2025 Mariners Minor League Recap, May 12 - May 18

The dynamic duo in Tacoma continue their hot hitting

Welcome back to LL’s weekly prospect roundup! It was another huge week at the top for our favorite Mariner prospects, and we’ll kick things off as we usually do with the Tacoma Rainiers.

Tacoma Rainiers

18-27

It was a split series for the Rainiers this week, but the vibe around this team has changed starkly the past few weeks. With the top prospects beginning to look the part at the Triple-A level, Tacoma is getting more attention than it’s seen in years. It’s been rare for the M’s to send their top stars to Triple-A for any extended period of time, so this stint for both Cole Young and Harry Ford is in somewhat rarified air.

The aforementioned Ford and Young are on an absolute heater right now, carrying most of the Rainier offense as of late and tapping into parts of their games we haven’t seen all that much of to date. The bugaboo for this duo has always been the power; They’ve had disciplined approaches, good feel to hit, solid defensive instincts, and speed on the basepaths, but the power hasn’t consistently shown up in games. Recently, that hasn’t been the case whatsoever. Combining for six homers on the month, both Ford and Young are slugging north of .600 and absolutely clobbering the baseball. I frankly wasn’t aware that Cole Young had this kind of juice in his bat, but a 458 foot homer speaks for itself.

As for Ford, the power has been incredibly encouraging. His bat to ball wasn’t quite as good as Young’s, so to see him getting a bit more aggressive at the plate and seek out damage is an excellent sight to see. Ford has been a steady performer throughout his time as a professional, and though he might not do it in a way that catches people’s eye, his production is undeniable. He’s still a great athlete and can absolutely help this team out down the line. If he keeps this torrid stretch up, he’ll all but force his way on to the major league roster, perhaps acting in some sort of uber-utility role.

Arkansas Travelers

21-18

Another split down on the farm, this time from an Arkansas team taking on the division leading Wichita Wind Surge. Arkansas gritted out some nice wins on the series, but ultimately couldn’t push the needle into a series win after a blowout loss on Sunday. They’re absolutely within striking distance, but they’ll need to start picking up the pace a bit after a hot start has buoyed them through a rough patch.

Jared Sundstrom has me intrigued after holding his own at the Double-A level so far. After a 7-26 week with a trio of doubles and a homer, Sundstrom is up to a .745 OPS on the season. While this might not pop off the page at first glance, the context here is incredibly important. The right handed slugger looks to be a victim of his home ballpark as his home vs road splits are a glaring wart on the back of his baseball card. Sundstrom has an OPS over 200 points higher on the road than he does at home (.629 vs .837) and is the exact kind of player that has had struggles in this ballpark. With healthy plate discipline numbers, reasonable batted ball luck, plus athleticism in the outfield and 15 stolen bases on the season, it’s becoming quickly apparent that Sundstrom is a legit threat to be a big league contributor. I wouldn’t bank on him being the opening day right fielder for the next ten years, but he’s certainly become someone worth monitoring. Even if he develops into a fourth outfield type, it’s an absolute win.

It was a big time week for Caleb Cali, working a 9-23 series that featured a pair of both dingers and doubles. The adjustment process to Double-A has been tough for Cali so far, but he’s proven he can overcome adversity before and shouldn’t become an afterthought just because of his draft position. Let’s see if Cali can get hot for a month and get his season numbers looking real nice.

Everett AquaSox

18-20

A series win for the Frogs! Hopefully this loaded roster can keep things moving in the right direction and net them a run at the first half championship.

The trio of bats that’s been carrying the Frogs as of late has been Jonny Farmelo, Colt Emerson, and Michael Arroyo, and this week was no different. Farmelo (5-16) and Emerson (6-18, HR, 3B, 2 SB) have both made some really nice defensive plays up the middle and Arroyo (7-21, HR, 2 2B, 6 BB, SB) has been a menace at the plate during the month of May. It may sound like a broken record here talking about how good these three have been, but they’ve simply been too good to ignore. When this team gets Lazaro Montes clicking again, I can’t imagine there are many pitchers in the Northwest League capable of stopping them.

Jurrangelo Cijntje had his longest start as a professional on Sunday, logging six strong innings of one hit shutout ball. Cijntje has battled some command issues to begin his young career thus far, but with as dominant as he’s been as a starter, it’s tantalizing to think how good he could be once he sorts those issues out. With his advanced athleticism on the mound there’s plenty of reason to believe he’ll improve his tendency to spray the ball, but even if he’s a pitcher that has to work around self induced traffic, his stuff has been good enough to carry him so far. Now with a 2.01 ERA as a starter, look for Cijntje to skyrocket up prospect boards this summer.

Shoutout to Anthony Donofrio. He might not be a top prospect grabbing all the headlines, but he’s been hot this month.

Modesto Nuts

24-15

A nice series win for the Nuts, beating up on a lowly Visalia team and taking a 4-2 series win. This Nuts team doesn’t have the potent prospect pedigree that Everett has, but damn it they just keep winning. It’s a really fun team to root for.

Though there hasn’t been an official move to the IL, Felnin Celesten hasn’t seen game action since the 10th of this month. Celesten had already missed some time this season and is unfortunately falling into a troubling pattern of injuries early in his career. The talent is clear when he’s on the field, but he’s struggled to do so reliably and is ultimately losing out on a considerable amount of game time because of it. Hopefully he’s able to return sooner than later.

It was another remarkably consistent start for Ryan Sloan this week, logging four more innings of two run ball. The Sloan vs Cijntje debate is one that will surely continue for years to come, but I think it’s a very interesting conversation to have. Cijntje is obviously older after spending time in the SEC, however he possesses a lot of the same “rawness” that a prep pitcher might have. Conversely, Sloan is incredibly polished for a prep arm and has some of the more advanced secondaries I’ve seen for someone so young. Fastball value is a big sticking point for me when evaluating young pitchers and Jurrangelo would take the cake in that department, but I really think Sloan is closer to a complete pitcher than Jurrangelo is at present. Between the size, command, operation, and arsenal, Sloan’s upside is unbelievably exciting.

ACL Mariners

7-4

The Baby M’s are in first place to start the season, doing so with a combination of steady offense and reliable pitching. They’ve had some blowups on the mound, but overall it’s been an encouraging start.

I’m still hesitant to think much of George Feliz’s production so far, but he’s been great at the plate and continues to be the team’s best hitter. I’d like to see him get the nod to Modesto to see whether or not this is the product of a discernable adjustment or just him beating up on younger competition.

That wraps it up for this week. As always, GOMS!!