WASHINGTON D.C. -- On Saturday afternoon, Seattle Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo will take the mound against the Washington Nationals as the M's look to take a series in our nation's capital.

Also on Saturday afternoon, the M's two most valuable pitching prospects will take the mound in Double-A. After a rain out on Friday, both Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan will start games in a doubleheader for the Arkansas Travelers. 

Anderson will do so with a sparkling 5-0 record and a 1.29 ERA. He's already struck out 76 batters in 49.0 innings and is destined for a spot in the MLB Futures Game this summer, even though that's not something that he wants.

The No. 3 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft is pushing his way to the big leagues, it's just a matter of when he gets there - and what it will look like when he does.

Could he be a starter that replaces an injured member of the rotation? Possibly. Could he be a multi-inning reliever that helps bridge games from the starter to the high-leverage relievers? Maybe. Could he be a lefty specialist that appears for the playoffs? Also maybe.

Regardless of what his impact will be, he will have one, and we discussed more about his outlook on the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast with ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney this week.

"Yeah, Joba Chamberlain with the Yankees would be another comp potentially for him, in terms of being a rookie pitcher who could come up and have an impact, Francisco Rodriguez with the Angels back in the early 2000s.

Look, we've seen baseball: Fernando Valenzuela in 1980, with the Dodgers, his first taste with LA. We've seen rookie pitchers come up and be a huge factor. And Kade Anderson looks like he's going to be an enormous factor because he is dominating in Double-A.

176 batters faced, 76 strikeouts, seven walks. Those are numbers you do not see.

It's not like he's coming out of left field. He was a third overall pick coming out of LSU. This is a weapon, potentially, for the Mariners that no other team has down the stretch, where you have a guy who could come up and, right away, change your late-inning composition.

I was texting with David Ross this morning (Thursday) about, 'man, you would have loved to have had three lefties down the stretch like the Mariners look like they could have.' And he's done nothing that suggests that he's not going to come up and potentially be a success right away.

And it's just a question of when. And I'm sure that the Mariners: He's a starting pitcher, his future is a starting pitcher. When he gets to Seattle, he's going to be a reliever.

I think they're going to want to develop him as much as possible in the minor leagues as a starter. And at some point in the month of July, I'm guessing, they'll start to begin to look at him as a short reliever and prepare him on that regimen.

Maybe even during his tenure in Triple-A, when he gets promoted to Triple-A. Start to work him out of the bullpen, have him come in in the fourth inning, fifth inning.

But I mean, this is an exciting option for them to have at the end of the year."

While the Mariners likely won't rush Anderson to the big leagues, he will be an important piece to the puzzle, especially if he is in the bullpen, given the potentially lengthy loss of now-injured reliever Matt Brash.

The Mariners and Nationals will play on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. PT.

You can listen to the full 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast with Buster Olney here, or you can watch below:

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!