Mariners Minor League Recap: Week 3, April 16-21

Bryan Woo makes his return

Welcome back prospect watchers! Between major league rehabs, potential promotions and the Modesto Nuts in general, this week’s got plenty to cover. Let’s jump right into the action with the Tacoma Rainiers.

Tacoma Rainiers

13-8, 2nd in Pacific Coast League West

After a red hot start to the year, the Rainiers cooled off a bit and dropped four of six against Las Vegas. Losing perhaps their biggest offensive contributor in Jonatan Clase last week to the major league squad was sure to hamper them a bit, however they still find themselves second in their division and pumping out plenty of offense. With some of the bigger names starting to heat up (alongside the weather), it’s a great time to get on down to Tacoma and catch a Rainiers game.

After a tenuous start to the season, Ryan Bliss has really started to get things going and had himself one hell of a week. A 6-25 series may not jump off the page, but everything his bat touched did damage. Knocking two homers, two triples, and a double on top of five walks will do wonders for your season slash line this early in the season, and he now comfortably sits at an above average spot with a very nice .881 OPS. He’s obviously got to prove it for a stretch longer than ~2 weeks, but it’s been great to see him impacting the ball consistently.

We got a rehab start, y’all. Young righthander Bryan Woo made his first rehab start on Sunday and was just about as perfect as perfect can be. Tallying three innings without a baserunner and five strikeouts, Woo will likely make one more rehab start for Tacoma before rejoining the big league club. Emerson Hancock has proved to be a nice fill in for Woo in the rotation and will almost assuredly be used again at some point this season for additional innings, but getting Woo back finally gets the rotation at full strength and the era of total pitching domination can begin. I truly cannot wait.

Tacoma will go toe-to-toe with El Paso next week, San Diego’s affiliate.

Arkansas Travelers

9-6, 2nd in Texas League North

Miserable start be damned, the Travs have been on a real hot streak as of late and find themselves second in their division after a series win over a good Frisco team. The team hasn’t gotten over that hump just yet with many of their core pieces sputtering, but the Travs find a way to make it work. It’s not flawless, beautiful baseball, but it gets the job done.

With Cole Young and Harry Ford in a bit of a funk this past week, I’m choosing to shine a big bright spotlight at Tyler Locklear. Listen, I don’t exactly know where he’s going to fit on this roster as it stands today, but each and every day Locklear’s making his presence felt against players on the doorstep of the major leagues. Even in a down week by his standards, Locklear slugged two homers and walked seven times in a six game stretch. I’m not calling for anyone to be cut/benched/demoted or anything like that and certainly don’t want management to jump the gun on Locklear’s development, but the conversation for Locklear’s place on the Seattle Mariners needs to be had sooner rather than later. He’s that good.

The pitching was great for the Travelers this week, limiting Frisco’s batters to combine for just nine runs in their four wins of the series (winners don’t pay attention to losses). The best start of the week was crafty lefty Reid VanScoter, allowing just one hit and a walk across six frames. Logan Evans also had a fine start, logging his best start this season by throwing six innings of one run ball. Neither one is missing many bats this season, but with ERAs sitting in the mid two’s, it’s tough to say the two contact managers aren’t managing contact. As a side note, shoutout to Raúl Alcantara who has been great so far this season. The flamethrowing lefty was once an entirely loose cannon that had a K% and BB% through the roof, but he seems to have toned it down a bit and has provided some nice innings for the Travs. Keep an eye out for him the rest of the season.

Arkansas will duke it out with league leading Springfield next week, a St. Louis affiliate.

Everett AquaSox

4-11, 6th in Northwest League

Look at that. A series split. That’s called progress.

The Frogs have not had a good start to the season. A 4-11 start makes that pretty obvious. Call me a homer, call me a fool, I do not care. This team is awesome. A team consisting of a bunch of older college guys taken in the later rounds trying to scratch out a big league career any way they can is why I love covering minor league baseball.

The two standout hitters this series both epitomize that grinder mentality: Brock Rodden and Ben Williamson. First, Rodden: A fifth round pick out of Wichita State, Rodden signed as a 23 year old senior after he bet on himself and rejected Oakland’s 10th round offer a year prior. The short statured Rodden is a firecracker atop the lineup and has surprising pop in his bat. Logging an outstanding series where he went 8-24, Rodden is starting to heat up after a lukewarm start to his season.

Next, Williamson: Similarly to Rodden, Williamson was a senior sign out of William and Mary in last year’s draft. He may have gone in the second round, but this was largely due to the Seattle’s desire to move around some of their draft pool and land some premiere talent down the line (Hello, Aidan Smith). It’s no knock on Williamson’s abilities, just the reality of the draft. Considered amongst the best seniors in the nation last year, Williamson is hitting .344 on the year and has consistently been Everett’s best hitter. Plus, his excellent defense at the hot corner certainly doesn’t hurt. They aren’t the flashy top prospect types, but I love rooting for them and they encapsulate the spirit of minor league baseball. For that, I am thankful.

This week, Everett takes on Anaheim’s affiliate next week down in Pasco.

Modesto Nuts

10-3 , 1st in California League North

Another series, another dominating performance from your Modesto Nuts. Nabbing five of six last week, the Nuts seem to be a relentless machine with the sole intent of scoring as many runs as possible. Even without their leader and superstar Colt Emerson (he unfortunately did end up hitting the IL), Modesto has found ways to keep winning. It speaks volumes to their maturity and bodes well for their future success at their next landing spot.

When one top prospect is down, there’s always another one right there to pick up the slack. Tai Peete had an outstanding series that saw him go 7-21 with a double and a stolen base in his five games of action this week. The strikeouts are still of concern and have been since he’s been drafted, but the combination of tools he provides have made themselves abundantly apparent. He’s far from a finished product, but he’s got as good a shot to be the next electrifying young player in this system as any. Additionally, the ever-steady Aidan Smith clocked in with 6-21 series that featured a homer, two doubles, and an even 6:6 K/BB ratio. On top of his mature approach at the plate, Aidan Smith plays fantastic defense in the outfield and is a deceptively fast runner that’s going to steal 25+ bases this season (knock on wood). He wasn’t a first rounder, but he had a Top-100 grade in last year’s draft and is looking to prove to everyone he’s on par with his first round draftee teammates.

The pitching was great for Modesto this week. I’ll have to do a bit of a rapid fire approach to get everyone in, but they all deserve some love. Brody Hopkins fired off his best start of his professional career to date with a four inning, one unearned run performance. Additionally, Tyler Gough improved his season ERA to 2.57 with a five inning performance where he surrendered one earned run and allowed just three hits. Ashton Izzi rattled off four shutout innings for the Nuts despite walking three and lowered his ERA to 3.86, a promising mark for the fourth rounder out of Illinois. Finally, 20 year old Venezuelan Steven Sanchez debuted for Modesto and went three scoreless. The right hander didn’t get much attention on a 2023 DSL squad that was deep on the mound, but he flashed plenty of promise and is looking to make a name for himself this season.

The Nuts take on a lowly Stockton team (OAK) next week.

That wraps up this week’s recap! Thanks for tuning in and GOMS!