George Kirby and Emerson Hancock — the top two pitching prospects in the Seattle Mariners’ organization — have been promoted from the Everett AquaSox to the Double-A Arkansas Travelers.
The Mariners’ player development Twitter account announced the promotions in a pair of tweets Monday and Tuesday.
The two recent first-round MLB draft picks are considered top-100 overall prospects by both Baseball America and MLB.com
Kirby, the 20th overall pick in the 2019 draft, is No. 11 in Baseball America’s midseason prospect rankings and No. 70 in MLB.com’s rankings.
Hancock, the sixth overall pick in last year’s draft, is ranked No. 21 by MLB.com and No. 50 by Baseball America.
Kirby has posted a 2.38 earned-run average in 41.2 innings pitched this season, over the course of nine starts with Everett at the High-A level. The 6-foot-4 right-hander has 52 strikeouts and just eight walks, with an average of 1.25 punchouts per inning and a 31.7% strikeout rate. He has a 0.984 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) and a .214 opponents’ batting average.
George Kirby practices with the AquaSox on May 1, 2021, at Funko Field in Everett. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Kirby was recently sidelined for four weeks with shoulder fatigue. He made his return to the mound this past Saturday, tossing three scoreless innings and retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. He struck out two batters, walked none and allowed one hit.
Kirby, a 23-year-old New York native, pitched three seasons at Elon University in North Carolina before being drafted by the Mariners. He began his minor league career with the AquaSox in 2019, back when Everett was a Short Season-A club. He posted a 2.35 ERA in 23 innings that season, with an astounding 25 strikeouts and no walks.
Hancock has a 2.32 ERA in 31 innings with the AquaSox this season, over the course of nine starts. The 6-foot-4 right-hander has 30 strikeouts and 13 walks, with a 1.032 WHIP and a .178 opponents’ batting average.
Hancock also was sidelined recently, missing more than a month with a minor shoulder injury. The injury resulted in him being scratched from participating in last month’s MLB All-Star Futures Game, the annual showcase of baseball’s top prospects.
Hancock returned to action with a brief outing July 28 and pitched again last Wednesday. In the latter start, he allowed one run and two hits in 3.2 innings, while striking out three batters and walking one.
Hancock, a 22-year-old Georgia native, pitched two full seasons at the University of Georgia before his junior season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Though he was drafted last summer by the Mariners, he wasn’t able to make his minor league debut until this year, due to the pandemic wiping out last year’s minor league season.
The AquaSox have now had 14 players from their opening-day roster promoted to Double-A Arkansas this season: pitchers Matt Brash, David Ellingson, Hancock, Kirby, Levi Stoudt and Brandon Williamson; catchers Carter Bins and David Sheaffer; infielders Patrick Frick, Kaden Polcovich and Austin Shenton; and outfielders Zach DeLoach, Jack Larsen and Julio Rodriguez.
Twelve of those players are still on Arkansas’ roster. The other two — Bins and Shenton — were traded to other organizations in trade-deadline deals last month.
Prior to the season, the Mariners’ farm system was ranked No. 2 by Baseball America and No. 3 by MLB.com.
The AquaSox are in first place atop the six-team High-A West, entering Tuesday night with a 52-30 record.
Arkansas entered Tuesday night tied for fourth out of 10 teams in the Double-A Central at 44-40.
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