Top 100 prospect hits for the cycle ... in just a 7-inning game!
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When Felnin Celesten joined the Mariners organization at the start of the 2023 international signing period, he was touted as potentially the highest upside shortstop on the market in a decade. Seen as a potential five-tool player as he fills out, the hype has continued to grow.
The only thing able to cool off Celesten’s bat Thursday night was the rain. The Mariners’ No. 7 prospect showed off all his offensive tools -- and then some -- by hitting for the cycle in High-A Everett's 9-5 victory over Eugene at PK Park, needing only seven innings to do so in Game 1 of a doubleheader.
The beat kept rolling for Celesten in the nightcap. After collecting all four hits left-handed in the opener, the switch-hitter ripped a single and a double right-handed in Game 2 before weather suspended play until Friday.
A night that initially gained notoriety for Celesten’s fourth homer in his past five games crystallized into his first major milestone in pro ball. Let’s take an at-bat-by-at-bat look at the first cycle for Everett since becoming a High-A club in 2021:
Top 1: Single
Facing Giants right-hander Hunter Dryden, Celesten ripped a 1-0 center-cut pitch the opposite way for an RBI single to open the scoring for the AquaSox.
Top 3: Homer
Another AB, another hitter’s count. Celesten worked the count 2-1 and took Dryden's hanging breaking ball over the center-field wall and off the batter’s eye. MLB’s No. 96 prospect has particularly crushed starting pitchers in 2026, hitting .344 with a .984 OPS.
Top 5: Double
With just seven innings to work with, the 20-year-old didn’t have much margin for error when it came to notching all four legs of the cycle. Celesten very nearly bypassed the milestone in favor of a two-homer night as he clobbered a down-and-away offering from righty Ubert Mejias high off the fence in left-center and beyond the reach of leaping left fielder Carlos Gutierrez (SF No. 14).
Top 7: Triple
With the hardest leg left for last, Celesten stacked the odds even further by falling behind 0-2 vs. righty Austin Strickland. But he got a hanging breaking ball and smashed it down the right-field line, getting another fortuitous bounce as the ball caromed off the side wall. Celesten showed off his wheels and collected his second triple in 290 plate appearances this year at the perfect time.
Those four knocks were a season high, his most in a single contest since a five-hit day in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League on June 17, 2024.
The nature of the six-team Northwest League means hitters and pitchers face one another at a rate unlike any other across the Minors. Take Dryden for example: He tossed 5 1/3 scoreless frames vs. Everett on June 7 -- but that was with Celesten getting the day off. When the righty started five days earlier in the series, Celesten was plunked and got him for a two-RBi double and a single.
Getting familiar with the opposition has undoubtedly given Celesten an advantage in 2026. He leads the Northwest League in a host of categories, including batting average (.325), on-base percentage (.416), OPS (.954) and total bases (134). From April 21-May 21, he hit safely in 25 consecutive games, tied for the longest mark in the Minors this season.
The success Celesten has found with Everett this year has been a complete 180-degree turn from the end of 2025. After a comparatively pedestrian campaign with Single-A Modesto that briefly knocked him off the Top 100 Prospects list, the shortstop went just 6-for-38 with 15 strikeouts following his promotion to the AquaSox. But beyond the hits column, there were two key reasons to be optimistic: Celesten slashed his ground-ball rate by almost 20 percent (64.9 in 2024 to 45 last year) and spent zero days on the injured list after being waylaid in his first two seasons.
That ground-ball rate continues to drop (42.5 percent entering play Thursday) and he’s played in 66 of Everett’s first 73 games. Being on the field has enabled him to rack up 11 homers and 17 stolen bases, making him one of just two players in the Northwest League with at least 10 roundtrippers and 15 bags. The other? Teammate Jonny Farmelo (SEA No. 6/MLB No. 69).