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By our means of ranking prospects here on the site, RHP Christian Little is largely de facto roof of a tier of M’s prospects. Very little separated Little, Tyler Cleveland, Alex Hoppe, Jared Sundstrom, Mason Peters, and Charlie Beilenson, while Thursday’s prospect will have as much separation from Little as he from Beilenson at 19th. We’re unsure about this cohort, but there’s something there. What that something might be might be strongest in Little, a 6’4 former top prep prospect on a several-year hunt for consistency.
Little is a prospect archetype well-represented in some systems but scarcely in Seattle’s. The high-upside pitcher with a long lead line to work out his starting chops isn’t inherently a high-probability player to become a big league contributor, but Seattle’s recent success with fast-moving hurlers isn’t the only way. Like the majority of the pitchers outlined in this series thus far, Little has at least one plus pitch – in his case a fastball that ranges 93-95 usually with excellent bat-missing ride – and enough question marks to muddy his route up-farm.
The 6’4 22 year old has usually missed bats, and did that very thing in his first pro season, coming from LSU after a transfer from Vanderbilt to sign with Seattle for $200k in the 11th round of 2024. Little has come a long, long way since campus mechanically, where you can see a variety of jerky, high-effort motions that contributed to eye-popping walk rates in college, ultimately driving him down from a potential top-100 pick out of the bonus rounds.
By contrast, a year or two later, you can see a smoother, more controlled delivery from Little that also features a breaking ball more focused on sweep as his primary off-speed.
Little finished out his college career as a reliever for the Tigers, but he started in Low-A Modesto, earning a late-season promotion to High-A Everett after an excellent second-half carried by those improved mechanics and recovery from a bone spur that was noted for a dip in stuff in late June that cost him the month of July. The young man from St. Louis, MO mixes in a changeup and more 12-6 breaking ball as well still, offering four distinct planes of movement and a sinker that can at times have vicious late bite. He’s adjusted his hands pre-pitch to cue himself into consistency.
The strength of Seattle’s system has been its ability to convert their top picks into impact talent, along with a few huge hits on arms later in the top 10 rounds. But Little, who was a top-notch prep prospect and a member of Team USA’s 15U roster, is the type of player we’ve rarely seen converted into a big leaguer here in Seattle. The depth behind Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan (spoilers) quickly has question marks, and Little is fraught with them. His command remains a work in progress, and unless 1-2 of his off-speed pitches continue building consistency, he’ll struggle to retire more talented bats. But a SEC bat-misser with the build and coachability to make adjustments is the sort of player who can find his upper realms of promise, which would be another member of the M’s rotation depth in the next couple seasons. Nothing little about that.