We asked Joe Doyle of Overslot Baseball to examine the M's system heading into 2026.
The Seattle Mariners got conflicting reports on the state of their farm system this week, with Baseball America only giving the M's four prospects in the MLB Top 100 and MLB Pipeline giving Seattle seven, the most of any team in the league.
According to Baseball America, Colt Emerson, Kade Anderson, Ryan Sloan and Lazaro Montes are in the Top 100, while MLB Pipeline gives nods to those four plus Michael Arroyo, Jonny Farmelo and Jurrangelo Cijtnje.
After the Baseball America rankings came out, we caught up with Overslot Baseball founder Joe Doyle on the 'Refuse to Lose' podcast to get his assessment. Again, this interview came out before MLB Pipeline put out their rankings.
"Yeah, I was surprised. I don't think that they should have anywhere close to nine (as they did in 2025). I think, personally, five or six. There are a couple of guys, like I told you through text...I still think that Jurrangelo Cijntje is a top 100 prospect and he still struck out 27 percent of the hitters that he saw last year as a right-handed pitcher. I think the opposing hitters hit .202 off of him as a right-handed pitcher. The slider was really good as a right-handed pitcher and his strike throwing ability took a step forward in a level and league in Arkansas that I think can challenge pitchers.
So I still have him in the 90 to 100 range. I still think Jonny Farmelo, with the injuries that he's had and the lack of momentum that he's been able to get under his feet as a professional, I still have him in the 80 to 100 range as well. I have Farmelo, just a little bit ahead of Cijntje and I actually have Farmelo ahead of Lazaro Montes, which for anyone that's listening to me on podcast, should be no surprise at this point..."
Do the prospect rankings really matter?
Look, one of the ways that we evaluate organizational health is by the strength of a team's farm system, so in that sense, yes, they do. But in reality, the players have to go out and play. There will be players who have high rankings that never materialize, and there will be players with low rankings who turn into All-Stars. I can't spend too much time getting mad about something so subjective.
I'd prefer universal agreement on how good the M's system is, but it doesn't matter all that much at the end of the day. The players will develop as they are supposed to, regardless of where they are on multiple arbitrary lists.
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