BUZZWORTHY
Annually, it's THE question to discuss every year either at Training Camp or Spring Training.
Who is the talk of camp?
It took all of about eight minutes to discover the answer to that question at Mariners Spring Training 2026. Or should I say the answers to that question?
Seattle's top pitching prospects Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan have taken camp by storm. Anderson was Seattle's unexpected gift during the new MLB Lottery process. It was like participating in a Secret Santa gift exchange at the office holiday party and coming away with an original Monet, while your cubicle mate, Jed, walked home with a lumpy pair of house slippers hand-crafted by Gretel from accounting.
Anderson arrives at his first big league camp reeking of Max Fried comparisons. The slender southpaw has amazed with his Baton Rouge-honed skill and strict interpretation of pitching coach Pete Woodworth's mantra "dominate the zone". He's spent the week baffling proven big-league hitters who simply haven't had enough reps in the cage to succeed against 94-97 with command.
Meanwhile, 20-year old Ryan Sloan is impressing onlookers in a variety of ways. Whether seen from afar, standing out from mere mortals with his centaur-like build that belies his babyface or standing tall atop a mound throwing 97-99 mph cheese with the ease of your grandfather pitching horseshoes at a family gathering, the 6'5", 225-pound Sloan certainly has folks talking. He has GM Justin Hollander smiling ear-to-ear. He has the architect, Jerry Dipoto, unable to contain his zeal, and he told us as much on Chuck & Buck.
"It's hard NOT to get overly excited about what we're seeing," he said. Sloan, the former 2nd round pick out of the not-so-much-of-a-hotbed for baseball talent that is northern Illinois, has been skyrocketing up prospects charts, and the buzz he's creating during his first Big League Camp will surely do little to curtail the ascent.
The Mariners see both Anderson and Sloan as being close to major league-ready, and as future top-of-the-rotation starters, which could lead to some interesting personnel decisions in the coming years, considering that four of the five present-day members of the Mariners' outstanding starting rotation are still in their 20's and multiple seasons shy of free agent eligibility. That's what you call, 'a great problem to have', and the Mariners will contend with the potential "issue" of too much starting pitching when the time comes.
For now, Anderson and Sloan work and learn, absorbing all they can from an organization that has rapidly gained a reputation for being the place young starting pitchers hope to land. But they're time is coming, and coming sooner than later.
In the meantime, enjoy the buzz.