Edwin Arroyo's Reds call-up scores another point for loaded Mariners draft class

The Cincinnati Reds called Edwin Arroyo up to the majors on Monday, and it definitely has implications for their immediate future. It's more like a signal flare for the Seattle Mariners, as if to remind them that the full story of the Luis Castillo trade is not yet final.

And that's… fine? It's hard to get more worked up than that, honestly.

As he's a 22-year-old who has recently rejoined MLB Pipeline's top 100 prospects, it's possible that the Reds will get more out of Arroyo than the Mariners have out of Castillo. But Castillo has been part of two playoff runs already and is still contributing to a potential third. So, nothing Arroyo does in Ohio is going to turn the Mariners' end of the trade from a win to a loss.

We can say this much, though: Seriously, how about the Mariners' 2021 draft class?

The Mariners were cooking when they drafted Edwin Arroyo and others in 2021

Following Arroyo's admittedly impressive debut with the Reds on Monday, that's now five players out of 20 from Seattle's 2021 draft class who have made it to the majors. It's a solid graduation rate, and the list of names makes for some eye-popping reading:

Even sans the context that they landed well after the first round, that the Mariners got Woo and Miller in the same draft is remarkable. Since 2024, Woo has a lower WHIP than every qualified starter except for Tarik Skubal. Miller led the team in rWAR in 2024, and his overall pitching excellence this year is on par with Jacob Misiorowski.

The jury is otherwise very much out on Harry Ford, who has fallen out of favor with prospect evaluators since his move to the Washington Nationals in the Jose A. Ferrer trade. He's still a candidate to be Washington's catcher of the future, though, and the fact that he's twice played a starring role in the World Baseball Classic is something for him to hang his hat on in the meantime.

For his part, Arroyo was pretty much off the radar even as recently as spring training. Whereas he was a hot-shot teenager when the Mariners dealt him to Cincinnati in 2022, a bad should injury sidelined him in 2024 and contributed to keeping his stock down in 2025.

All that looks firmly behind him now. Arroyo earned his call-up by batting .323 with 11 home runs for Triple-A Louisville. And even though he's taking Elly De La Cruz's spot on the roster, that he's playing second base sure sends a message to Matt McLain about the future of that job.

Beyond there being no point in relitigating the Castillo trade, how Arroyo could have impacted the Mariners' own infield is not exactly a compelling "What could have been." The Cole Young-Colt Emerson-J.P. Crawford trio is looking just dandy, thank you.

So for those in the Pacific Northwest, the thing to do is wish Arroyo well. The more success he has, the more it will reflect just how much Jerry Dipoto and the front office were cooking in July of 2021.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow