PEORIA, Ariz. -- From 2018-20, the Mariners took three college pitchers in the first round of the Draft, and while the last of the trio, Emerson Hancock, has yet to establish himself, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are cornerstones in a big league rotation expected to help the club compete for the AL West title this year.

After that, the scouting department turned in an entirely different direction, taking three high school hitters in a row. All three -- Harry Ford (2021), Cole Young (2022), Colt Emerson (2023) -- are now in the Top 100. Ford and Young joined forces in High-A last year; Emerson is coming off a big summer debut that saw him reach full-season ball and finish with a 1.045 OPS over 24 games. The trio -- the top three prospects in the system -- have been together for the first time over an extended period this spring and have been able to test their mettle in Cactus League games.

“You get a collection of high school players and you get them into the tail end of Major League games, you’re always trying to see how they adapt and if the game speeds up or slows down,” said Mariners farm director Justin Toole, who is entering his second season overseeing the player development department. “The game speeds up at times, but you also see the ability for them to slow the game down. There are high expectations on that group.”

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Those expectations aren’t lost on that trio. Ford had a very long 2023, from starring for Great Britain on the international stage on two occasions to playing in the Arizona Fall League. Young jumped on a bit of a faster track by hitting his way across two levels in his first full season, while Emerson raised his own bar with his strong debut. Now they’re pushing each other to make sure they’re the leaders of the next wave of talent to help Seattle compete annually.

“They like to work,” Toole said. “Harry, Cole and Colt, they all want to work and want to get better. You go out on the backfields and you can see it, you can see them getting after it. And they love doing it. With that group, you have to kick them off the field and send them home rather than try to beg them to get out on the field.”

It’s not hard to motivate them given how much emphasis there is on promoting from within. They can see the pitching that’s gone up and excelled -- a group that included Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo in 2023, while also learning from position players like Jose Caballero and Cade Marlowe who made contributions last year as a road map.

“It’s starting to pave the way for this young group to see that you know what’s expected and what the Mariners standard is in terms of how we work, but also what it takes to get up to the big leagues and stick there,” Toole said. “Supplementing that great pitching we have up there in the Major Leagues is a goal and I think we have the right internal group to be able to do it.”

Camp standout: Felnin Celesten

The Mariners don’t only use the Draft to acquire young position players. They gave Celesten, the No. 2-ranked prospect in the 2023 international signing class, $4.7 million to sign in January of that year. He wasn’t able to go out and show what he could do in the Dominican Summer League as planned after signing because of a Grade 2 hamstring strain suffered in an intrasquad game before the DSL schedule even got going.

A switch-hitting shortstop, Celesten (No. 5) has as much ceiling as anyone in the system and has impressive tools on both sides of the ball. The Mariners' player development staff has been thrilled to see him fully use them at 100 percent this spring.

“It’s been fun to watch him go out and compete and do well,” Toole said. “He’s in a great spot coming into camp. He’s a name the industry has know for a while, a high profile guy, but it’s been fun for us to see him out there feeling good, running around playing the game he can play. The sky’s the limit for him and the tools he has. You see the defense and how smooth he is. He has the power and the bat as well.

“He’s acclimated well with our group. It doesn’t matter if you’re coming up as an international sign, you’re a high school or college draft -- that group has acclimated really well together. It’s been fun to see him be part of that group. The competitive nature comes out in practice.”

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Breakout candidate: Logan Evans

Just because the Mariners have focused on hitters at the top of the Draft the last few years does not mean they’ve abandoned finding and developing pitchers, and not just first-rounders. Evans, for example, was a senior taken out of the University of Pittsburgh in Round 12 and signed for just $100,000. The Mariners liked his size (6-foot-4), his extension and his sinker-slider combination, and he did make a strong first impression by making it to full-season ball and picking up a playoff start for Modesto.

Evans (No. 20) is looking to pick up where he left off, having reported to the Mariners' complex in January while making some very good adjustments already, showing off good velocity and pitch shapes. Being around the Gilberts and Kirbys of the world hasn’t hurt, either.

“I think when you have those guys around in Spring Training, he has the opportunity to talk to those guys,” Toole said. “And they have the opportunity to share some of the stuff they’ve learned and helped get them there. Anytime you have a starting group the caliber we have and they’re able to share secretes and tricks of the trade with our group, it’s unbelievable. That’s something that’s helped him. He has all the tools you need to go out there and perform. It’s just a matter of him putting it all together.”

Something to prove: Axel Sanchez

Sanchez had a bit of a breakout in 2022 during his United States debut, making his way from the Arizona Complex League up to High-A Everett by the end of the year, finishing with a solid .875 OPS while showing better athleticism at shortstop. He didn’t back that up in 2023 with a return to Everett as he slashed just .199/.285/.353 over 72 games in his age-20 season. The good news is Sanchez clearly went home with that failure stuck in his craw and came to camp ready to prove he’s much closer to the 2022 version.

“Any time you go through some adversity, you learn a lot about players,” Toole said. “We love as an organization trying to prepare players for that. And once they experience that, help them bounce back.

“He didn’t have the year he wanted to have last year. He definitely showed up to camp with a chip on his shoulder, something to prove. All the talent is there. Everything you want in a middle infield player is there. It’s just a matter of being consistent with it each and every day.”