Mariners lean on college players, pitchers with ‘power arms’ as MLB draft concludes

After months of work and weeks of preparations, the Mariners wrapped up the 2024 Major League Baseball amateur draft on Tuesday afternoon, making their final 10 selections of the 20-round affair.

Following a 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 high-school player — right-hander pitcher Ryan Sloan, who was taken in the second round. Of the 20 players, 14 were pitchers, including first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje, a switch-pitcher out of Mississippi State.

“It a little unique, obviously, what we did off the top with Jurrangelo and Ryan, and we had to chase a little money, [bonus pool],” Scott Hunter, the Mariners’ director of amateur scouting, said in post-draft video conference. “But I think with our staff, we’ve been, over the last seven or eight years, really able to come through in these moments and dig out real prospects at real values. And I don’t think that’s changed.”

Even though the top prospects in the Mariners’ farm system are predominantly position players, including seven of their eight in Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects, the plan wasn’t to load up on pitching during this draft. It just worked out that way.

“Obviously, we went very pitching-heavy this year,” Hunter said. “It’s not something that we went into it saying we were definitely going to do. But it was something the draft was giving us. And instead of just chasing things that might not have been there, we just started really piling up on a lot of power arms with stuff we can develop.”

The Mariners have shown to be very good at drafting and developing pitching. Four of the starters in their rotation — Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo — were all taken in the draft.

“Age wasn’t a real thing this year, because there were a lot of older guys we’ve taken as well,” Hunter said. “We just went for 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. Looking for players we think we can develop. I think we did a pretty good job of that in a draft that we thought was probably a little lighter than most years.”

Hunter said that 90% of the class has already reached agreements for signing bonuses and will finalize it after taking physicals next week at the team’s complex in Arizona.

Cijntje and Sloan will be in Seattle next week to sign their contracts and meet members of the MLB staff.

As for the final day of the draft, Hunter would love to find a prospect like Logan Evans, who was taken in the 12th round out of the University of Pittsburgh and is now the Mariners’ top pitching prospect and a Top 100 prospect for Baseball America. In the 2017 draft, Seattle selected lefty J.P. Sears out of 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 sure as heck hope so, we’ve made some really good selections in these rounds,” Hunter said.

Hunter raved about the Mariners’ 11th-round pick — Christian Little, a right-handed pitcher out of LSU.

“He is a real prospect,” Hunter said. “He’s a four-year graduate with two years at Vanderbilt and two years at LSU, who hasn’t been the guy that he probably expected to be coming out of high school. He was a big-time prospect.”

Indeed, Little was projected as first-round pick as a senior in high school in Missouri but opted to enroll early at Vanderbilt.

“He’s a young 21-year-old that doesn’t have any eligibility left in college,” Hunter said. “So, he’s really a college junior that we took as a college senior that throws up to 99 mph and has a real slider. The performance on the back of his baseball card might not be as good as he expected, but we met with him at the combine and really feel that he’s a kid that will thrive in our player development program because there’s so much potential that’s untapped.”

The Mariners selected infielder/outfielder Brandon Eike out of Virginia Commonwealth in the 13th round. In 2022, the Mariners selected Tyler Locklear out of VCU in the second round.

Eike has similar credentials as 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 the power potential and his ability to drive the baseball, kind of like [Locklear],” Hunter said. “Maybe not on the same swing-decision level [Locklear] was 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 3 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

13th round (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

16th round (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 Picollo, St. Joseph’s University