Following the pattern of the first day, the Mariners went with college players, including seven pitchers.
Of their 20 selections, 19 came from the college ranks, with only one being a high-school player – right-handed pitcher Ryan Sloan, who was taken in the second round. Of the 20 players, 14 were pitchers, including first-round pick Jurangelo Szentje, a switch-pitcher out of Mississippi State.
“It’s a little unique, obviously, what we did with Jurangelo and Ryan at the top, and we had to chase a little bit of money (the bonus pool),” Scott Hunter, the Mariners’ director of amateur scouting, said in the post-draft. video conference. “But I think with our staff, we have been able, over the last seven or eight years, to really come into these moments and find real possibilities at real values. And I don’t think that’s changed.”
Even though the top prospects in the Mariners farm system are primarily position players, including seven of eight of Baseball America’s top 100 prospects, the plan was not to load up on pitching during this draft. It worked just like that.
“Obviously, we moved forward very hard this year,” Hunter said. “It’s not something that we went into saying we were definitely going to do this. But this was something that the draft was giving us. And instead of just chasing things that weren’t there, we started actually collecting a lot of powerful weapons that we could develop.
The Mariners have done very well in drafting and developing pitching. Four of the starters in their rotation – Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Brian Wu – were all taken in the draft.
“Age wasn’t a real factor this year because we took a lot of older guys,” Hunter said. “We just went for the pure stuff. With our player development department, our analysts, our scouts, our live looks and identifying things we believe can help us in the big leagues and help our minor-league system. We’re looking for players we feel we can develop. I think we did a pretty good job with a draft that we thought would probably be a little lighter than most years.
Hunter said 90% of the class has already reached an agreement on signing bonuses and will finalize it after physical testing at the team’s complex in Arizona next week.
Szentje and Sloan will be in Seattle next week to sign their contracts and meet with MLB staff members.
For the final day of the draft, Hunter would love to find a prospect like Logan Evans, who was taken 12th Out of the University of Pittsburgh and now the Mariners’ top pitching prospect and a top 100 prospect for Baseball America. In the 2017 draft, Seattle selected lefty JP Sears from The Citadel. Sears has now made 62 MLB starts and six relief appearances for various teams and is a member of the A’s rotation.
“I’m sure as expected, we’ve made some very good selections on these tours,” Hunter said.
Hunter praises Mariners 11th-Round Pick – Christian Little, right-handed pitcher from LSU.
“He’s a real possibility,” Hunter said. “He’s a four-year undergraduate, two years at Vanderbilt and two years at LSU, which is not the guy he probably expected coming out of high school. He was a big-time prospect.”
Indeed, Little was projected as a first-round pick as a senior in high school in Missouri, but he chose to enroll early at Vanderbilt.
“He’s a 21-year-old young man and he doesn’t have any eligibility left to go to college,” Hunter said. “So, he’s actually a college junior that we took as a college senior who throws up to 99 mph and he’s got a real slider. The performance on the back of his baseball card may not have been as good as he hoped, but we met him at the Combine and really felt like he is a kid who will be successful in our player development program because he has a lot of potential that can be utilized. has not been done.
The Mariners selected infielder/outfielder Brandon Eike from Virginia Commonwealth with the 13th pick.th Round. In 2022, the Mariners drafted Tyler Locklear out of VCU in the second round.
EK has similar credentials to Locklear, posting a .379/.470/.661 slash line with 27 doubles, 14 homers, 62 RBI and 40 walks in 61 games, but not necessarily the same profile.
“He’s a kid that can move around the field, and what jumped out was obviously his power ability and ability to run the baseball, just like (Locklear),” Hunter said. “Maybe (Locklear) wasn’t at the same swing-decision level at the time, but he has real power. He can play left field, first base, and third base.
Here is a list of Seattle’s 10 selections on day three of the 2024 MLB Draft:
- 11th round (333rd overall) -RHP Christian Little, Louisiana State University
- 12th round (363rd overall) -RHP Evan Truitt, Charleston Southern University
- Round 13 (393rd overall) – INF/OF Brandon Eike, Virginia Commonwealth University
- 14th round (423rd overall) – INF Austin St. Laurent, Appalachian State University
- 15th round (453rd overall) -RHP Thomas Higgins, Georgia Southern University
- Round 16 (483rd overall) -RHP Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman, East Carolina University
- 17th round (513th overall) – RHP Harrison Kreiling, University of Nebraska-Omaha
- 18th round (543rd overall) -RHP Matt Tiberia, Lynn University
- 19th round (573rd overall) – RHP Brian Walters, University of Miami (Fla.)
- 20th round (603rd overall) – OF Ryan Piccolo, Saint Joseph’s University