Mariners' rumored MLB Draft strategy suggests Jerry Dipoto wants another Ryan Sloan

Seattle knew they had something special in Ryan Sloan. He was taken in the second round of the 2024 draft but he received a $3 million signing bonus, far exceeding his slot value of roughly $1.6 million.

High school pitchers drafted early are typically risky bets but this move already looks like it's paying off given how Sloan has been pitching as a prospect. Heading into this year's draft, some believe that the Mariners are poised to make a similar move.

Keith Law of The Athletic believes that Seattle will take another chance on a high school pitcher

In his most recent mock draft, Keith Law suggested that the Mariners were interested in left-handed pitcher Carson Bolemon out of Southside Christian School in South Carolina. He noted that Seattle is one of the few teams that is interested in high school options in the first round and with the 24th pick, it could make sense given the depth of young arms in this year's draft.

Bolemon was recently named as the Gatorade South Carolina Baseball Player of the Year for his impressive work this year. Across 41.1 innings, he posted a 0.17 ERA with 91 strikeouts. At 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he's already capable of throwing in the low-90s and uses a curveball in the upper-70s.

He's currently committed to play for Wake Forest University, which has sent quite a few arms to the major leagues over the past few years including Shane Smith, Rhett Lowder, and Chase Burns. It shouldn't be hard to convince him to renege, especially given a first-round signing bonus, but there's always a risk that a pitcher of his caliber would opt to boost his stock even higher with collegiate innings.

Despite having the best starting pitching depth of any MLB team, it has been a while since the Mariners have had a southpaw in their rotation. The last time they had any qualified left-handed starters was in 2022 when they had both Robbie Ray and Marco Gonzales.

But this is more the result of circumstance than intention. Between then and now, the organization has spent most of their draft picks on position player talent and the organization did have some promising prospects like Brandyn Garcia and Adam Macko, both of whom were traded.

The future of the organization already looks to be Kade Anderson who has surpassed his already lofty expectations, and the Mariners could decide to add more this summer. Be it Bolemon or someone else, the organization's track record suggests that whoever it is will probably be another exciting talent to add to their farm system.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow