Mariners’ scouting director Scott Hunter on the “unpredictable” 2025 MLB Draft

What Hunter said he learned from the 2024 Draft that he’s taking into the 2025 Draft

Mariners Scouting Director Scott Hunter met with the media before Wednesday’s game to discuss the upcoming MLB Draft, which begins on July 13th in Atlanta during the All-Star Game festivities. The Mariners hold the third pick in the draft after hitting big in last year’s draft lottery, and will have a large bonus pool to use: Seattle gained about $4.4 million dollars in pool money by moving up twelve spots in the lottery, and will have the luxury of having the largest pool in the Draft, with $17,074,400 available to spend. If you want a more granular look at some of the names that could be in play for the Mariners with the third pick, definitely check out this overview of the top talent in the class that Max wrote.

For Hunter, the gift high pick hasn’t necessarily been one without strings attached.

“I thought it was going to be a lot easier, to be honest with you, when we hit the lottery at the winter meetings,” he said Wednesday. “We thought, oh man, this is going to be an easy one, but with a draft where I don’t think there’s a clear number one or number two, with us having such a big bonus pool I think we can do a lot of different things...It could be straight, and just like our top three guys are our top three guys. But I do think at the end of the day, what we’re looking at is to be wide open, be adjustable, and then see what comes our way.”

Another thing the Mariners have to be aware of is what other teams will do in order to spread their bonus pools out, as the Mariners did last year when they essentially got two first-rounders in Mississippi State’s Jurrangelo Cijntje and prep arm Ryan Sloan by spending big on their first two picks and then spending sparingly for the rest of the draft, opting for high-floor college pitchers, a strategy that apparently other scouting departments envied.

As it was last year, Hunter noted that this year the top of the draft is top-heavy, maybe lacking a clear number one or number two but with six or seven names clumped together. “They’re so crammed together up there right now that I think the separation is going to be very thin in regards to who we actually take.”

As for which of those names he might prefer, Hunter is as yet undecided, waiting to hear input when the scouting staff convenes this week to hear from the high performance department, the medical team, and everyone else who has a hand in making the next class of Mariners. “Usually I have lead horse when I go in, but right now I’m waiting to see...there’s such a fine line, one little piece of information could really sway our room.”

As Max outlined in his draft piece, those “six or seven names” likely include college left-handed pitchers Kade Anderson, Jamie Arnold, and Liam Doyle; prep shortstops Ethan Holliday, Eli Willits, and JoJo Parker; and Oregon State infielder Aiva Arquette. Prep righty Seth Hernandez is also an option.

When asked about the strengths of this draft, Hunter notes those college lefties who have dominated pre-draft discussion at the top of the draft, but also points out that the talent goes very high school hitter-heavy in the middle of the first round before thinning back out. “I do think there’s a lot of projection, upside plays that are toolsy, young, middle-of-the-field players in the high school ranks. It’s all a matter of who you think is going to be the best hitter. Where we pick, I think that pool of high school players is a little thinner with regards to the bats, but I think we’re going to have a couple high school hitters, maybe one or two, even high school arms, which I know is the oddest thing for us to say, but we’re leaving everything open on this one.”

For as prep-averse as the Mariners were in the late 2010s, they’ve opened that demographic up in the 2020s, taking Sloan with their second pick last year, a slew of prep hitters with their bonanza of high picks in 2023 (Colt Emerson, Jonny Farmelo, and Tai Peete), Cole Young in 2022, and Harry Ford in 2021.

“They all have a common denominator,” said Hunter about the prep players the Mariners have drafted. “They’re all really good baseball players. They all have a maturity level beyond their years. And they’ve really performed on every circuit showcase, every area that we look at. But for me, it always comes down to their makeup: does this player fit with the Mariners?...They all have that little, I don’t want to say “it factor,” but they’re all kind of mature beyond their years.”

That maturity could be linked to what Hunter describes as a different draft environment for high school players than ten or fifteen years ago, as players today have so much more access to high-level analytical information and pro-style training. The gap between high school players and college players isn’t as wide as it’s been in the past, emboldening more risk-averse teams like the Mariners to take bigger swings on players. That doesn’t mean those risks aren’t carefully calculated, though, and not always through the easily-quantifiable metrics.

“The separator for us has always been the stuff behind the scenes,” said Hunter.

The Mariners are also in a place where they can add quick-moving college talent to beef up their big-league roster over the coming years, or add to the waves they’re building in the lower minors, granting them a level of flexibility that not every team (cough cough Anaheim) has. That’s especially valuable in a draft like this one, shallower and lacking a clear top talent; the word Hunter used to describe this draft was “unpredictable,” which is at least an upgrade on his descriptor of last year’s draft as “weird.” But the Mariners’ strategy in last year’s draft, pivoting and being creative with how they spread out their bonus pool to land two first-round-caliber talents, has had a ripple effect this year.

“Its really taught me to be patient and adjustable, and not lock into one scenario,” said Hunter.

What’s allowed the Mariners to be that light-footed and able to pivot is the long-term relationships Hunter has built with the scouting department he’s been running for nine years, a room he describes as fully collaborative and integrated rather than the old-school approach where scouts were siloed off from analysts and vice-versa.

“You have a collaborative effort with a group of men and women in that room who only care about one thing, and that’s only about getting the right player for the organization over, I want my guy, he wants his guy.

That’s the one thing I think I’m the most proud of. Our group is so collaborative and understanding. Even when they don’t get the player they want, they understand we’re doing the right thing for the organization and our group.”