Offishial News: Final Marlins exhibition game takeaways; projected to struggle at every position

[Ely Sussman]

Today's news roundup also includes a new interview with Caroline O'Connor.

Fish On First's Kevin Barral and 11,389 fans were on hand for Tuesday's exhibition between the Miami Marlins and New York Yankees, which featured lineups that were seemingly very similar to what each team will be using for their regular season openers. Cody Bellinger's solo home run gave the Yankees a lead in the first inning, though they only scored one (unearned) run after that. Matt Mervis and Graham Pauley homered for the Fish. In relief of Max Meyer, four arms from Marlins minor league camp combined to toss four hitless innings.

Marlins Opening Day is one day away.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 Per manager Clayton McCullough, the Marlins' initial starting rotation order will be Sandy Alcantara, Connor Gillispie, Valente Bellozo, Max Meyer and Cal Quantrill. That sets up Gillispie and Bellozo to make three starts apiece by the time Edward Cabrera potentially comes back to bump one of them out of the rotation.

🔷 With the confirmation of Bellozo's imminent recall from Triple-A and the implication that Pauley will follow suit, here's the most likely 26-man roster configuration for the Marlins on Thursday:

🔷 President of business Caroline O'Connor is our latest Fish Unfiltered guest (episode embedded below). O'Connor discusses marketing the team in the midst of yet another rebuild, motivating fans to come to loanDepot park, hosting non-baseball events at the stadium and beginning work on the Miami Live! project.

🔷 FanGraphs completed the 2025 edition of its Positional Power Rankings series. The Marlins project to receive below-average production from every position, ranking 25th out of the 30 MLB teams at catcher, 29th at first base, 26th at second base, 20th at shortstop, 27th at third base, 29th at left field, 29th at center field, 21st at right field, 29th at designated hitter, 24th at starting pitcher and 27th at relief pitcher.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Cal Raleigh and the Seattle Mariners are finalizing a six-year, $105 million contract extension that includes a vesting option for 2031. Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates is being shut down from throwing for six weeks due to elbow inflammation. That obviously sidelines him for the opening series in Miami. Jordan Montgomery will be undergoing Tommy John surgery next week. He'll finish his Arizona Diamondbacks tenure having posted a disastrous 6.23 ERA in 117 innings pitched while being paid $47.5 million along the way. Los Angeles Angels RHP Ryan Johnson will be making his major league debut without having thrown a single pitch in the minor leagues. Johnson, the younger brother of Marlins prospect RHP M.D. Johnson, was selected by the Angels in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft.

🔷 Today at loanDepot park, the Marlins are holding their final preseason workout from 1:00-4:00 p.m. Sandy Alcantara will be addressing the media in advance of his fifth career Opening Day start.

 

---

Marlins podcast episodes

 

View full article

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Another FA contract disaster - Jordan Montgomery. MLB GMs epitomize foolishness, literally throwing darts and hoping with a rabbit's foot. This is multiplied with pitchers, but the decade-long mega deals are millstones around team necks, too. So very few of the deals are positive vis-á-vis the financial commitments made that I seriously question the basic competency of the top executives in the industry. Perhaps we should offer owner vanity and fear of MLBPA complaints as factors in the repetitive lunacy. Oh, well. Not our money and it is entertaining. 

[BMK3]

You can win without spending giant bucks, but you cannot win without spending some bucks.  

[One Regend]

The Los Angeles Angels and rushing prospects to MLB without giving them any proper seasoning. Name a more iconic duo.