Offishial News: Last remaining Marlins coaching staff vacancy; winter ball playoffs

[Ely Sussman]

Today's news roundup also includes an enlightening breakdown of a mostly anonymous Marlins reliever.

Leading off, apologies to anybody who attempted to visit the site from Saturday night through early Sunday afternoon while Fish On First dealt with some technical issues. Those have since been fully resolved.

Marlins Opening Day is 80 days away.

Let's get to the 2025 debut of Offishial News...

🔷 The lone player in the Marlins organization who's still competing in winter ball is Troy Johnston. After his regular season team, Toros del Este, was eliminated, the two-time defending Dominican Winter League champion Tigres del Licey drafted him. Through four playoff games, Johnston is slashing .200/.200/.467, including a home run in Sunday's victory.

🔷 Licey's captain and leadoff hitter is old friend Emilio Bonifácio. Remember him? One of only two former Florida Marlins who continues to play professionally, I wrote about how Bonifácio has aged extremely gracefully.

🔷 The announcement of the 2025 Marlins coaching staff is not imminent, but other than third base coach, all of the essential uniformed positions have seemingly been filled. Under the direction of manager Clayton McCullough, the club has hired bench coach Carson Vitale, pitching coach Daniel Moskos, assistant pitching coach Alon Leichman, hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, first base coach Tyler Smarslok, bullpen coach Brandon Mann (reassigned after serving as pitching strategist in 2024), catching coach Joe Singley and field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt. Just wanted to list all of the names neatly like that in case you've had trouble following sporadic reports on the situation.

🔷 Our staff collaborated on a hypothetical 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. As Louis Addeo-Weiss details, we selected nine candidates: Bobby Abreu, Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones, Manny Ramírez, Álex Rodríguez, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Chase Utley and Billy Wagner. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame Vote Tracker, Suzuki, Sabathia, Wagner and Beltrán have received at least 75% of the vote on the BBWAA ballots that have been revealed so far.

🔷 Alex Carver asked Marlins fans what changes and improvements they'd like to see from the franchise this year.

🔷 Congratulations to @Sean Millerick on winning the Fish On First SuperSubs fantasy football league! Although my team was atrocious in that league, I was the champ of our FOF staff league this season (shoutout to Joe Burrow, Drake London, Jonathan Taylor and Terry McLaurin, among others).

🔷 MLB.com's Christina De Nicola mentions Chris Flexen and Spencer Turnbull as under-the-radar free agent fits for the Marlins. I fully agree on Turnbull, who was featured in my offseason blueprint.

🔷 Isaac Groffman did a deep dive on Lake Bachar's unique pitch characteristics, theorizing that Bachar could benefit from locating his fastball up in the strike zone and using his slider to get chases outside the zone. In related news, congrats to Bachar and his wife, Stephanie, who announced that they're expecting their second child this summer.

🔷 Our DiamondCentric network of sites now includes Toronto Blue Jays coverage. Check out Jays Centre for FOF-style coverage of the team north of the border.

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[rurrusuno]

Just looked at Troy Johnston's numbers in the minors and it makes me wonder if he'll eventually get a call up to the big leagues. His stats aren't bad.

He hit .307, smashed 26 homers, and drove in 116 runs in between his time at AA and promotion to AAA in 2023. A .948 OPS is amazing, and he slugged .549.

His numbers in 2024 across a full season at the AAA level showed promise. In particular, his 203 total bases, .276 average, and .424 SLG %. If he can increase those numbers, then perhaps he could be name you'll find on the Marlins roster in September.  

Plus, he's 27 which is pretty "old" to still be hanging out in the minor leagues. 

[One Regend]

On 1/10/2025 at 9:34 AM, rurrusuno said:

Just looked at Troy Johnston's numbers in the minors and it makes me wonder if he'll eventually get a call up to the big leagues. His stats aren't bad.

He hit .307, smashed 26 homers, and drove in 116 runs in between his time at AA and promotion to AAA in 2023. A .948 OPS is amazing, and he slugged .549.

His numbers in 2024 across a full season at the AAA level showed promise. In particular, his 203 total bases, .276 average, and .424 SLG %. If he can increase those numbers, then perhaps he could be name you'll find on the Marlins roster in September.  

Plus, he's 27 which is pretty "old" to still be hanging out in the minor leagues. 

There's just a major problem with that. Most of the acquisitions we've been getting are 1B/DH type of bats... which Troy Johnston also profiles as.

We have DLS. We have Agustin Ramirez. We have Jonah Bride. We just signed Eric Wagaman to a guaranteed deal. We just picked up Matt Mervis for basically free. All of these also profile as 1B/DH types.

There's just no room for him on this roster due to the questionable way it was constructed. Peter Bendix masterclass!!