Offishial News: Max Meyer's rotation spot audition begins

[Ely Sussman]

Today's news roundup also includes features on Robby Snelling and Xavier Edwards.

Undefeated no more: the Miami Marlins struggled mightily on pitching and defense in Tuesday's 14-7 loss to the Washington Nationals. Edward Cabrera allowed three runs on four hits during his lone inning, and it could've been worse if not for a diving catch by Griffin Conine. Matt Mervis, Derek Hill and Andrew Pintar each homered for the Fish, while Joe Mack and Colby Shade had two-hit performances off the bench. Congrats to Fish On First farm director Alex Carver for being one of several people to accurately predict that Mervis would hit the club's first spring training long ball.

Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium is notoriously pitcher-friendly. I had to go all the way back to 2011 to find the last time that a Marlins spring game there included more than 21 combined runs.

Marlins Opening Day is 29 days away.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 Robby Snelling spoke to Kevin Barral about developing his slider and what it's been like coming over to a new organization surrounded by a lot of familiar faces from his San Diego Padres days.

🔷 Join us for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. We'll be streaming each Wednesday at that time throughout the rest of the Grapefruit League schedule.

🔷 MLB uniforms are back to "normal" after last year's widely panned template change. I used a pair of Derek Hill photos to demonstrate the differences:

🔷 John Rodriguez has begun a new "Marlin of the Day" series, starting off with Kevin Slowey. 

🔷 Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reports on the origin of Xavier Edwards' annual baseball camp and the influence of Edwards' father, Jovon.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, three months after non-tendering closer Kyle Finnegan, the Nationals have re-signed him (1-YR/$6M). Chinese Taipei defeated Spain to qualify for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. There's another WBC qualifier taking place in Arizona beginning on Sunday, with Brazil, China, Colombia and Germany competing for the tournament's final two spots.

🔷 Today's Grapefruit League game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Max Meyer) host the New York Mets (RHP Paul Blackburn). There's been buzz around camp about Meyer being significantly improved from last year, so I'm excited to scrutinize his single inning of work. It's only being broadcasted on the Marlins Radio Network. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.

 

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[rurrusuno]

That diving catch by Griff was spectacular. I had my fingers crossed he'd catch that one. When Matt Mervis homered, I couldn't help but think that I should've picked him instead in my prediction on who would hit the first homer for Spring Training. 

I hadn't been there since 2012, so I couldn't really remember how pitcher friendly it was but yeah, a few looks-like homers for both squads were kept in the ballpark. Those 21 runs did seem like a lot to me for a spring game.