At 19 years of age, multiple dreams have already come true for Ryan Sloan. 

The right-handed pitcher was drafted 55th overall by the Seattle Mariners in the 2024 Major League Baseball draft out of York Community High School (Elmhurst, Illl.), and less than a year later found himself making his professional debut with the Low-A Modesto Nuts, the California League’s two-time defending champions.

But sandwiched between all that was another milestone moment — learning that he would have a licensed baseball card in the popular Bowman Draft set.

“It was just awesome to see my name on the checklist,” Sloan said. “My first thought was, ‘I gotta buy a bunch of boxes, gotta buy a bunch of these cards.’”

Sloan, the No. 59 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, described himself as a “huge” card collector, and tends to focus his personal collection and card investments on other top farmhands, making him very familiar with the Bowman brand.

Bowman is a set from Topps that focuses heavily on minor leaguers and baseball’s top prospects. Some of the most sought-after cards of any baseball star or top prospect are their first Bowman cards, especially autographed cards that vary in rarity depending on the colored borders, better known as “parallels.”

Sloan’s obsession with the cardboard hobby began as a youngster, almost right when he fell in love with playing baseball. His affinity for America’s Pastime came naturally as his father, David, pitched three seasons for Austin Peay State University. Born and raised in Illinois, the fandom took on a life of its own as he witnessed his favorite player Jake Arrieta and his hometown Chicago Cubs win their first World Series title in 108 years in 2016.

“I’ve always been a fan of baseball cards, pretty much since I became interested in playing, watching those Cubs teams growing up,” Sloan said. “It’s the best. If I have time in the clubhouse, I’m buying singles online, I’m ripping packs, selling cards, doing my research on who I think is going to be the next guy.”

That includes himself.

Sloan is the top-ranked pitching prospect in Seattle’s system, and he is determined to be the next homegrown starter to make his mark in the majors. The Mariners’ big league rotation currently features the likes of Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller, who were all drafted by the team and climbed the minor league ladder, beginning in Modesto.

“Another thing I told myself was that I was gonna collect the rainbow. Right now, I'm a couple cards away from it, so it’s just really surreal,” Sloan said. “You go from opening packs with your dad as a little kid to buying your own boxes now, trying to find yourself inside. It's a pretty surreal, pretty cool experience.”

Sloan hasn’t made things easy (or affordable) for himself. MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects tend to fetch the most money, and though he has been on the coveted list since he joined the Mariners organization, his card prices have further skyrocketed due to his success in a Modesto uniform.

In his first full season as a professional, the 6-foot-5, 220-pounder has a 3.70 ERA with 72 strikeouts in 65 2/3 innings through 17 starts. His efforts as of late have been particularly impressive. In four starts in July, Sloan allowed just two earned runs on two walks and nine hits (.164 opponent batting average) in 16 frames for a 1.13 ERA, good enough to earn the honor of Mariners Minor League Pitcher of the Month.

Sloan has four pitches in his arsenal — four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup and slider. He  wrapped up the month with a strong performance at home against the Fresno Grizzlies (Colorado Rockies) on July 26. He allowed one earned run on three hits and two walks while striking out five over four innings of work. Of his 56 pitches, 38 were strikes, on par with his gameplan to flood the strike zone.

“I think for me, it's been less about the pitches and just the commitment to fill up the zone,” Sloan said. “If teams are going to score runs off me, they're going to have to put up a lot of hits, you know? That's kind of been my thought process throughout the whole year because it's hard to hit pitching, especially when the pitchers are really good at what they do. For me, all I gotta do is fill up the zone with all the pitches I got and in the long run, I'm going to end up ahead. You have to have confidence in your stuff.”

His performance against Fresno came hours after he got his card fix, as he spent parts of the morning wheeling and dealing at the Central Valley Card Show at the Modesto Centre Plaza.

While several players are housed and spend much of their time outside of Modesto city limits when they are not at John Thurman Field, Sloan has done his share of exploring around Modesto, mainly to visit the local card shops.

“It’s been great so far. You know I had to check the local shop out,” he said, referring to Teammates Sports Cards and Collectibles on Standiford Avenue.

Sloan has become a fan favorite and one of the brightest stars on a Nuts team that is currently out of the postseason picture and is preparing to pack their bags for good to Southern California at the conclusion of the season.

The Nuts finished 38-28 in the first half, four games behind the Giants in the California League North division standings, meaning they’d have to either win the second half title outright or finish in second place to the Giants in order to qualify for the postseason.

Modesto sported a 19-20 second in the North standings heading into Friday’s game on the road against the Stockton Ports (Athletics). They are eight games back of first-place San Jose and five games behind runner-up Fresno.

Heading into the weekend, there are 20 regular season games left on the calendar, and just 12 games remaining at John Thurman Field. The Nuts’ next homestand is from Aug. 12-17 against the Inland Empire 66ers (Los Angeles Angels). They then hit the road for a six-game series against Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate Rancho Cucamonga before embarking on the final homestand Aug. 26-31 against the Ports.

On Dec. 12, the Mariners sold the Nuts organization to Diamond Baseball Holdings. As a result, after 77 years in Modesto, the club will  relocate to San Bernardino to play as the Inland Empire 66ers next season. The Angels will in turn move their affiliate to Rancho Cucamonga to play as the Quakes, who will be relocated by their parent club Dodgers to a new stadium in Ontario in 2026 under a name to be announced later.