Speaking of that, this is one guy I’ll ask about specifically because he hit two home runs early today (Saturday)— Jarred Kelenic has been something else from the early going, save for about five games. What’s he been like to your eye?

He’s the same thing to your eye. He’s a really talented player. You would never say that the game is easy for him, because it’s not — I don’t think the game is easy for anybody. But his talent is becoming a skill very quickly.

You sit and you can watch him play for a few days and you see the ability to control the strike zone, you see the power, you see the ability to cover the plate and hit the ball all over the field, you can see him run, you can see the defense.

He’s one of the players that can change the trajectory of a game with a lot of different tools.

It seems generally in prospecting, and especially with our system in recent years, the focus has been on the position player side of things. This year pitching has really taken off, both with returning guys and new acquisitions. What’s your view of the pitching in the system right now?

Well, you’re right, we’ve had a great month of April with our pitching group. I don’t know if we’re still number one but as of a couple days ago, we struck out more hitters than anybody in baseball and that’s a great statistic. It matters.

But you have guys really all over the system, not only the new guys but returning guys, that have taken a decent leap and there’s a lot that goes into it. One, we’ve really raised the standards for them and we’ve challenged them to meet Major League standards. And so you’ve seen that happen.

Director of Pitching Strategy Brian DeLunas works with RHP Erik Swanson at spring training.

Our pitching department is really good. Between Brian DeLunas (Director of Pitching Strategy) and Max Weiner (Pitching Coordinator) and Forrest Hermann (Pitching Strategist), Trent Blank (Pitching Strategist), and to all of the affiliate guys who are in there, you also have a strong connection with Paul Davis (Major League Pitching Coach). We have a very cohesive unit right now from a pitching standpoint.

But obviously the credit goes to the guys that are down there in the trenches doing it — whether it’s a Reggie McClain (RHP, Tacoma Rainiers) or an Ljay Newsome (RHP, Modesto Nuts), a Clay Chandler (RHP, West Virginia Power). We have some guys with numbers that you need to look twice at, going “Is that real?”

It’s a neat situation.

Logan Gilbert is off to a dominant start in 2019

I was just upstairs cutting together a highlight of him — how about Logan Gilbert? Fans are just getting their first look and it’s like “Hey, just as a reminder, this was our first-round pick last year.”

We were talking about this last night — right now, we have three first-round picks in Kyle Lewis (OF), Evan White (1B) and Gilbert that we feel really good about at this point in time.

It’s important, your first round picks need to be good players. These guys are good players, they’re good competitors, they’re really good teammates.

Gilbert has been about as good as you can pitch so far.

Evan White receives his Rawlings Minor League Gold Glove

You’re just getting here into Seattle today after being in Arkansas last night — how nice was that to be there to hand Evan White his Minor League Gold Glove Award?

It was great. Anytime you have one of our guys win an award like that, it’s special. It was his birthday, we all know what a great kid he is and he deserves it. He is the best defensive player in the minor leagues. And it’s a beautiful award.

We were able to do that and Darren McCaughan (RHP, Arkansas Travelers) was the Texas League Pitcher of the Week and he got an award as well. That was great to see.

Everywhere you go right now, there are players doing things — Joe Rosa (2B, West Virginia Power) has taken a big leap forward, he showed us in Spring Training and he’s continued it. Luis Liberato (OF, Modesto Nuts) has been impressive. These are kind of guys that maybe had fallen off a tick in terms of how they were being viewed as prospects and they’re saying “No, I’m as good as you thought I was.” Those two kids—it has been great to watch do what they’re doing.

Former Mariners OF Mike Cameron is the latest addition to the Player Development staff.

You mentioned, a question ago, the staff members who have helped make some of those things happen, the steps forward. It seems like, on a regular basis, there’s a new innovative hire. I saw we recently added an individual to the hitting staff, we hired Mike Cameron. What’s the organization’s philosophy in adding people to the player development staff?

You do hear it a lot, that it’s “non-traditional.” I don’t really view it that way — they’re just good baseball coaches. We try to have a mix of things and we do have a very young player development staff — and that just evolved that way.

We’ve also done things like “Let’s go get Mike Cameron.” I got to spend last night watching the game with Mike Cameron, and that was great. I talked to him on the phone as well before, obviously, but getting to spend time with him and seeing how much he has to offer, how energized he is, how much the kids are attracted to him, is great.

It’s such a great story — a 17-year career out of, I believe, a 18th-round draft pick out of high school.

I think the non-traditional thing is that we value some non-traditional things. Everybody has a budget to work with and so it’s just “How do I allocate and how do I prioritize those things?” And we’ve chosen to spend a lot of money in some things that maybe other people haven’t looked at in terms of how they’d spend their money, whether it’s a movement specialist or mental skills, strength and conditioning, physical therapy, the whole High Performance department.

And at the end of the day, it’s teaching, it’s coaching. As a farm director, the way that I compete is by the people you hire and the processes you put in place. Those are the only two opportunities I have to create a competitive advantage—so we are really proud of the people we have here right now.

Going back, let’s call it just to the beginning of spring training, do you have a favorite moment so far, just in the early going of 2019 — something that put a smile on your face?

Every night there’s something. I’m in Little Rock last night at two in the morning waiting for this game to end, because we went through the whole bullpen, I have to get up at 4 a.m. to go to the airport to come here, your head’s pounding and you’re stressed and you see the video of the walk-off home run in West Virginia. You’re like, “My god, this is super cool.”

A walk-off home run by West Virginia catcher Dean Nevarez.

There’s been a few nights where certain pitchers have lined up on the same night. You look up all of a sudden and it’s like, we’ve struck out 55 guys tonight in four games. And we’ve walked four. Those are fun nights.

There’s some big wins — Modesto had a big comeback win in there. Each team has been interesting in their own right. I’d say those nights when the four starting pitchers at each level will just kind of take off and you’re trying to follow four games on the app and on the TV. Those are the ones that really stick out so far.

What’s your role in readying for the June draft?

It’s limited.

This week I went and interviewed a prospect, somebody that’s potentially going to be our first-round pick. I sat with him for about an hour and a half after his practice, but that’s about the extent of it.

I don’t do a whole lot with the draft. And as we get into the draft, I’ll get a little bit more involved. There’s a point in the draft where we will start to fill holes.

Really it’s just — they draft ’em and I get it from there.

I know we really pride ourselves on all our guys in the system on being prospects —

Correct.

It isn’t just that “These guys are the prospects, these guys are the org guys.” Is there a guy or group of guys, and I ask you this almost every time we talk, that Mariners fans don’t have their eyes on but they should?

You’re right. Every kid is a prospect. We’ve talked about Mike Cameron. And I know people get tired hearing this from me — they think it’s a line, it’s not a line. It’s the truth.

If you don’t value Mike Cameron as a prospect because you drafted him in the 18th round, and you treat him differently, you miss out on a 17-year Major League career. Denny Hocking is managing in Modesto for us, who was a 52nd-round draft pick, who played 13 years. Dave Berg is managing for us in West Virginia, he signed for $5,000 as a college senior and turned it into a seven-year Major League career. And I can keep going, whether it’s Christian Bergman in our system right now — he’s got two-and-a-half years of big league time as a senior signing out of UC Irvine. Those guys are everywhere.

I am really proud of how we haven’t differentiated because “Oh, this guy got some money.” Our coaches really believe in all of our guys and I think that’s why you see things like a Reggie McClain pop up. Because we’re putting just as much time in on “How can we make this guy better?”

West Virginia RHP Ljay Newsome has been dominant to start 2019.

You see the jump in Ljay Newsome. You see what Clay Chandler is doing right now, what Joe Odom (C, Arkansas Travelers) is doing in Double-A, Austin Nola (C, Tacoma Rainiers) and the way he’s swinging the bat to go with the defense.

You absolutely owe it to every player that you’re going to do everything in your power to make them better and when you do it that way, not only are you sending the right messages to everybody, you’re truly putting your money where your mouth is and you’re optimizing the system. You’re going to continue to find guys that pop out of nowhere because, not only do they know that you believe in them, but you’re also equipping them with resources.

Talent prediction is so difficult. To think that we could predict it and therefor ignore a group of people would be crazy. Because we’re wrong frequently — look at what Parker Markel (RHP, Tacoma Rainiers) has done in Double-A and Triple-A this year (27 SOs in 47 batters faced). What prospect list was he on the last two years?

He was in Indy ball, right?

Yes. Yes.

Find me a better minor league relief pitcher right now. You’re not gonna find ‘em.