Will Seattle Mariners Trade This Top Prospect?

While this is not exactly rarefied air for the Seattle Mariners, it also has not happened quite as often as many would like.

The Mariners enter Saturday with a 29-21 record through their first 50 games of the season, good enough for first in the American League West, 3.5 games ahead of the dynastic Houston Astros.

It has been a terrific showing thus far for the team from the Pacific Northwest, and it has the M's positioned well to make an even greater run down the stretch.

Seattle has made itself into a team looking to be clear buyers at the 2025 MLB trade deadline, and with that comes moving on from highly-rated prospects. One prospect who was recently predicted to be on the move this year is shortstop Felnin Celesten. 

Celesten ranks No. 64 overall in the latest MLB.com prospect rankings, but there are still two middle infield prospects ranked higher than he is in the Mariners farm system. With both Colt Emerson and Colt Young also waiting in the wings, Celesten could use a change of scenery where he is not blocked in his path to the MLB level.

"Celesten is highly regarded, [but] he is merely Seattle's third-highest-rated middle infielder, behind both Colt Emerson and Cole Young, slightly ahead of Michael Arroyo, all of whom rank among Seattle's nine prospects in the top 100 overall. The price has to be right, though," Kerry Miller wrote in a recent article for Bleacher Report. "We're not saying they'll give away the 19-year-old just because they have other options at shortstop. But Celesten is much more expendable than your standard top-75 prospect."

While moving Celesten to a seller would be beneficial for the young prospect, it could also be a major boon for Seattle. Assuming the returning player hits the ground running, the move could be what the organization has been needing to finally get over that hump and win its first ever playoff series.