Last year the Seattle Mariners selected corner infielder Tyler Locklear from VCU in the second round. He was coming off of a very gaudy statistical season in 2022 where he hit .402/542/.799 with 20 home runs and 25 doubles. He also walked almost twice as much as he struck out. Joe Doyle thought it was a quality pick at the time.
In a tweet he said, “The #Mariners jump into the college ranks grabbing VCU 1B/3B Tyler Locklear in Round 2. Locklear has been one of the more impressive college bats for two years now. Plus power with a potential solid-average hit tool. Fringy defender, may move to 1B.”
After a month long stint in Modesto to start his professional career, Locklear has put up good numbers through 41 games in High-A Everett. He is hitting .298/.399/.561 with 10 home runs and 11 doubles. He has also only played first base this season, moving off of third base like Doyle suggested may happen. He is listed at 6-foot-1 weighing 210 pounds, a similar size to current Mariners first baseman Ty France who is 5-foot-11 and weighs 215 pounds.
At just 22 years of age, Locklear still is a few years away from being ready to contribute to the big league club, but fans in western Washington should go see him play in Everett before he gets promoted to Double-A Arkansas because he is leading Everett in hits, home runs, and RBI.
Modesto Nuts (A) – California League
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | STATS |
| 5 | Cole Young | SS | .265/.407/.400, 15.5% BB, 15% K |
| 9 | Gabriel Gonzalez | OF | .343/.405/.493, 2 HR 7.2% BB, 14.4% K |
| 18 | Michael Morales | RHP | 7 GS, 34.1 IP, 3.67 ERA, 25% K, 10.1% BB |
| 28 | Tyler Gough | RHP | 7 G, 6 GS, 18 IP, 7.50 ERA, 19% K, 13.9% BB |
| 35 | Milkar Perez | 3B | .259/.375/.345, 15.3% BB, 25.7% K |
| 36 | Josh Hood | SS/3B | .258/.332/.403, 3 HR, 10.1% BB, 23% K |
| 48 | Tatem Levins | C | .260/.356/.452, 2 HR 13.8% BB, 23% K |
Everett AquaSox (A+) — Northwest League
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | STATS |
| 1 | Harry Ford | C | .268/.433/.430, 5 HR, 20.1% BB, 17.6% K |
| 8 | Axel Sanchez | SS | .161/.270/.207, 10% BB, 34% K |
| 13 | Tyler Locklear | 3B | .299/.398/.561, 10 HR, 11.3% BB, 22.6% K |
| 25 | Hogan Windish | 2B | .218/.340/.513, 6 HR, 14.9% BB, 28.7% K |
| 29 | Alberto Rodriguez | OF | .310/.404/.571, 5 HR, 10.9% BB, 21.1% K |
| 38 | Walking Cabrera | OF | .241/.295/.431, 5 HR, 7.8% BB, 30.2% K |
Arkansas Travelers (AA) – Texas League
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | STATS |
| 6 | Bryan Woo | RHP | 8 GS, 39 IP, 2.08 ERA, 34.6% K, 6.5% BB |
| 7 | Emerson Hancock | RHP | 9 GS, 36.1 IP, 5.20 ERA, 28.9% K, 13.8% BB |
| 12 | Prelander Berroa | RHP | 10 G, 5 GS, 30 IP, 3.90 ERA, 35.1% K, 18.3% BB |
| 14 | Jonatan Clase | OF | .288/.402/.600, 11 HR, 16% BB, 30% K |
| 19 | Juan Then | RHP | 7 G, 7 IP, 5.00 ERA, 27.5% K, 7.5% BB |
| 21 | Robert Perez Jr. | 1B | .279/.331/.448, 6 HR, 6.5% BB, 30.8% K |
| 22 | Isaiah Campbell | RHP | 10 G, 11 IP, 3.27 ERA, 26% K, 6.5% BB |
| 26 | Juan Mercedes | RHP | 8 G, 7 GS, 42 IP, 3.43 ERA, 26.1% K, 5.6% BB |
| 33 | Travis Kuhn | RHP | 15 G, 15.1 IP, 2.35 ERA, 17.2% K, 14% BB |
| 45 | Spencer Packard | OF | .292/.399/.434, 3 HR, 14.5% BB, 19.6% K |
Tacoma Rainiers (AAA) – Pacific Coast League
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | STATS |
| 15 | Taylor Dollard | RHP | 3 GS, 8.1 IP, 7.56 ERA, 22.2 K%, 8.3% BB |
| 20 | Cade Marlowe | OF | .267/.319/.450, 3 HR, 6.9% BB, 28.5% K |
| 24 | Zach DeLoach | OF | .303/.406/.449, 4 HR, 13.7% BB, 30.5%K |
| 40 | Stephen Kolek | RHP | 13 G, 19.1 IP, 8.38 ERA, 20.9% K, 12.1% BB |
| UR | Brian O’Keefe | C | .250/.363/.515, 9 HR, 14.6% BB, 22.9% K |
| UR | Jake Scheiner | INF/OF | .278/.392/.590, 14 HR, 15.8% BB, 18.6% K |
Mariners Draft Spotlight
Last year the Mariners selected small college corner infielder Tyler Locklear with their second pick in the draft. This year, another small college corner guy could be someone of interest to the Mariners this year, and that is Florida Atlantic corner outfielder/first baseman Nolan Schanuel.
Schanuel is a 21-year-old Florida native who stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs in at 210 pounds. In his third season at FAU he is slashing .456/.622/.886 with 41 extra base hits including 19 home runs to go along with 14 stolen bases. The thing that jumps off of the page however is his walks. He has 71 walks to just 14 strikeouts. That is a 25% walk rate and less than a 5% strikeout rate. Of course the competition in Conference USA is not as high as other conferences, putting up those numbers are really impressive.
Joe Doyle of Future Stars Series has him ranked as his 30th prospect in the draft and had this to say about Schanuel, “The big lefty made a big impact, hitting for both power and average while manning both corner spots in the infield and a cameo here and there in the outfield. Schanuel is actually a fringe-average runner, so the straight-line speed can handle a corner outfield role at the next level. The bat is going to be strong enough to play no matter where he settles on the defensive spectrum.
Based off of where he is ranked among prospect writers, the powerful Schanuel will probably be available with at least one of the M’s first three selections, so they could very well have the chance to take him early in the draft.
Mariners Prospects in the News
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Curtis Christianson
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