Opening Day dress rehearsal goes well for Miami Marlins

[Kevin Barral]

The Marlins' second-to-last spring training game featured many of the hitters who'll be starting their 2024 season opener and served as one final tryout for three pitchers who are battling for roster spots in the bullpen.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL—The Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates are just five days away from beginning the regular season, but Skip Schumaker's ballclub still has two more spring training games to go, with the first one in CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches against the Washington Nationals. It was a true dress rehearsal for the Marlins as they traveled about 20 minutes south with their potential Opening Day lineup, but leading the charge on the mound was Cuban non-roster invitee Vladimir Gutierrez.

Prior to the game, Skip Schumaker said Gutierrez is still vying for a spot on the Marlins roster. Schumaker also just shared the harsh reality on how much they will need the depth that is left with the injuries in the starting rotation.

"People can spin it however they want to spin it, but that's what it is," said Schumaker of Gutierrez. "We need guys because of what our rotation looks like. You might not even see guys go maybe over five or six innings initially. You need a couple guys to bridge to get to the eighth and ninth inning. You can't go back-to-back with multiple inning guys every single night."

With how good Gutierrez had been this spring, his final appearance seemed like an outlier, giving up hard contact, with two home runs in the bottom of the first inning. After his rough first inning, a lot of his quick outs came from lineouts or long fly balls. He ended up going three innings, giving up three runs off of seven hits, no walks and struck out one.

Gutierrez attributed his first-inning struggles to throwing too many strikes. "I was throwing a lot of strikes," said Gutierrez through an intrepeter. "Most of the adjustments we did was starting looking into pitches more in the corners, going around. I was able to pick it up again."

Following Gutierrez, both Declan Cronin and Anthony Maldonado had shutout outings. They are Gutierrez's competition for the final couple bullpen spots remaining on the roster, but he believes that his versatility helps as well as what he has already done.

"I can do all the three things," said Gutierrez. "I can start a game, be a reliever and close the game. Most important is that my arm is 100% healthy. If I make the team, I'm there to help in any way I can."

Cronin, who was claimed off waivers by the Marlins this past offseason, went 1 ⅔ innings, struck out one, walked one and gave up two hits. "I feel pretty good about how I've attacked hitters for the most part this spring," said Cronin. "I think that was a point of emphasis when we got here to camp for everybody—not just me—to start with strike one and go from there. Thought I did a really good job of that early and as of late as well."

Maldonado came in for Cronin in a tight spot in the bottom of the fifth inning and ended up going 1 ⅓ innings, striking out one, walking one and giving up zero hits. "I thought I did well," said Maldonado after his outing. "I thought I showed what I can do this spring. There was good spots and bad spots. I can learn on the fly. I can adjust to get big league hitters out. My minor league success wasn't a fluke. I think I've shown that so far."

Jesús Luzardo was supposed to take the mound on Friday. It would've been the ideal game to have the Opening Day lineup on the field in Jupiter, but with the cancelation, most of that lineup was used on Saturday instead. The key difference was at catcher. Schumaker already confirmed that he will go with Nick Fortes behind the dish instead of Christian Bethancourt on March 28.

In the top of the first, Luis Arraez, who is 16-for-45, took Nationals Opening Day starter Josiah Gray deep to right field . So did Jake Burger, as his was a two-run homer, driving in Jazz Chisholm Jr. after Jazz worked a walk. Tim Anderson would have his best game of spring training, as he goes into the regular season with a strong 4-for-4 game, just a homer shy of the cycle.

 

News and Notes

It was announced prior to the game that NRIs Trey Mancini, Curt Casali and Mychal Givens did not make the Opening Day roster. Mancini opted out of his contract, Casali is still weighing his options and Givens has been reassigned to minor league camp.

The Marlins also announced the following injury updates:

• Reliever Calvin Faucher (shoulder) threw a live bullpen. He will not be making the Opening Day roster because he needs more time to build up.
• JT Chargois (neck) played catch and will be rehabbing in Jupiter.
• Eury Pérez (elbow) played catch.
• Josh Simpson (elbow) threw with hitters in the box, but they did not swing.
• Xavier Edwards (foot) went through a workout.

Darren McCaughan will get the start on Sunday against the New York Mets for the final spring training game of 2024. The expectation is that he begins the season in Triple-A Jacksonville.

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