Seattle Mariners’ top prospect Cole Young put together a massive five-hit night for Triple-A Tacoma on Wednesday, and with the M’s offense struggling, the calls for him to get promoted are growing louder and louder.
However, perhaps the Arizona Diamondbacks’ top prospect, Jordan Lawlar, serves as a cautionary tale and a reminder to the M’s about the perils of promoting top prospects.
Lawlar is ranked as the No. 4 prospect in the sport by MLB Pipeline and is hitting .336 at Triple-A this season. He went 0-for-19 in eight games at the big league level and was sent back down Thursday by Arizona, showing that even red-hot prospects aren’t instant successes at the next level.
For comparison, Young is hitting .277 this season and is the No. 43 prospect in baseball. Perhaps the M’s just don’t want to put Young through the major leagues until they know he’s ready, and they don’t think 52 games at Triple-A is enough to say that yet.
(Shoutout to @StoicMsfan on social media for giving us the article idea):
There’s also the issue of roster construction and how Young fits into the big-league roster, which we wrote about here.
As for the Mariners themselves, they enter play Thursday at 30-24 overall and in first place in the American League West. They lead the Houston Astros by 0.5 games and will take on the Washington Nationals Thursday at 6:40 p.m. PT.
NEW PODCAST IS OUT! Brady is back for another episode of “Refuse to Lose,” as he talks about the M’s series loss in Houston and what we learned from it. Is he happy or disappointed at the 6-4 road trip given how it ended? And, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller both offered some interesting remarks after recent live bullpen sessions. What can we take away? And Connor Webb, AKA “The Couch GM” joins the show to discuss his rise to prominence in the M’s social media sphere. CLICK HERE:
WILL GILBERT BE GILBERT? After a recent live session, Logan Gilbert offered some remarks that M’s fans should absolutely take into account as he works to return from injury. CLICK HERE:
MILESTONE LOADING: Andres Munoz, who enters play on Thursday with a 0.00 ERA, is nearing a personal and historic milestone that he’s likely to achieve in his next outing. CLICK HERE:
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