Over the last week, we've seen Top 100 prospect rankings drop from several reputable outlets, including Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic and ESPN.

Well, on Thursday, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel took a run at examining the overall health of the farm systems around the sport, ranking the Seattle Mariners as the seventh-best farm system entering 2026.

Here's what he's saying:

The scouting and development machine marches on, graduating Cole Young and trading Harry Ford from last year's list. Emerson looks poised to impact the big league team at some point in 2026, while Kade Anderson, Michael Arroyo and Lazaro Montes are just behind him (and Ryan Sloan and Jurrangelo Cijntje might be in that wave too). Those are a lot of potential impact types who are close for the third-best team on paper right now in the American League.

Colt Emerson, who was ranked as the No. 6 prospect by McDaniel, does seem like he'll get a chance to play in 2026 - potentially as early as Opening Day. Arroyo, Montes and Cijntje could all make contributions this season as well, and prospects like Felnin Celesten, Jonny Farmelo and Luke Stevenson are coming down the road and are well-regarded also.

The Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets, and Detroit Tigers all rate higher than the M's entering the campaign.

In news that should make Mariners fans happy, each American League West team is behind Seattle, and so are the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays.

The Mariners traded Ford to the Washington Nationals in the deal that brought Jose Ferrer to Seattle, and they may not be done dealing from the farm system yet. The M's have been interested in acquiring Brendan Donovan from the St. Louis Cardinals all offseason and could still make a deal on that front.

If not Donovan, the M's could move prospects at the trade deadline like they did last season when they acquired Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Caleb Ferguson from the Pirates.

Potentially a deal for Donovan, potentially a reunion with Suarez in free agency? And if nothing happens on those fronts, maybe it's just rolling into spring training for the first workouts of the year.

The M's will be at camp on Feb. 12. The first Cactus League game is set for Feb. 20.

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