created a competitive squad of talent that was brought up through the system, a rare sight in today's game, and he was finally recognized for his efforts last year. It may seem like Seattle will be utilizing a different strategy in this year's draft but ultimately the goal is the same: construct a winning team.

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