One of the best minor league pitchers in the organization was named the Jamie Moyer Pitcher of the Year on Tuesday

SEATTLE — Tuesday was a day that will go down in franchise history for the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners completed a comeback against the Colorado Rockies and won 4-3 at T-Mobile Park to clinch their second playoff berth in four seasons and just their third since 2001.

It's been a great season to this point for Seattle. Before the game, the organization honored several minor leaguers who had their own stellar seasons with their annual minor league awards.

One of those players was right-handed starting pitcher Ryan Sloan.

Sloan, a 19-year-old hurler, was named the organization's Jamie Moyer Pitcher of the Year on Tuesday. He was picked in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft by the Mariners out of high school. He was considered one of the best prep pitchers available in the draft.

Sloan made his professional debut this season with the Single-A Modesto Nuts and was promoted to the High-A Everett AquaSox on Aug. 10.

With Sloan's relative lack of experience compared to his peers in the minor leagues, he took his first year as an opportunity to learn.

"I like to put it as a year of learning for me," Sloan said in a pregame interview Tuesday. "First year, obviously. I say it a lot, but there's just a lot of guys that have played a lot more baseball than I have. So being able to see what everyone has to say, (seeing everyone's) experiences — what they've been through — what they've learned. Just hoping to pick everyone's brain. Trying to become a better player, person, all the above. Not just pitching."

Sloan applied those lessons well on the mound. He posted a 3.73 ERA with 90 strikeouts in 82 innings pitched across 21 starts. He had a 3.44 ERA and fanned 77 batters in 70.2 innings pitched across 18 starts with Modesto. He made three starts with Everett and had a 5.56 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 11.1 innings pitched. His season ended prematurely due to a minor eye procedure.

Sloan (No. 41 MLB Pipeline top 100, No. 64 Baseball America top 100) struggled to completely adapt to High-A hitters, but he took the growing pains in stride. He continued to try and implement his cutter to his existing arsenal of a fastball, slider and changeup, while still trying to stay mentally clear while on the mound.

"I think my biggest strides was just mentally getting better," Sloan said. "Because I think coming in, I thought my stuff was good. All the data and statistics, info, proved it was really good. Just going out there and being able to have a non-cluttered mind — just go out there and have a simple plan, have a simple thought — and just go out there and compete I think was my biggest stride."

Sloan, who's listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, is one of three top 100 pitching prospects in the Mariners' minor league system, according to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America's respective rankings.

The other two Seattle pitchers named in the top 100 rankings are 2024 first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje (No. 89 MLB Pipeline, No. 89 Baseball America) and 2025 first-round pick Kade Anderson (No. 22 MLB Pipeline, No. 29 Baseball America).

Now that Sloan has a year under his belt, he'll be able to apply those lessons to spring training, where he'll be surrounded by a myriad of high-end pitching talent among his peers alone he can bounce ideas off of. 

"It's pretty sweet that you got a lot of pitchers that have a lot of talent and have been really successful at every level they've played at," Sloan said. "The ability to be around them — I always think it's good to have people that are at your talent level to be able to compete with. ... It elevates everyone, at the end of the day."

Sloan is projected to be called up in 2028 according to MLB Pipeline. Cijntje and Anderson, who spent time in college, are projected to make their respective minor league debuts in 2027.