Fangraphs: Slovakia’s Macko a Top-10 Mariners Prospect

Fangraphs has rated the Slovakian pitcher Adam Macko as a Top-1o prospect in the Seattle Mariners farm system, citing three quality pitches, among them a fastball that tops out at 98 miles per hour. “His delivery is atypical for a starter,” the noted baseball analytics website notes, “but he also has impact relief potential because of the quality of his breaking ball.”

The 21-year-old Macko is ninth in Fangraphs’ ranking of prospects in the Mariners’ farm system. He moved to Canada roughly ten years ago and was drafted by the Mariners out of high school in the June 2019 amateur draft.

He pitched at Low-A Modesto in 2021, with his impressive 15.1 K/9 speaking to his prospect promise, but his 2021 season was ended prematurely by a minor shoulder injury,

The injury notwithstanding, Fangraphs currently ranks Macko as having back-of-the-rotation stuff, and Baseball America has also written effusively about the left-handed pitcher, citing his “power stuff”  and an “electric” arsenal of pitches, particularly a “spike-curveball with considerable depth.”

Macko, who started playing baseball in his native Bratislava (and then also in Ireland), honed his pitching mechanics as a youngster by watching YouTube videos of David Price and Justin Verlander.