Is this Mariners Minor Leaguer the best-kept secret in Seattle's system?
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18-year-old Yorger Bautista has been preparing for the upcoming season for a year now. After signing as an international free agent in January of 2025, the Venezuelan outfielder is bigger than his age suggests, and his potential might be even larger than that.
However, unless you're a die-hard M's fan, you probably haven't heard of Bautista, who has only played 53 games of pro baseball. But that short amount of time gave scouts and critics a good enough look to know he has a high ceiling.
After spending last season in the developmental league last year, he will begin his progression in the Minor Leagues, with the goal likely being to reach the High-A level (or in a long shot, Double-A). At 6'1", 185 pounds, and still growing into his body, but he already has all the physical tools for success. As he matures, some observers believe he could blossom into a multi-tooled, Major League talent.
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That includes FanGraphs' Brendan Gawlowski, who wrote on Jan 2 about the intriguing upstart in his ranking of Seattle's top prospects.
"He certainly stands out physically: He’s both lithe and strong for his size, twitchy, very projectable, and already bringing the kind of present power and speed you want to see when you sink a quarter of your bonus pool into one guy. His 90th-percentile exit velocity in 2025 was 105.4 mph (Josh Naylor’s was a full tick lower, for reference), which was both better than we’d have guessed and came at no cost to his plus speed. "
What does Yorger Bautista need to work on in 2026?
At the same time, Gawlowski noted that Bautista is still a project, and he's got lots of adjustments to make as he faces better pitching at every level.
"First, Bautista’s swing is complicated. He’s a late lander with a big leg kick, and he has a long, uphill path that starts with a late load and big hitch down. It’s not impossible to make that work, but your hands better be quick (check), and your timing has to be very good (Bautista’s isn’t right now). Partly because of the path, partly from the high effort level in his swing, he’s often late to the party on heaters, and every swing at a breaking ball looks like he’s seeing spin for the first time."
Bautista will need to work on those idiosyncratic occurrences in the batter's box, as he advances throughout the system. In a perfect scenario, he ends up in Modesto, performs well there, and earns a Spring Training invite in 2027.
