Max and Dax return, impress in spring debuts

[Alex Carver]

Max Meyer and Dax Fulton both threw scoreless innings for the Marlins on Wednesday in their first official in-game action of 2025.

JUPITER, FL—Two Marlins 2020 draftees have been gone for a while, but on Wednesday afternoon at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, they proved they should not be forgotten. Max Meyer, whose innings were limited last year after his comeback from Tommy John surgery, and Dax Fulton, who hadn't thrown in over 600 days due to a second full Tommy John, faced off against the New York Mets and a lineup featuring established veteran stars Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso. Although each only threw a single inning, their presence and results were exciting.

Meyer got the start for Miami and showed many encouraging signs. Firstly, Max lit up the scoreboard with a noticeable increase in velocity. With his fastball, Meyer averaged 94 mph in 2024. He touched as high as 98. With his slider, Meyer had been averaging 88 mph. He topped at 92.

"Definitely," Meyer said about making that a focus this winter. "(I) had a big offseason in the weight room so I was able to gain some miles per hour on the fastball. I'm very excited about that."

Regarding the slider, historically Meyer's best pitch, the focus has been to throw it and locate it all over the zone.

"Some backdoor shots, some like the one to Alonso with two strikes," Meyer said. "I wanted it back foot, and I got it there pretty much. I think it maybe even clipped the corner."

Meyer did not feature his changeup during his short outing, but he reassured that it is not gone.

"I really like my changeup. I think its one of my best pitches," Meyer said. "I'm gonna throw that a lot this year."

Secondly, Meyer flashed two new pitches he's working on this spring: a sinker and a sweeper. He threw each of those offerings once.

With everything Max did and said on the day, including throwing his new blueprint pitches to a star-studded lineup, he exuded confidence. According to manager Clayton McCullough, arriving in a good mental state after a tough 2024 is a big reason why Meyer is succeeding early in camp.

"We have all been very excited about Max. The offseason he had, what he's shown this far in camp; velocity has been great, multiple breaking balls, stuff looks a little different that what it was last year. So now a chance to go out there against another opponent and go put it into play," McCullough said. "He's had a really good bounce to him, a little bit of swagger, the work with our pitching crew, the conversations they had in the offseason I think really helped him, put him in a good mental state. Get some of that self-relief back and some of that confidence and now, like anything else it's a matter of just going and trying to do that in game competition. I think he's been in a really good head space throughout the offseason and thus far in camp."

"To get the first one under the belt, everything felt pretty good. Ready to go a few more innings," Meyer said.

Fulton took over for Meyer in the second inning and faced four hitters, throwing 11 pitches. Along with his staple fastball which topped at 95 on the day, Dax worked on what he is calling a "gyro slider." The pitch sits at 85-87. For Dax, he refers to the pitch as one that he can get over for strikes early in counts then let the rest of his pitches go to work from there.

Overall, Fulton admitted he was a little jittery but that he was extremely glad to be back on the mound, healthy.

"I felt like I was sitting here watching the game, because it's been so long and not really into the swing of things yet, but I feel great," Fulton said. "There's some different pitches in there, but the big thing for me is just to go out there and compete. I haven't got to in like 600 days, I'm pretty happy with how it went. I feel like I filled up the zone pretty well. I got outs when I needed to get outs."

"Just happy for Dax. For someone to go through that process multiple times, its a long road and it's lonely mentally," McCullough said of Fulton's return. "Just to get back to where you're feeling strong and be able to go back out and compete, get on a major league mound in spring training, it's a really big step."

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[MarlinzDude86]

Locked down the high-priced Mets for the first 4 innings! Excellent showing considering their starters had multiple plate appearances. Great game, Fish.

[1993 fan from start]

innings will be where it at  for both.  never had no worry about both abilty.  just getting to 77 innings will be their goal next in mlb.

DAX was one of the players I stood up for . when people had him in trade talk.   Now lets see WEATHER hold his own also 

[rurrusuno]

Great, I hope to see Max Meyer perform just as well during the regular season