MLB connects Mariners to wild card top pick in final 2025 Mock Draft

With the 2025 MLB Draft right around the corner, the Seattle Mariners have another opportunity to strengthen an already impressive crop of young talent. With the third overall pick as well as a 35th pick in the supplemental first round, the club has a real chance of getting their next franchise player. To make things even more exciting, the Mariners are entering the weekend with the largest bonus pool, giving them plenty of financial flexibility.

The MLB Draft differs from other sports in that needs of the big league team often have no impact on what each organization is looking for given how long it takes for a draft pick to actually make it to the show. Despite Seattle having clear weaknesses on the current roster, the team is far from settled on one pick, at least according to vice president of amateur scouting Scott Hunter.

"It’s going to be, I don’t want to say a heated battle in our room, but I don’t think we’re going to have -- when we walk out of there -- a full consensus of, like, "this is our guy.’"

Scott Hunter to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com

MLB Pipeline writer Jim Callis recently took at stab at projecting what the first round of picks might look like and he believes that the Mariners will take Seth Hernandez, a right-handed pitcher out of high school. With a somewhat similar profile to the team's second-round pick from last year, Ryan Sloan, Hernandez has plenty of upside but presents an equal amount of uncertainty.

The Mariners could go an unexpected direction with the No. 3 pick

Thus, Callis also pointed out that there's a real chance Seattle could go in a different direction entirely and instead use their pick on Ike Irish.

Deemed the best all-around offensive player out of this year's college class, scouts have been raving about Irish for quite a while. Over his 748 plate appearances as an Auburn Tiger, Irish slashed .350/.435/.625 with 39 homers and 48 doubles. His ability to hit for both power and average has been evident ever since he joined the SEC and his scouting report highlights that his power plays to all fields.

There are some concerns over his ability to hit with wood bats given his less impressive slugging numbers in the Cape Code League (.396 SLG over 251 plate appearances), but an athlete of his caliber shouldn't take long to adapt to his new equipment.

Defensively, Irish has spent the majority of his time as a catcher but recently started dabbling in the outfield after a scapula injury in March impaired his ability to catch. Many believe that playing a less demanding defensive position will allow his strengths at the plate to flourish.

Furthermore, he's described as having average defensive catching abilities at best and given the current logjam at the position in the Mariners' system, it may be worth it to move him to the outfield full time.

It's always difficult to ascertain which draft prospects will be able to take their talents to the highest level. Past performance isn't always a guarantee of future results, but the Mariners have done an outstanding job getting exactly what they need out of the draft as of late. It's too soon to definitively state that a dynasty is forming in the Pacific Northwest but there's undoubtedly a promising future here.