Why 2026 could be a launching pad for an overlooked Mariners prospect

It's no secret that the Mariners have an excess of talent in the prospect department. However, farm systems can quickly become depleted once the top names graduate or are traded away. Cole Young lost his prospect status after debuting last season, Harry Ford was traded to the Nationals, and other top names like Colt Emerson are poised to be called up soon.

Of Seattle's Top 30 prospects, 11 are estimated to debut in 2026. The front office is also more willing to move their young talent in trades than they are to package away anyone at the big league level, so it's possible that the Mariners will have to rebuild their farm system sooner rather than later.

This may be concerning to fans of the farm system as familiar names are gradually phased out, but some of the organization's newest talent should give fans something to look forward to even after this current crop of minor leaguers. In fact, Seattle's next big thing could be a player who has yet to play a minor league season.

Yorger Bautista is being named as the Mariners' next breakout prospect

Bautista was part of Seattle's 2025 international class, signing for $2.1 million. The outfielder was a highly sought-after player and was recently named as the organization's breakout prospect in 2026. As pointed out by MLB.com, he's one of two ranked prospects to have a grade of 60 or better for his power, run and arm tools. The only other player who can make that claim is Konnor Griffin, MLB's No.1 overall prospect.

He was just 17 years old when he played in the Dominican Summer League and posted a 91 wRC+ over 225 plate appearances. He ran into some issues with strikeouts (29.8 percent) but did manage to collect seven home runs, eight doubles, and three triples. With prospects so young, it's important to weight the underlying metrics more heavily than the surface-level stats. Brandon Gawlowski at FanGraphs did a great job highlighting just what makes him so exciting in his recent ranking of Seattle's top prospects.

"He certainly stands out physically: He’s both lithe and strong for his size, twitchy, very projectable, and already bringing the kind of present power and speed you want to see when you sink a quarter of your bonus pool into one guy. His 90th-percentile exit velocity in 2025 was 105.4 mph (Josh Naylor’s was a full tick lower, for reference), which was both better than we’d have guessed and came at no cost to his plus speed. "

Brandon Gawlowski

He does have some things to fix and the complexity of his swing could be Seattle's first order of business to allow him to tap into his natural power more frequently. Many young prospects go through something similar and even players like Shohei Ohtani needed to simplify their swings to tap into their raw strengths.

"First, Bautista’s swing is complicated. He’s a late lander with a big leg kick, and he has a long, uphill path that starts with a late load and big hitch down. It’s not impossible to make that work, but your hands better be quick (check) and your timing has to be very good (Bautista’s isn’t right now). Partly because of the path, partly from the high effort level in his swing, he’s often late to the party on heaters and every swing at a breaking ball looks like he’s seeing spin for the first time. I don’t want to get too hung up on DSL numbers, but his 30% strikeout rate, 62% contact rate, and 52% whiff rate on breaking balls reflect the magnitude of the issue here."

Brandon Gawlowski

Since he just turned 18 in September, he has plenty of time to iron out the kinks in his approach, and the Mariners will likely take their time in his development to ensure that bad habits are fixed before he's called up. His current ETA is 2030, by which time Cal Raleigh will already be in the final year of his extension, so it will be a while before he's suiting up for the big league club.

There's no rush, especially since there are other outfield prospects ahead of him anyway, but scouts believe that Bautista absolutely has what it takes to be Seattle's next franchise pillar. That may be a ways away but it won't be long before he ends up as one of the best minor league players around.