Offishial News: A win away from World Series upset; Marlins offseason guide

[Ely Sussman]

Happy Halloween!

On Thursday in fall/winter ball, Starlyn Caba went 3-for-5, extending his on-base streak to 12 games. PJ Morlando went 0-for-1 with a walk and Fenwick Trimble went 1-for-4. Morlando exited the game early after making a diving catch in right field. The Mesa Solar Sox won, 6-4. Maximo Acosta (Venezuela) went 0-for-4 with a walk. On defense, he started a 5-4-3 triple play. Jared Serna (Mexico) went 1-for-5 with a walk.

Only 146 days away from Marlins Opening Day.

🔷 Did you know that the Fish On First website has a section dedicated to guides and resources? I just published a comprehensive guide to the Marlins offseason schedule and updated our pre-existing Marlins ownership history guide to include the 2025 season.

🔷 I had trouble deciding for myself whether Braxton Garrett or Max Meyer had the higher current trade value, so I created a poll about it. Voting remains open through the end of the day.

🔷 MLB Trade Rumors reported that this offseason's "Super Two" cutoff to determine arbitration eligibility is expected to be approximately two years and 140 days of service time. It was already assumed, but this just confirms that Max Meyer (2.166) and Calvin Faucher (2.156) will comfortably clear the cutoff and be arb-eligible for the first time.

🔷 Blending ESPN's Relative Power Index, Baseball-Reference's Pythagorean Luck and TeamRankings' Luck Ratings, Rotowire deemed the Marlins to be MLB's luckiest team of 2025.

🔷 In an interview with Locked On Marlins (embedded below), Cade Gibson says that the New York Mets were interested in him had the Marlins not selected him in the 10th round of the 2022 draft. He credited the Marlins with adding a sweeper to his arsenal last spring, and Triple-A Jacksonville pitching coach Rob Marcello Jr. with tweaking his changeup grip. Gibson posted a 2.63 ERA in 54 ⅔ innings during a surprisingly good rookie season, serving as the lone reliable left-hander in the Marlins bullpen for much of 2025.

🔷 The Beloit Sky Carp announced the "Eerie Wearies" as a new alternate identity. They'll wear special uniforms for their Wednesday home games in 2026.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays have an opportunity to clinch the 2025 World Series title tonight. Kevin Gausman will get the start for Game 6, while the Los Angeles Dodgers are countering with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Two more managerial vacancies have been filled in recent days. Former Pittsburgh Pirates skipper Derek Shelton will take over the Minnesota Twins and the Washington Nationals are going with Blake Butera, who had been working in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. At age 33, Butera will be the youngest person to serve as a major league manager since 1972.

 

---

Marlins podcast episodes

 

View full article

[THOMAS JOSEPH]

The entire baseball world outside of Demon Dodgerville can barely contain the glee as the Jays are a game away from an MLB Lepanto event, Good luck to the Jays - wrap it up!

Definitely enjoying Caba's AFL stint. I feel much better.

Lastly, I thought young Butera might be a relative of another former Expo, catcher Sal Butera, or Sal's son and former catcher Drew Butera. Don't think so. 

[One Regend]

Lmao.

The Twins are an unserious franchise. I get that it's going to be a long 2 or 3 years for the Twins and no manager is ever going to make the Twins perform well during that span, but did they even TRY to look for promising candidates? Derek Shelton accomplished nothing with the Pirates (and even contributed to their clubhouse mess) and that's not going to change with the Twins. I would've just picked a rookie first-year manager with a strong work ethic. That would've been a far better answer than Shelton.

Also, I literally do not care what Starlyn Caba is doing in the AFL. He can have a 1.000 OBP during AFL and that still wouldn't convince me to believe he can do anything more than play glove at short. If he actually makes a real impact at AA for the full MiLB season, then we can talk about him as a real prospect. Until then, leave him off of Top 15, or hell, Top 20, on the Top 30 Prospect Lists.

Quote

Morlando exited the game early after making a diving catch in right field.

Is it too early to call PJ Morlando a draft bust? Because I think I've seen enough out of him to not care about what he does from this point forward. He's shown us that his body is made of glass, and when he ISN'T spending time on MiLB IL, his production isn't exactly inspiring much confidence that he'll contribute at the major league level.