Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: SEATTLE MARINERS CALL UP TOP PROSPECT COLT EMERSON

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Marines are calling up Colt Emerson, but not for the best reasons. Let's talk about it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors, it is Sunday, May 17th, 2026. My name is Tiding Azal. I'm joined as always by my co-co's Colby Patnode. This episode is brought to you by Fanduel.

Starting point is 00:00:30 Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. at Defanduil.com to get started. It is finally happening. The Mariners are calling up top prospect Colt Emerson to the majors. However, a big reason for this happening is that Brennan Donovan is unfortunately heading back to the IL for the second time already this season, once again with a left groin muscle strain.

Starting point is 00:00:54 So a bit of a dark cloud, unfortunately hanging over what should otherwise be a really fun, really important day for the mayor's organization. Colby, your reaction? I mean, I'm not thrilled in what should be a really fun day, you know, a 20-year-old prospect.

Starting point is 00:01:15 Top 10 pretty much at every publication and he's going to wear a Mariners uniform and that's awesome. But I unfortunately also think it doesn't mean good things for Brennan Donovan. I think we're looking at a lengthy stay here on the IEL for Donovan. And that kind of, you know, leads me to

Starting point is 00:01:33 be more concerned than happy. And part of that is that I'm not really all that convinced that Emerson is ready for the big leagues. This is the guy who hasn't exactly crushed AAA. He's been fine, good, even, especially for his age. But he hasn't, you know, forced the Mariners hand here. And I think if Donovan was healthy, I don't think we'd see this move. I think it's very clearly directly linked to Donovan's stay on the IL. And I think this is kind of an indication that it's going to be a longer stay.

Starting point is 00:02:03 than the last one, and that's not great. I mean, on the one hand, you want Donovan to be as close to 100% as possible. So take the long game here and see what happens. But if you thought Donovan could get ready or could, you know, be back in a week or two, you're probably calling up Brock Rodden or Ryan Bliss or Patrick Wisdom. So I don't, like, would be awesome if Donovan wasn't the reason that he was being called but I think that's a bad thing obviously losing Donovan and going to Emerson almost certainly is a net negative and we'll talk about what we expect from in performance wise a little bit later but I just I just don't

Starting point is 00:02:47 think this is a move the Mariners wanted to make I think this is a move that the Mariners were kind of forced to make which is not a good position to be in and it's I don't love you know being in a position where your 20-year-old, you know, future all-star, whatever prospect is coming into a spot where he's going to be asked to do a lot to help a struggling team that just lost two of its, you know, all-star players in the last week. And I just don't love kind of the hand the Mariners have been dealt where they feel that it's necessary for them to call up Colt because I feel like this is early. and I feel like it's antithetical to the way that the Mariners typically do these things is that

Starting point is 00:03:31 they've been very clear like Colt has to earn his way to the big leagues. He has to force our hand. He has to do this and this. And he's been good. Like he was good in spring training. He was good in AAA. But he has been really good for the last two weeks. Sure.

Starting point is 00:03:45 But he hasn't been great for any substantial amount of time. Like two good weeks doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. And, you know, you do try to factor in that he's a 20 year old playing AAA. and all that. So it's just, it's kind of hard to judge. And he was out of action for a week in the middleish portion of April. And then when he got back, he really struggled, saw his WRC plus dip below 100, you know, during that time. And now he's kind of normalized the numbers again with, you know, the really good two-week stretch that he's been on, you know, leading up to his call-up. By the way, we have breaking news. Emerson's making his debut tonight.

Starting point is 00:04:22 He's in the lineup. The mayor has just switched up their lineup. He is in the lineup. playing third base and hitting ninth tonight against Lucas Giolyto. No, two lefties on the bump tomorrow or tomorrow and Tuesday. So he will be tested to get him in. That's probably part of the reason to get him into the lineup tonight. Well, I mean, like, look, we talked about this the entire time. Every time people have asked us call up, you know, Colt Emerson for Leo Rivas, like, no, if you're calling up Colt Emerson, he has to play every day.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Like, he has to be an everyday player when you call him up. So, yeah, I mean, the Mariners typically, they do kind of call guys up in the past, they call guys up and like giving them a day and then put them in the lineup the next day. And sometimes they, I mean, they'd like to start guys on the road, too, if they can. So another point of example that like, yeah, this feels rushed. This feels like something that the Mariners feel like they have to do and not something they necessarily want to do, regardless of how they're going to spin it when they go talk to the media here in an hour or so.

Starting point is 00:05:24 But I just, to me, this doesn't feel like a, we're excited to have them up type of thing. It's more of a like, I mean, what other choice did we have? I really hope that's not the case. You know, I really hope that, you know, they were planning on calling up Emerson soon anyway, maybe not today, but like they were planning on it happening in the next week or so. and that look, Donovan got hurt. All right, let's just do it. You know, Coltson, Tacoma right now anyway.

Starting point is 00:05:54 It's a quick trip over to the ballpark. You know, we can kind of ease them into this as well where, you know, we can debut at home, all that. That's my hope here because they've just, they've been so disciplined with a lot of their prospects. They've been disciplined with Emerson. It's just, you know, you have Brock Rodden down there. You have Patrick Wisdom down there. You had other levers that you could potentially pull that are not. exciting, obviously.

Starting point is 00:06:22 But other things that you could have done, so you maintain that discipline and prioritize Emerson's development over everything. Again, just my hope here is that Emerson, they do feel that Emerson was at least very, very close to earning this call up anyway, that they just decided, all right, let's just do it now. Yeah. And again, I don't think the Mariners thought he was months away. I think they probably in theory.

Starting point is 00:06:52 I don't know is for sure, but just kind of based on vibes and what we'd heard in the past and all that. I do feel kind of like they probably think that this is two to four weeks earlier than they would ideally like. So, you know, it is what it is. There's only so much that you can really do from the mayor's perspective. You know, but it just, it feels just a little bit rush. It's not an egregious rush. You know, they're not calling up a guy with a 72 WRC plus. and in AAA and all that.

Starting point is 00:07:24 But again, it's just, it just doesn't fit the timeline or the criteria that was laid out for Colt back in February. And obviously, back in February, you were planning on having like Cal Raleigh and Brin Donovan, both on the IL and all that. So I understand plans change and all that. And yeah, overall, I'm excited to see him play because this is a very good prospect. But I do think that I have concerns about how he's going to perform. form specifically because I don't think the mariners are calling him up because they are confident that he is ready. I think they're calling him up because they think he is the best of a not so great situation that they currently face on their roster. Yeah, I just hope that,

Starting point is 00:08:07 you know, because again, we talked about a scenario kind of like this back when we were asked a billion times about calling up Emerson, that hopefully the Mariners are not looking at him as a vibe saver because the Marrins are not playing particularly great ball right now. They've just lost their last two games against the Padres. They're looking to avoid getting swept tonight

Starting point is 00:08:27 on Sunday night baseball. And then obviously there's the Donovan of it all as well, which is why we're not like doing back flips on the show right now. Because like if this was Emerson's getting called up and Leo Rivas is the corresponding move or whatever, we'd be celebrating right now.

Starting point is 00:08:43 This would be an awesome show. But like the fact that it's because Donovan is going on the IL for the second time already because he clearly just can't shake whatever he's been dealing with here from the surgery that he had this off season. Like it's just it's bittersweet.

Starting point is 00:09:02 I think that's a really good way to put it. It's very bittersweet right now. But again, just hopefully that, hopefully even though like it's clear that, you know, they're not calling it up for the best reasons. Hopefully it's not for all of the wrong reasons though. Right. All right. So let's talk about Emerson and what we're expecting from him now that he's at the big league level.

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Starting point is 00:12:15 And you're listening to the Locktime Maris podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things. and also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Don't forget to check out the Everydayer Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group chat with me and other listeners of this show.

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Starting point is 00:12:46 forward slash control of zone. Link in the description of this episode. So, per Ryan Divish, or well, per Justin Hollander via Ryan DeVish, Cole Emerson will be the primary third baseman. No surprise there. Brennan Donovan is receiving a PRP shot in his left groin and another shot in his adductor muscle.

Starting point is 00:13:08 There is no exact timetable for his return, but the mayors are hoping he can be able to get back to full activity in two to three weeks. So yeah, a little bit of an extended period on the IL expected for Donovan, as we were concerned about. So that sucks. But switching gears here, Chloe, now that Emerson is here,

Starting point is 00:13:32 you know, we've already given you our feelings on the call-up itself. But let's talk about Emerson the ball player. What you saw from him in Tacoma, what you're seeing in the numbers and how you think that might apply to his first stint here in the majors. Yeah, I'm not too optimistic.

Starting point is 00:13:54 on his offensive profile at the moment. Our listeners are going to be thrilled with you saying that, by the way. I mean, like, they can be as upset as they want, but the math is the math. And he's in the 37th percentile in WIF percentage. He's the only 33rd percentile in walks. He's 28th in strikeout percentage.

Starting point is 00:14:16 He's 22nd in Chase percentage. He doesn't pull the ball in the air really all that often. And in fact, it's a lot of fly balls up the middle to center field. Does that profile typically work at T-Mobile Park? No. Not really. Two nights ago. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:35 And I think the bigger concern for me is what he's doing against the four-seem fastball in Tacoma, because we know what Major League pitchers are going to do to Colt Emerson. They're going to throw him fastballs until he proves he can hit them. How long will that take? Well, I mean, in AAA, he had an X-slugging of 264 on four-seemers. And the next batting after 164, you whiffed 36% of the time on those pitches. And average VLO and AAA is like 93, 94. Like, it's really not an overpowering fastball.

Starting point is 00:15:06 So, like, if you can't hit the fastball, you are DOA at the big league level. You have to hit the fastball. And, you know, Colt hasn't this year. Now he's destroyed sliders, which is nice. He's destroyed curp balls, which is nice. but cool, you're never going to see those pitches if you can't hit a fastball. Like you're just going to get peppered with fastballs. So I see a guy who looks like a 20-year-old kind of trying to survive at AAA.

Starting point is 00:15:36 And now he's going to be asked to survive against major league pitching when we don't know that he can hit a fastball. He's struggling with the strike zone. He's expanding the zone. And it's not that he doesn't know the strike zone. He does. Like he will draw walks. I'm not too worried about that. in the long term. I think Cole Demerson's going to be a very good hitter. I think right now he looks

Starting point is 00:15:56 like a 20-year-old who's facing, you know, 28-year-olds who kind of understand how to pitch. And now he's going to be asked to face even better fastballs and even better starting pitchers at the big league level. And I just look at what he's done in AAA, and I think it's fine. Like, it's solid, especially for a 20-year-old, but it's not overwhelmed. It's not super exciting. There's just things in this profile that I look at and I go, I don't know if that's going to play at the big league level right now, particularly the amount of fly balls that he hits to the middle of the field. And the fact that he's really struggling with the expanding of the strike zone in AAA.

Starting point is 00:16:37 Like those numbers go up at the big league level. So yeah, I'm excited to see him play. And I hope that he's, you know, what we've seen over the last week or two is what's actually what we're going to see at the big league level, but there are some stats here that you need to be aware of and you can't just stick your head in the ground and pretend they don't exist because they don't fit your narrative. Like there are some legitimate struggles that Colt had at AAA and those are going to get exposed at the highest level. So I have worries.

Starting point is 00:17:07 So for those of you that keep track of this sort of thing, Colt Emerson is going to be wearing the number four. The last Mariner to wear number four was Laotie Tavares. So hopefully Colt's career goes a little bit better than Laotis did in a mariner's. uniform pretty low bar to clear on that front but yeah coley um even though it's not what the the comment section wants to hear i think the concerns that you aired about emerson are fair i think they're valid because like we talked about when we previewed emerson's season before this year kicked off he's 20 years old he's the second youngest player in major league baseball he's an

Starting point is 00:17:42 incredible talent but he's still incredibly young odds are that a 20 year old no matter how talented he is going to is going to run into some issues at the major league level maybe he won't entirely struggle and hopefully that's not you know hopefully that's the case hopefully colt you know hits the ground running here but when you are facing major league pitchers of all calibers of all different ages pitching is really good at this level you know you're going to run into some guys that really know how to attack hitters and attack young hitters specifically and know how to

Starting point is 00:18:23 make the game speed up on them. And by all accounts, Emerson has a great head on his shoulders, has an incredible work ethic. I'm not concerned about his ability to work through the natural ebbs and flows of a major league season. But this is all to say that like, hey, if he does struggle,

Starting point is 00:18:41 if it does go poorly for him in the next few weeks, don't panic that doesn't mean that he's a bust he's 20 years old facing the best talent in the entire world but at the very least he's built some momentum for himself here

Starting point is 00:18:59 and hopefully he can kind of ride that wave into this call up you know over the last 11 games that he's played in down in Tacoma he's slash 319 385 532 that's a 134 WRC plus brought the strikeout rate down a little bit to 22.6%

Starting point is 00:19:16 that's still not. not exactly where you want it to be, but that's better than where it's been for the most part for him, down in Tacoma. So again, hopefully he can just kind of ride that wave into this club. And again, I'm very excited to see him now.

Starting point is 00:19:30 And there are also some things that you can bank on here, specifically the defense that will certainly help. That will certainly be an overall positives. Now, you know, Brennan Donovan, after he came back from his first aisle, Stent was actually pretty good over there,

Starting point is 00:19:44 had some pretty big plays, specifically down in Houston. but Emerson is obviously incredibly talented. I'm not a huge fan of the fact that he didn't play a ton of third base in Tacoma leading up to this. But I think that transition should be pretty natural for him. I don't think he'll have many issues going over from shortstop to third base. And at the very least he has played some third base this year. It's certainly not like they're asking him to go play center field.

Starting point is 00:20:15 Right. So yeah. So again, there's some things to bank on here. The talent is immense, but there is the possibility that we should all just be open-minded to an understanding of that he is 20 years old and that he could very well struggle. That is a real possibility here. But hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully he booms and takes the league by storm, essentially. That would be awesome.

Starting point is 00:20:40 All right. Well, on that note, that is going to do up for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown marriage podcast. That's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or Club. You get app-free audio, access to our members-only, Discord, and more, all built for our most loyal fans. For Colby, Pat Nogh, I'm Tad-Azalus.

Starting point is 00:20:58 Be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-UrS. You can follow me at T-Pat-E-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-C in the show at Lockdown Mariner's. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Thanks.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - BREAKING: SEATTLE MARINERS CALL UP TOP PROSPECT COLT EMERSON

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