Last week, I got the opportunity to see the Everett AquaSox, the Mariners' High-A affiliate, play a game against the Eugene Emeralds, and boy was it fun. The AquaSox are loaded with talent right now, with over half of their top prospects all at High-A currently. According to our Prospects Live Top 100, the AquaSox have four top 100 prospects on their roster: Colt Emerson, Jonny Farmelo, Michael Arroyo, and Lazaro Montes. Throughout the night, it became abundantly clear that this was the most talented minor league roster I had ever seen with my own eyes.
The AquaSox got some pre-season hype from different outlets, ranking in the top 3 ‘best’ minor league teams in 2025. I haven’t seen the Carolina Mudcats yet, but I would be hard pressed not to put the AquaSox as one of the most hyped up MiLB teams in recent history.
While the AquaSox played the Emeralds, the Giants' High-A affiliate, we are going to focus on the AquaSox solely for this Live Looks article. If you want to see my past account of the Eugene Emeralds, here’s the article I wrote on them earlier this year.
This was a rare baseball game where the score did not matter to me (the Emeralds won on a 10th-inning walkoff). I was instead fully focused on the AquaSox while trying to figure out who the next Mariners star player might be. The only thing missing from a great night of baseball was seeing the phenom switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje throw.
Colt Emerson, SS SEA (High-A)
Emerson is the most hyped prospect on this team and in the Mariners system, for good reason. His baseball instincts are top tier, and the swing is incredibly smooth. I came away very impressed with Colt’s fielding abilities. He was consistently tested at shortstop and always made the right play. The best way for me to describe Emerson’s fielding is that he will make all the necessary plays, but likely won’t make the really hard ones. His lateral quickness leaves something to be desired, but he comes in on slow grounders and choppers incredibly well. He moves like a veteran out there and should play a lot of shortstop throughout the rest of his career. In the box, he has starts out quiet, similar to a lot of contact-first bats you see. He has a pretty flat bat path, which makes sense due to his high ground ball rates. There is power in Colt Emerson, but he’s going to have to start getting underneath the ball and pull some more fly balls. He swings the bat incredibly hard, as you can see from the first clip in the video below. The fat bat might leave him exposed to velocity up in the zone, but he covers everything well, including lefty breaking balls. There is certainly more room to add size to Colt’s frame as well. Don’t count him out as an average future power bat yet.
When diving in deeper to the statistics, Colt Emerson feels incredibly sustainable, with one of the highest floors in the minor leagues. His power will likely determine his ceiling, which needs to be figured out soon, as it's likely Colt will be promoted to the upper minors at some point this year. As previously mentioned, the biggest current problem is the 62% ground ball rate. Colt is strong enough to put plenty of those through the infield with high EVs, but that high of a rate will limit his potential. Emerson has been a popular breakout pick this year, especially by Prospects Live, which has him as the 16th-best prospect in baseball. A lot of this breakout hype was in the hope that Colt would start hitting the ball in the air, instead, we’ve gotten the opposite thus far. He’s still an elite prospect, but tweaks are necessary for him to join the upper echelon of guys.
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
A Giants fan living in San Diego, been playing fantasy baseball since 2005 and dynasty since 2021. Started the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast in June 2023 and joined Prospects Live in March of 2024.
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As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
