With the Mariners’ playoff math now down to a tragic number of seven, the big-league season has become a hard thing to look at. The brighter side is down on the farm, where Hunter Fitz-Gerald has turned in one of the strangest and most impressive years in the organization.
He’s easy to miss if you’re scanning prospect lists. Fitz-Gerald was taken by the Rockies in the 33rd round in 2019, then signed with Seattle as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after his college stock never really took off. MLB Pipeline doesn’t have him in the Mariners’ top 30 prospects, which makes what he just did in Double-A Arkansas stand out even more.
The numbers jump off the page. Fitz-Gerald hit .279/.338/.527 with an .865 OPS and a 128 wRC+ across 133 games, while piling up 29 home runs, 100 RBI, 43 walks, 14 stolen bases and 82 runs.
Entering the season, he had only 15 home runs in 181 career minor league games. He nearly doubled that total in one year, but even that wasn’t the most eye-catching part of his season.
He wrapped up the regular season with 69 extra-base hits, including 37 doubles, three triples and those 29 homers. That tied him with Caleb Bonemer for the most by any MiLB hitter this season. Bonemer, for reference, is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the White Sox’s No. 2 prospect and No. 29 overall in baseball.
What makes Fitz-Gerald’s year even more impressive is where he did most of the damage. More than half his games came at Dickey-Stephens Park, which is the worst power park in the Texas League.
He was better on the road, batting .288 with a .917 OPS, but he still produced a .270 average and .809 OPS at home in 69 games, which is no small thing in that setting. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, he looks built for exactly this kind of grind.
He also closed the season with a 15-game hitting streak, the longest by a Traveler this year.
Fitz-Gerald will turn 26 in December, so the next step matters. He went to Marjory Stoneman-Douglas High School, the same school that produced Anthony Rizzo, Jesús Luzardo and Roman Anthony. He also played under his father, Todd, who has been highly successful as the Eagles’ head coach with six National titles and eight State titles.
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