Holding the third-overall pick in the 2025 Draft, there was plenty of reason for the Seattle Mariners to be optimistic about adding a top-tier talent to their system. 

Most of the prominent mock drafts leading up to Sunday’s first round connected the club to the top collegiate arms available, but many expected Kade Anderson to be one of the first two selections in the draft. 

Anderson “falling” to pick No. 3 was a major win for the Mariners. 

Mariners vice president of amateur scouting Scott Hunter even told MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer, “to say this worked out as a best-case scenario would be an understatement, since Kade was ranked pretty much No. 1 on our board.”

Seattle wasted little time in locking up its new talent, too. Reports began to circulate before the first round of the draft even concluded that the team had reached an agreement with Anderson on an $8.8M signing bonus. 

The figure is notable as it is $700K below the slot value of the No. 3 pick, which will give the team more flexibility in signing its other selections. Seattle already has the second-largest bonus pool for this year’s draft (behind only Baltimore).