The Mariners keep stockpiling arms, and that matters because their homegrown rotation won’t be frozen in time forever. Logan Gilbert is the first of that group set to reach free agency in 2028, with George Kirby next in 2029 and Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo following in 2030, barring extensions.
Seattle doesn’t appear rattled by that timeline. Kade Anderson is already lined up for the Opening Day roster, and more pitching help is coming behind him.
Ryan Sloan and Mason Peters are still a few years from their debuts, and the organization continues to bet on arm talent through the draft. In that vein, some around the game already think Seattle’s 2026 class could feature the next major franchise starter.
One name to watch is third-round pick Nathan Taylor, who is starting to look like a premium pitching project. Taylor came out of the University of Cincinnati after a solid college run.
He opened with a shaky first year, then made a big leap and finished his Bearcats career with a 3.60 ERA across 90 innings. That performance has already pushed him to Seattle’s No. 17 prospect, and the profile checks out.
Baseball America handed Taylor two notable honors in its breakdown of the Mariners’ latest draft class: best fastball and best secondary pitch. The fastball works in the low-90s on average, but he can reach 97 mph when needed.
The bigger edge comes from his extension, which stretches beyond seven feet and effectively gives hitters less time to track the ball. That kind of delivery would place him in roughly the 95th percentile for the metric, a trait that should help his pitches play better than the raw radar-gun reading suggests.
The pitch that really stands out is his slider. Taylor used it more than his fastball, and for good reason.
Thrown in the mid-80s, it has enough movement to make life miserable for hitters and produced a 44% whiff rate in his final college season. It has been his go-to pitch throughout his career and sits as his highest-rated offering.
Taylor also brings the kind of body that makes development staff salivate: 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, with room for more refinement. If the mechanics get cleaned up, there’s real upside for both the velocity and the full arsenal. And Seattle has shown it knows what to do with pitchers like that.
After a deeply disappointing 2026, the Mariners may need some patience before they’re back in the postseason picture, especially if the offseason stays quiet. Even so, the path back is taking shape. Piece by piece, Seattle keeps adding to the pipeline, and Taylor looks like one more arm worth keeping close on the radar.
In Other News...
Mariners Fans Have Seen This Former Project Break Through Too Late
Jake Bauers spent time in Seattle as one of those tantalizing left-handed projects who never quite put it together, the kind of bat the Mariners hoped might blossom with a little patience and the right role. Now with the Milwaukee Brewers, he has done just that, capping a season of real progress with a breakout run that included a 140 OPS+ and a team-leading 26 home runs.
Scott Servais once suggested Bauers might benefit from a change of environment, and the ex-Mariners outfielder has turned that idea into a pretty clear case study. His rise has been steady rather than sudden, but it still leaves Seattle looking at a familiar question: how many promising pieces only become finished products after they leave? [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Fans Just Got An Uncomfortable October Reminder
The Cleveland Guardians run through October has offered a familiar kind of reminder for Seattle followers: once the regular season ends, the door stays open for teams that know how to play deep into the calendar. Cleveland won Game 3 of the ALCS and is now within striking distance of the World Series, a stunning position for a club that only needed 85 wins to claim the AL Central and still found a way to turn a modest regular-season profile into October momentum.
For the Mariners, it is an uncomfortable comparison because it comes back to how they have talked about building a winner and what that has looked like in practice. Jerry Dipoto has long framed Seattles path around a certain standard for sustained success, but the Guardians current postseason surge is the sort of example that forces a fresh look at whether that approach is enough when the games matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Still Have One Lineup Problem They Cant Ignore
With the postseason churning around them, the Mariners are still staring at a familiar roster question that is hard to put off any longer. Around the league, the Brewers have moved on to a World Series berth, the Guardians have gotten a lift from rookie Petey Halpin and other clubs are already dealing with retirements, surgeries and coaching changes, but Seattles attention remains on how it will line up its own offense for next season.
The issue is less about adding another headline name than figuring out where the production goes from here and how the lineup holds together if the club wants to keep pace in the American League. Randy Arozarenas role in that mix has become central to the conversation, and it is the kind of problem that can linger into the winter if the Mariners do not find a clean answer soon. [Read more 🡒]