Projecting no-nonsense Mariners debut ETAs for Kade Anderson, Ryan Sloan

If anything has become clear during the Seattle Mariners' 2026 spring training experience, it's that everyone wants to see Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan in the majors as soon as possible. Heck, even the brass has caught the Ander-Sloan Fever.

Even before spring training ramped up, farm director Justin Toole was out there broadcasting to expect Anderson sooner rather than later. And now GM Justin Hollander has upped the ante with a "Why not both?" bit on the left-handed Anderson and the right-handed Sloan.

“I don’t think it’s out of the question that those guys pitch in the big leagues this year," Hollander said in an interview with Brock and Salk of Seattle Sports, before hedging: "but I don’t want to make it sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that they definitely are."

Yet hope is not a strategy, as they say. The more logical take on Anderson's and Sloan's major league ETAs is right there in bold letters at MLB Pipeline, which projects a 2027 debut for Anderson (its No. 21 prospect) and a 2028 debut for Sloan (its No. 33 prospect).

So, let's cut through the nonsense. If 2026 is the best-case scenario for Anderson and Sloan, what is the more likely scenario for both?

When to actually expect Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan to make their Mariners debuts

For Kade Anderson, think early 2027

Because he didn't pitch in the minors after the Mariners took him with the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft, Anderson's pro career is already off to a delayed start. And as such, his major league timeline has a lot to do with where he begins this season.

According to Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, that is likely to be with High-A Everett. That would copy the playbook that the Mariners used with Jurrangelo Cijntje, who likewise took the rest of his draft year (2024) off before making his pro debut with the AquaSox in April of 2025.

It took until August for Cijntje to earn a bump to Double-A Arkansas. One would hope that the 21-year-old Anderson could get there sooner, as he's A) a more advanced pitcher and B) not trying to get hitters out with both arms. Yet even if he does, he would then have to get himself to Triple-A Tacoma to put himself on the doorstep to the majors.

Between Paul Skenes, Chase Burns and Trey Yesavage, there are notable recent cases of a talented starter making it to MLB within a year of being drafted — or close enough, in Yesavage's case. Yet there was an element of necessity at play with those three, as their teams just plain needed a starter when they got called up.

By way of an injury, such a scenario could come into play with Anderson this year. For now, though, the Mariners can look at their five-deep rotation as the best possible excuse to not push him any faster than he's ready to go.

For Ryan Sloan, think mid-2027

For his part, Sloan is also likely to begin 2026 with High-A Everett. It's where he ended 2025, and that experience mostly consisted of him taking his lumps in the form of eight runs (seven earned) allowed over 11.1 innings.

If Sloan, who only turned 20 on January 29, does return to Everett, that would hypothetically put him on a similar timeline to Anderson: Double-A by the middle of the summer, followed by a jump to Triple-A.

However, it's reasonable to expect the Mariners to be more deliberate with Sloan.

Whereas Anderson pitched 119 innings for LSU prior to the 2025 draft, the Mariners took Sloan out of high school and limited him to 82.0 innings over 21 starts in his first season of pro ball last year. His development is still as much about building him up as it is testing his talent. There isn't much point in speeding him through the minors if he's only pitching four or five innings per start.

Because Sloan has better pure stuff than Anderson, he could actually be the better bet of the two to get called up for bullpen duty at the end of 2026, a la Jackson Jobe with the Detroit Tigers in 2024. As with the rotation, though, Seattle's bullpen should be deep and talented enough to avoid needing a savior.