TEREN'S TAKE: Aiva Arquette is The Pick For Seattle Mariners With No. 3 Draft Pick

The Seattle Mariners will have a lot of good options available with the No. 3 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft.

The Mariners have been predicted or mocked to select elite college pitchers like Kade Anderson and Jamie Arnold, and they've also been linked to top prep prospect Ethan Holliday.

Another prospect Seattle has been rumored to have interest in is Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette. If he's available when it's the Mariners' turn to pick, he's the choice the club should go with.

On the surface, Seattle doesn't need another middle infielder. The Mariners have nine top 100 prospects according to MLB Pipeline and Baseball America. Four or those prospects — Colt Emerson, Cole Young, Michael Arroyo and Felnin Celesten — are middle infielders.

The Mariners don't need necessarily need pitchers, either. They selected 15 hurlers in the 2024 draft and two of them, first-round pick Jurrangelo Cijntje and second-round pick Ryan Sloan, are already top 100 prospects.

What Arquette brings that a pitcher or high school prospect wouldn't, is near-immediate impact and flexibility for the future.

Arquette is a complete player that already has a pro-ready build. He's listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. In his lone season with Oregon State, which made it to the NCAA College World Series this season, he scored 73 runs in 65 games and hit 17 doubles, three triples and 19 home runs with 66 RBIs. He slashed .354/.461/.654 with a 1.115 OPS. He had a .974 fielding percentage with six errors in 235 total chances. Arquette played two seasons at Washington before transferring to Oregon State this year, so he's well-acclimated to playing in the Pacific Northwest.

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Arquette is one of the most pro-ready bats available in the 2025 draft. It's even possible that he could make it to the big leagues within a year of being drafted, like Dylan Crews of the Washington Nationals did in 2024. Christian Moore of the Angels and Jac Caglianone of the Royals are currently in the big leagues after being drafted last season.

Adding Arquette could muddy the waters for the rest of the team's infield prospects, but it could jive well with where the M's are at organizationally.

Current starting shortstop J.P. Crawford is set to become a free agent after 2026. Gold Glove utility player Dylan Moore is set to hit the open market after this year. There are opportunities waiting for young players, like Arquette, to come and grab in the near future.

Drafting Arquette would also allow the Mariners more leeway to make improvements to the roster.

The biggest resource Seattle has in the trade market is the farm system. The Mariners would have a big enough surplus with Arquette in the fold to make a big swing in the trade market, with one of the middle infielders as a center piece for the trade. The Mariners have shown a willingness to trade top prospects before, as they did for Luis Castillo in 2022, but they don't want the cupboard bare. They'd have plenty of firepower still left in the middle infield if they dealt someone.

Arquette is one of the best players in the draft, he'd be a quick riser in the minor leagues and he'd allow Seattle to more comfortably put together a trade package for an impact bat. With all those factors, he is the clear pick at No. 3.

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