SEATTLE -- For a team in the thick of a multiyear rebuild and with the No. 6 overall pick, the 2020 MLB Draft was supposed to be a potentially franchise-altering one for the Mariners. And it still very much could be, with the likes of first-round pick Emerson Hancock and more added to the organization, but the reduction to five rounds certainly put Seattle in more of a bind than most.
Yet, the Mariners march on with a better grasp of what scouting during a pandemic looks like and how they can select players who will be part of their long-term success. That brings us to this year’s Draft, in which the Mariners carry the No. 12 overall pick that has a slot value of $4,366,400. In total, the Mariners have an $8,526,000 bonus pool, the 15th highest.
Day 1 of the 2021 Draft will take place live from Denver’s Bellco Theatre on Sunday. It will feature the first 36 picks and will air on MLB Network and ESPN at 4 p.m. PT. Day 2, which will span rounds 2-10, begins at 10 a.m. PT on Monday. The Draft will conclude with rounds 11-20 on Tuesday, starting at 9 a.m. PT. MLB.com will simulcast MLB Network’s broadcast and provide live coverage on all three days.
To view when teams pick, the Top 200 Prospects list, mock drafts from analysts Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, scouting video and more, visit to MLB.com/Draft. Follow @MLBDraft and @MLBDraftTracker on Twitter to see what Draft hopefuls, clubs and experts are saying and to get each pick as it’s made.
If history suggests how the Mariners approach this year’s Draft, they will once again be eyeing a college pitcher with their first-round pick. That’s the course they’ve taken each of the past three years with Hancock, George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, who is already showing elite-level returns in the Majors.
But beyond the top tier of talent such as Vanderbilt aces Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter and company, which is likely out of the Mariners’ reach, the Mariners are channeling their focus beyond the college ranks.
“We're seeing it's more of a high school-driven Draft, which is probably unique for the Seattle Mariners over the last three or four years, because we've taken so many college guys,” Mariners director of amateur scouting Scott Hunter said. “And we’ve started really looking at the high school ranks, because we've put ourselves in a position to do things that are a little more creative.”
Beyond the types of players they’re targeting, much has changed in the Mariners’ Draft process since the pandemic began.
Thanks to TrackMan and Rapsodo, they are better able to decipher tangible information on the players they’re scouting. That data can be disseminated easily and analyzed by the club’s analytics department. Hunter added that they’ve been more aggressively supplementing this with in-person interviews and scouting now that restrictions have been limited. And they jump-started the process last fall by conducting virtual meetings to better get to know potential picks.
“We were starting from a step behind because we didn't have last summer, we didn't have a lot of fall work, we didn't have a lot of spring and with COVID and everything,” Hunter said. “We really started off at a slower pace actually battling. But with our guys, we've done a such a good job over the last few years of communicating, getting people in the right ballpark and focusing on the right things that I think we're in a real good spot as we lead up to this Draft.”
The Mariners will have 20 picks this year, half of what has been in a “normal” Draft. That, and the fewer Minor League affiliates this year, including no rookie level at all, will create even more urgency for the Mariners to hit on their selection.
“In any year, we're still looking to take the best players,” Hunter said. “We may not have the extra teams in the Minor Leagues. It makes you narrow your focus a little bit more to really think like, ‘How long is the development process for a younger player?’ Even a college player coming out of college and having a COVID year where they missed which you know, we always call but blip year right now. … Watching what some of these kids what they've gone through, they've lost a year of development. So, I don't think it's really changed much as an organization, I think we're still looking to fill the system with the best players we can, and then sorted out once the Draft is over.”