With 3 first-round picks, Mariners have rare chance to do ‘real damage’ in MLB draft

SEATTLE – Scott Hunter, the Seattle Mariners director of amateur scouting, chuckled at the question.

The Mariners are in a rare position entering the MLB draft, holding three picks in the first round that begins Sunday at Lumen Field, as part of the MLB All-Star Week festivities here in Seattle.

Two of the Mariners’ first-round picks – because they are compensatory picks – are allowed under MLB rules to be used in a trade.

And given how active his boss – Jerry Dipoto, the Mariners president of baseball operations – is on the trade market, Hunter was asked if he was ever nervous that one of those precious first-round picks might be dealt.

“He probably would have seen me cry if we did give up one of them,” Hunter said, “because this is the first time we’ve been in a position to do something like this.”

This could be a defining draft for the M’s. No team has held three first-round picks since the San Diego Padres in 2016.

The Mariners have held three first-round picks in a draft one time, in 2009, when they selected Dustin Ackley (No. 2 overall), Nick Franklin (No. 27) and Steve Baron (No. 33). (Those last two selections were compensatory picks, awarded to the Mariners for free-agent losses the previous offseason.)

And, yes, that 2009 draft did feature one particularly notable selection in the first round, with the Angels selecting Mike Trout out of New Jersey’s Millville High with the 25th pick.

No one is suggesting the Mariners could land the next Trout with one of their three first-round picks Sunday – Nos. 22, 29 and 30. (They also hold the No. 57 pick in the second round.)

But there is an industry consensus that this draft class is particularly deep and talented, which is what makes the Mariners’ position so appealing, and significant.

Some talent evaluators around the industry have called this the best draft class in a decade.

Dipoto took it a step further.

“This is the deepest draft that I’ve ever seen,” he said recently during his radio show on Seattle Sports 710-AM.

Beyond the picks, the Mariners are in an envious position because of the bonus pool money they have, as determined by the slot value of each pick.

The Mariners have $13,170,900 to spend in the draft, the seventh most of any team. The Pirates, who hold the No. 1 pick, have the most to spend at $16,185,700.

And with that bonus money, the Mariners can be creative. Their first pick, at No. 22, is valued at $3,496,600, but the Mariners could choose a high school player and offer a larger bonus to entice that player to forgo his college commitment.

Dipoto has given a strong indication that the Mariners are considering a high school position player with at least one of their early picks.

“There are stars throughout the first round, and you’re going to get the opportunity in this draft to take everyday players beyond the first round, which is a very unusual thing in a baseball draft,” Dipoto said. “And there’s depth particularly among position players. This is a position-player-rich draft, and it’s high school, it’s college – as good as I’ve ever seen.

“I couldn’t be more excited about having the picks stacked up the way we do. I think we’re going to do some real damage on draft day.”

This will be Dipoto’s eighth year overseeing the Mariners draft, and seventh with Hunter.

The Mariners received a second first-round selection this year because of Julio Rodriguez’s AL Rookie of the Year award in 2022, an incentive under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement.

They were awarded a third pick in the first round as part of the competitive balance round, in which MLB uses a formula that combines revenue, winning percentage and market score to determine eligibility.

“This is great opportunity, not only for our scouting group, but the organization as a whole to keep this thing rolling, where we’re producing internal players for promotions to the big leagues,” Hunter said. “The way I look at it is, we have three picks in the top 30. If you just line up the best 30 players in the country, we’re going to get three of them as an organization. And that’s a pretty good place to be sitting.”