Mariners fans are mad at Baseball America for all the wrong reasons

Right now, the excitement of being a Seattle Mariners fan isn't limited to the team being an obvious World Series contender. It also extends to what lies ahead. The franchise has proven to be a player development juggernaut, and seemingly everyone agrees that the farm system is elite.

Seemingly everyone, that is, except for Baseball America.

The most prestigious prospect publication of them all published its first list of the top 100 prospects in MLB for 2026, and on this list are four Mariners: Colt Emerson at No. 7, Kade Anderson at No. 25, Lazaro Montes at No. 58 and Ryan Sloan at No. 60.

The reaction to this among Mariners fans on social media has, unsurprisingly, been less than positive.

Mariners shouldn't be mad at Baseball America for first top 100 prospect drop of 2026

True, one team out of 30 landing four prospects on a top 100 is a respectable showing. But the Mariners had seven guys in Baseball America's last major update to its top 100 for 2025, and the only ones who no longer qualify are Cole Young (who lost his prospect status) and Harry Ford (who's now with the Washington Nationals).

The real story is who's fallen off since last year: Michael Arroyo, Felnin Celesten and Jonny Farmelo. Since Kade Anderson is the only Mariners prospect who has been added in their stead, you can do the math and see how seven top-100 prospects becomes only four.

This is not even to mention Jurrangelo Cijntje, who might be the most interesting prospect in baseball right now. The dude pitches with both hands, with Baseball America's report on him noting that he can hit 98 mph as a righty and as a lefty.

It's not as if the Mariners had a bunch of players on the publication's just-missed list either. Arroyo is the only one.

And yet, this is where the publication's logic comes into focus, and what feels like a slight at the Mariners' farm system begins to feel like an unemotional calculation.

As Editor-in-Chief JJ Cooper noted on X, ranking prospects becomes more of an inexact science as the list gets further away from the No. 1 spot: "The difference between being No. 95 on this list and being No. 130 (and off the list) is so small as to be hard to measure."

To boot, Josh Norris' write-up on Arroyo isn't off the mark with its main criticism. The bat plays, but there's a major question as to where he fits in the field — he's already shifted from shortstop to second base, and could be headed to left field next. It takes a generational bat to overcome defensive uncertainty like that, and Arroyo's doesn't quite rise to that level.

It's just as easy to be real about the other guys who missed the cut. Cijntje is fascinating, but his left-handed pitching leaves much to be desired. Farmelo is a power-speed dynamo on paper, but injuries have limited him to 75 minor league games since the 2023 draft. Celesten played his first full season of pro ball in 2025, and it was marred by vertigo symptoms and a modest 104 wRC+.

The upside is still very much there with all of these guys, but so are excuses to bet the under. And if you need a reminder of how many top prospects don't pan out, just remember that Jarred Kelenic, Evan White and Emerson Hancock were once ranked ahead of Logan Gilbert.

This is ultimately a "don't get mad, get even" situation. If the Mariners prospects who were snubbed by Baseball America don't like it, then they need to go state their case this year.