Mariners' future comes into sharper focus with promotions of 2 hot prospects

For all the noise the Seattle Mariners made leading up to last week's trade deadline, arguably the biggest surprise was how little they had to sacrifice to do it. They managed to keep all of their best prospects, including Colt Emerson and Jurrangelo Cijntje.

And now, those two are one step closer to becoming members of the Mariners.

As MLB.com's Daniel Kramer and Jonathan Mayo were among those to report on Sunday, Emerson and Cijntje have been bumped up from High-A Everett to Double-A Arkansas. Both figure to join the Travelers in time for their next game, which will be at home opposite the Frisco RoughRiders on Tuesday.

The event will also mark a reunion of sorts. Already with the Travelers are Michael Arroyo and Lazaro Montes, who had previously combined with Emerson and Cijntje to make the Everett roster one of the most talent-rich units in all of Minor League Baseball.

Colt Emerson and Jurrangelo Cijntje are 1 step closer to the Mariners

Especially given how much the Mariners improved by adding Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, and Caleb Ferguson, it indeed feels like a miracle that Jerry Dipoto did not give up any top-100 prospects before the deadline.

The Mariners specifically have eight of those within MLB Pipeline's rankings, with the newly reunited Arkansas quartet occupying four notable spots:

• SS Colt Emerson: No. 15
• OF Lazaro Montes: No. 23
• 2B Michael Arroyo: No. 58
• RHP/LHP Jurrangelo Cijntje: No. 70

Arroyo and Montes have already proven equal to the task of handling Arkansas. Each has played in exactly 29 games with the Travelers, with Arroyo's OPS standing at .869 and Montes' at .806. Each had better than a .900 OPS with Everett, sure, but the superior pitching at the Double-A level isn't the only thing working against them. There's also the fact that Dickey–Stephens Park is a pitcher-friendly park to the extreme.

This is ostensibly bad news for Emerson, who was Seattle's No. 22 overall pick in 2023. But like Arroyo and Montes, he's coming into Arkansas hot.

The 20-year-old got off to somewhat of a quiet start at the plate with Everett, but he turned a corner in a major way with a .338/.453/.588 slash line in his last 38 games. He really started driving the ball in this span, collecting seven of his 11 homers for the season.

In the event that Emerson's bat cools down in Arkansas, his hostile new home park won't be the only thing to keep in mind. Another is that he's not a bat-only prospect, as it's only become clearer throughout 2025 that he's truly a gifted defender at shortstop.

Cijntje, meanwhile, had more of an up-and-down experience in AquaSox threads. His 19 appearances covered 74.2 innings and resulted in a 4.58 ERA.

The big question remains whether the 22-year-old switch-pitcher should be, well, switch-pitching. It's an astonishing ability in the abstract, and has certainly helped put him on the map as one of MLB's brightest prospects since going to Seattle at No. 15 overall in the 2024 draft. But he just hasn't been effective as a left-hander, allowing an OPS north of 1.000 to both lefty and righty batters.

There is no doubt, however, that the Netherlands native possesses a powerful right arm. It is responsible for 76 of his 83 strikeouts, and has been clocked as high as 101 mph on the fastball.

Cijntje is also coming into Arkansas hot in his own right. He held batters to a .193 average as a starter for Everett, and his last outing on Saturday saw him strike out a career-high 10 batters.

MLB Pipeline projects Emerson to move faster than Cijntje, with the former having a major league ETA of 2026 and the latter having one of 2027. But that view is obviously clashing a bit with reality, as it's telling that the Mariners chose the exact same day to promote both to Double-A.

Though the caveat is that any one of the four could conceivably go elsewhere in offseason trade, the Mariners clearly think highly of Arroyo, Montes, Emerson, and Cijntje. And at the rate they're going, there would seem to be a non-zero chance that all four will be seen in Seattle by this time next year.