By Adam Jude / The Seattle Times
The teal bat? The teal sunglasses? The teal-tinted cleats?
Tai Peete insisted he’s had all those as part of his baseball swag for a while now. They just happened to be the perfect complement for his first workout in a Mariners uniform Tuesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.
Peete brought the accessories with him from Georgia. His style — and ebullient smile — naturally came, too.
“I think that’s a big part of it,” he said. “You look good, you play good.”
He flashed some swinging substance to match the style, too.
Peete and Colt Emerson, two of the Mariners’ three first-round picks in the MLB draft last week, took their first cuts at T-Mobile Park with virtually every club executive and coach watching from behind the batting cage, and with the prospects’ families watching from nearby too.
Emerson, a left-handed-hitting shortstop/third baseman from Cambridge, Ohio, sprayed line drives all over the field.
Peete, a left-handed hitting shortstop from Tyrone, Georgia, showed off some pop, launching the final two pitches he saw well out of the park. The first landed well out to deep right-center field, and the last hit off the facade under the Hit It Here Cafe.
Emerson and Peete both formally signed with the Mariners on Tuesday. Emerson, the No. 22 pick in the first round, received a signing bonus of $3.8 million, about $300,000 over the assigned slot value for the pick.
Peete, the 30th pick, signed for $2.5 million, a little under the slot value for that selection.
And here’s the kicker: Both of them are still 17 years old.
The Mariners’ other first-round pick, left-handed-hitting outfielder Jonny Farmelo (Centreville, Virginia), was scheduled to arrive in Seattle later Tuesday, with a chance to meet the Mariners and work out at T-Mobile on Wednesday.
Farmelo agreed to a signing bonus of $3.2 million, about $400,000 over the slot value for the No. 29 selection — all part of the Mariners’ shoot-the-moon decision to draft young, athletic prospects with high-end upside.
“The discipline we showed over the first five or six years of my tenure (overseeing the draft) put us in a position to really go for it,” said Scott Hunter, the club’s director of amateur scouting. “And when you have three first-round picks, to be able to add three middle-of-the-field players who are athletic and check pretty much every box on and off the field and have a chance for real upside and star power … it’s a fun time to be a scout.”
Peete’s charm and charisma, and his ease in the spotlight, have drawn some comparisons to Julio Rodriguez’s personality. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 193 pounds — and projected to grow more — Peete has the same kind of stature Rodriguez had at 17, too.
“I love it. I love doing it,” said Peete, who turns 18 on Aug. 11. “I think that’s something different, is my love for the game and how much I really enjoy it. Because, you know, you don’t want to play all stiff. Being loose out there. You look good, play good; play loose and play to have fun. It lasts longer than playing for a job.”
Both shortstops worked closely with infield coach Perry Hill on ground balls for some 20 minutes. Shortstop J.P. Crawford spent a few minutes with them too.
Before working out on the field, Peete and Emerson had a chance to sit down with Scott Servais in the manager’s office. Servais liked that both of them had grown up playing multiple sports. Emerson played high-school football through his junior year, and Peete played basketball and golf.
“Football really helped my mental toughness,” said Emerson, listed at 6-1 and 195 pounds. He’ll turn 18 on Thursday.
“I was never the biggest guy, so I was always getting beat up and hit hard. And then finally I got some size and then I was the one doing the beating.”
At the Mariners’ game Monday night, Emerson and Peete had a chance to meet Harry Ford and Cole Young, Seattle’s first-round picks the previous two years.
Emerson, Peete and Farmelo are all friends, having played together in various USA Baseball events over the years. Peete and Farmelo were roommates for a while.
The plan is for the three of them to start their pro careers together in the Arizona Complex League, and in an ideal scenario rise through the system and arrive in Seattle — a few years from now, at minimum — as part of a wave and young talent.
“Going to these camps and all these (showcase) events together, we’ve grown closer together, just the three of us,” Peete said. “It just so happened we got picked by the same team.”
Seattle Times reporter Ryan Divish contributed to this report
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