Probably, but it would take a lot of work, and they'd never be GREAT ballerinas. You want to see some of the requisite skills in place first before you waste your time. Our minor leagues don't have a lot of people with the right kinds of skills, so Edgar's instruction may need more fertile ground in order to grow. DiPoto's roster churning across all our levels isn't done, which I'm sure cheers his dealer's heart.
If you wanted one guy in the minors who could take to Gar's instruction, the guy you'd point to would be Dario Pizzano, who has more walks than Ks for his career. In fact, one of these is Edgar's minor league line and one is Dario's:
.300 / .412 / .439 / .851
.296 / .383 / .462 / .845
So that ain't bad. The problem is that the Mariners' farmhands are not that great at walks in general. They had 25 guys get more than 30 walks last year (Jesus Montero and Tank O'Neill just missed with 29, but neither guy has what you would call a good batting eye, and Pizzano doesn't make it because of his injury). Of those guys, only 11 had a .5 or above batting average (that leaves off Jabari Blash and Nelson Ward, who should probably stay since they're two of the more interesting hitters on the list).
So including Blash and Ward, we've got 13 hitters who might have a worthwhile batting eye in a good number of plate appearances last year. James Jones heads that batting eye list - he's gone. Blash is gone. Ji-Man Choi didn't make the list because of his injury either, but would have - and he's gone.
The remaining guys:
- Drew Jackson, SS in A ball known for his defense who had no power in college and translated that to no power in Everett.
- Arby Fields, switch-hitting 24 year-old outfielder in A-Ball whose minor league ISOP is a nice, even 100 points.
- Chris Taylor, delightful SS who has been supplanted by Ketel Marte and has no place on the Mariners.
- Aaron Barbosa, speedy 23 year-old center-fielder who can't hit yet. At least he can walk.
- Tyler Smith, 24 year-old middle-infielder aiming for a utility bench spot if he can get out of AA.
- Dan Paolini, 25 year-old short-pitcher-turned-corner-bat who regressed last year in AA
- Marcus Littlewood, tall-SS-turned-backstop whose batting average is Zunino-esque.
- Joe DeCarlo, led the system in walks as a young corner IF in A-ball, but hovers around the Mendoza Line hitting-wise and has shown low power.
- Daniel Torres, catcher whose only skill as a hitter is walking (nice arm though).
- Chantz Mack, a 5'10 DH/COF with limited power and BA in 3 years in the low minors. He turns 25 in May.
- Nelson Ward, college bat trying to turn into Blowers or Bloomie by playing a bunch of infield positions. Probably a 2B, not in the high-minors yet.
A large percentage of those guys are infielders or corner bats with no pop. If you asked me who the three most promising guys on this kind of list were, I would have named Choi, Jones, and Blash. They all had major-league skills mixed in, and all are gone. The best remaining walkers who logged decent time last year would be Pizzano and Taylor, neither of whom we really have a place for. Pray for Alex Jackson, DJ Peterson, Austin Wilson and Tank O'Neill - Edgar getting ANY of those guys back on track in the Spring would be absolutely huge for us. Barring that, if Edgar is going to teach players how to walk and contribute to the big-league squad, they'd better be imports. Very few of the minor league guys he'll see in Spring Training have the requisite skillset at this point, and that process could be long and arduous.