The journey of a minor leaguer can oftentimes be a contentious one. Every time you step on the field is an audition for a dream job that dozens of other players, your teammates and friends, are also trying to get. You're constantly on the go in small towns and tinier accommodations. A promotion means uprooting everything you've become familiar with and moving to a brand new small town to join a new clubhouse full of new teammates with whom you are ultimately competing for a job. All while Major League Baseball continues to trim the number of minor league roster spots available.
For some, the intensity of that competition can prove to be too much. They'll put too much pressure on themselves or isolate themselves too often. For others, like Mariners minor league teammates Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan, the competition will only push them harder.
"I think it's like a healthy competition where, every start we have, we're trying to one-up each other," said Anderson, the Mariners' top pitching prospect and the top pitching prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. "Not in a way to outcompete each other, but to push each other to that next step."
Anderson and Sloan have only been teammates for a year, but it's been a fast friendship.
Sloan joined the Mariners' organization first, drafted in the 2nd round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of high school in Illinois. In his first minor league season, in 2025, Sloan quickly worked through two levels, pitching to a 3.73 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, and 90/15 K/BB ratio in 82 innings and establishing himself not only as perhaps the top pitching prospect in the Mariners' organization, but one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, ranking 8th overall, according to MLB Pipeline, coming into the 2026 season.
In the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft, with the third overall pick, the Mariners selected Anderson out of LSU, and without even throwing a professional pitch in 2025, he vaulted to the top of the system. This spring, the Mariners decided to fast-track him right to Double-A, where he joined Sloan in the rotation. Despite the tension that pop culture has led us to expect from two elite athletes put in the same clubhouse, the two pitchers clicked fairly quickly.
"I think we built a really good bond since he got drafted and in spring training," recalled Sloan. "Just to be able to be around someone so consistently who shares the same mindset and mentality that I do, and the love of the game of baseball as I do, is really cool."
Their shared mindset is not only a major part of their success but also a key reason they are such great fits for the Mariners' organization. An organization that has had a strong reputation for developing talented and aggressive starting pitchers, the Mariners have cultivated the same approach in their two top prospects.
"The Mariners just do a really good job of simplifying everything," said Anderson. "They give you that instilled confidence of going at hitters the same way, no matter who it is." Similarly, Sloan mentioned that the organization continuously tells them to trust their stuff: "They just keep the main thing the main thing...You have really good stuff. Just throw it in the zone and have the confidence to throw it in the zone."
While a similar aggression and confidence have fueled their initial success, both pitchers admitted that learning from one another has helped take their games to another level.
"Kade does a lot of things really well that I can work on and vice versa," reflected Sloan, "so to be able to have someone who's really strong in areas I'm not super strong in, or I wouldn't consider my strengths, is really good... Something that I just want to emulate or kind of steal from him is just the fact that, when he gets out there, it doesn't matter what he has that day, he's gonna go compete. I just think that's why he's been able to be so consistent day in and day out. You know what you're gonna get with him every single day, and just to be able to learn from that and kind of take that into my own."
For Anderson's part, he's been learning from Sloan's attention to routine and detail, which are advanced beyond his years at just 20 years old.
"I think he goes about his business really professionally," said Anderson. "His routines are dialed in, so it's been really fun to just watch that type of stuff."
This season, they've both watched each other put together stellar performances that have landed both of them inside the top 10 overall prospects in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. Sloan added a sinker, which has been a nice pitch for him to deepen his mix, and has a 4.04 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 77/12 K/BB ratio in 62.1 innings at Double-A. Meanwhile, Anderson has been one of the more impressive starting pitchers in the entire minor leagues, posting a 1.36 ERA, 0.69 WHIP, and 108/10 K/BB ratio in 72.2 innings at Double-A. What's more impressive is that the left-hander is doing it without a triple-digit fastball or a breaking pitch that goes viral on social media for its otherworldly movement. He just has a deep arsenal of pitches and an advanced understanding of how to attack hitters.
"I would argue that I don't have a specific outlier per se," admitted Anderson before Sunday's MLB Futures Game. "I just feel like having four pitches for strikes has given me a lot of help, and my changeup has come a long way from last year, so I just feel like I'm just keeping hitters off balance. It's not necessarily like one pitch that someone can't hit. [The changeup] has added another pitch to my arsenal, and it just helps me navigate a lineup easier."
Normally, when you have a starting pitcher putting up those kinds of numbers, an MLB promotion seems inevitable. However, in addition to battling each other, both Anderson and Sloan have to contend with their big league club having one of the deepest and healthiest rotations in baseball.
On the season, Seattle's starters rank 1st in innings pitched, 1st in WAR, 3rd in WHIP, 3rd in K-BB%, and 6th in ERA. When Bryce Miller started the season on the injured list, Emerson Hancock pitched so well that the team was forced to use a six-man rotation when Miller finally did return. Despite a few of the Mariners' starting pitchers having previous injury concerns, they have remained healthy for the entirety of the first half, which not only means their MLB rotation is overcrowded, but it also means that both Anderson and Sloan are seemingly stuck in the minor leagues, regardless of how well they pitch in 2026.
"I think everyone tries to make it this big deal where, you know, we may be stuck or whatever it is, but honestly, when you take it day by day, when you just put in good days of work, everything's gonna work itself out," said Sloan. "Everyone has their own path, and I truly believe in that, so I just think, most importantly, I'm in a great org and an org that instills confidence in me, and you know, has gotten me to where I am now."
Anderson is similarly unmoved by the logjam in front of him.
"Obviously, who doesn't want to be in the big leagues? But I've gained the perspective that I understand that there is patience that comes along with it," he reflected. "I feel like, when my time comes, it'll come. You try not to look ahead too much about that kind of stuff. I'm not worried about playing in two days. I want to play for a long time, so having that perspective of this [year] doesn't matter as much as me playing for the next 10 years."
However, the Mariners may not be as comfortable with waiting for their young pitchers as the pitchers themselves are. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported during MLB All-Star weekend that the team has let it be known that they would be open to trading one of their starting pitchers, most likely veteran Luis Castillo, to add an impact bat and free up some of the logjam. While that would still give Seattle five starting pitchers in their rotation, moving a starter would position either Sloan or Anderson to be the next man up, should the team need a starting pitcher.
Whichever one of them gets that call doesn't seem to matter much to either Anderson or Sloan.
"I think if you start worrying about that, you're worried about the wrong things," declared Sloan. "You start losing focus in other areas. So I think, as much as you can block that out, and it's really hard to block that stuff out, but the most you can, the better."
"Obviously, we both want to be in that role. Who doesn't?" added Anderson. "But I feel like we're gonna be in those roles sooner rather than later, anyway, so whoever comes first, it doesn't really matter to me."
For now, the teammates are content to share a clubhouse and "lean on each other for support," as Anderson put it. Their hard work has propelled them to top prospect status, a place in the MLB Futures Game, and a position on the doorstep of an MLB promotion and a dream realized. But until that time comes, they're just going to focus on the things that they can control and the mentality that has pushed them to be great.
"I just have to continue to throw the ball well, continue to be healthy, continue to throw innings, and everything's going to take care of itself," said Sloan. The rest is up to the Mariners.
"Whatever they tell me to do, I'm going to be there," said Anderson.
Whether it's this year or next, Sloan will likely be right there alongside him. It doesn't matter which one of them gets there first; the other one will be waiting.
COVERS INTEL: Christopher 