Following a turbulent 2025 season, Connor Norby is starting to put it together

Kevin Barral · April 9

MIAMI, FL — It's been a strange start to the 2026 season for Connor Norby. Manning first base due to the absence of free agent signing Christopher Morel (oblique strain), Norby has taken nearly all of his defensive reps at a foreign position. Offensively, Norby has put up strong at-bats, but not gotten the results to match. Going into Wednesday night, Norby was slashing .167/.342/.233/.575 with one RBI. In the Miami Marlins' 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds, he had his first multi-hit game since Opening Day, including his first home run.

"This guy's always been a good hitter," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough pregame. "I think we're seeing better at-bat quality, and then the results, I believe, are going to follow that."

Early on, Norby ranks in the 74th percentile among MLB players in chase rate, 78th percentile in strikeout rate, and 76th percentile in walk rate. For context, he ranked in the 25th percentile or lower in each of those categories in 2025.

“I’m seeing a ton of pitches and hitting the ball hard, but they’re just not falling,” Norby said. “It can be frustrating at times when that’s happening—even when you’re feeling good—but Clayton and our hitting coaches have been reminding me to stick with the process and not veer from what I’m doing, because there’s still a lot of good.”

Norby set expectations too high for himself last season, most notably saying his goal was a 30-home run campaign. He finished with just eight home runs and eight stolen bases, striking out 26.7% of the time as injuries that limited him to 88 games.

The 2025 version of Connor Norby would have been “in full panic mode” by now, but in 2026, he understands it’s still early in the season—and that sticking with his current approach will lead to results.

"I learned a lot from last year. This would've been one of those instances, like, this whole stretch, the at-bats are good...I can't ride that roller coaster of emotion like I did last year."

In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Marlins leading 6-4, Norby took Reds reliever Connor Phillips deep. The ball left his bat at 100.5 mph and went 372 feet into the Marlins bullpen. That marked only the second home run by a Marlins right-handed hitter this season. Otto Lopez had the first (4/1/26 vs. Chicago White Sox).

"He got something down in the zone, and he’s good down there,” McCullough said. “It’s a good spot for him to hunt. He got something down and put a really nice trajectory on it out to left. Good swing."

Norby is also drawing walks at a 11.9% rate, which is nearly doubled his average from 2024-25.

“The kinds of counts he’s working and his calmness at the plate show a more patient version of him," McCullough added. "I think we started to see that toward the back half of spring training."

The Marlins scored just three total runs in their first two games against the Cincinnati Reds,. On Wednesday—facing a right-handed pitcher—their bats woke up, knocking out Brady Singer after 2 ⅔ innings pitched. They scored seven runs to win their seventh game of the young campaign.

Agustín Ramírez got the scoring started in the bottom of the first inning, driving in Xavier Edwards on a 110.6 mph RBI double. Liam Hicks' 13th RBI of the season tied the game at two apiece.

Jakob Marsee's 100.3 mph RBI single gave the Marlins a 3-2 lead in the second. Marsee entered Wednesday with an identical 41.6% hard-hit rate as his rookie season, but poor results to show for it. His luck is gradually beginning to even out. He was driven in by Edwards on an RBI single, which made it 4-2.

In the third, Griffin Conine hit his second home run of the season, a two-run shot. The ball left the bat at 109.8 mph and went 403 feet into right field. Conine, who has only 23 plate appearances so far, is now slashing .300/.391/.650/1.041 with two home runs and four RBI.

“Griff has impact potential,” McCullough said. “He really smoked that ball to right-center as well...When he squares it up, he has the ability to do some damage.”

After Leo Jiménez notched his third hit as a Marlin, Singer was taken out.

Eury Pérez, looking to bounce back after a rough outing against the New York Yankees, looked better command-wise, but still allowed four runs (two earned) in five innings of work. He also struck out six.

His sweeper, which is the newest pitch to his arsenal, was his second-most-used pitch on Wednesday night. He generated four whiffs with it, three of which resulted in strikeouts.

It took 35 pitches for Pérez to make it through the top of the first inning partly due to some rough defense. With a runner on second, Sal Stewart hit what should've been an inning-ending groundout, but 3B Graham Pauley committed a rare fielding error, which allowed the runner to score and give the Reds an early 1-0 lead. An RBI double from World Baseball Classic legend Eugenio Suárez followed, extending the lead to 2-0.

In the top of the fifth, Pérez surrendered a two-run shot to Stewart, his third home run of the season. The Miami native launched a changeup 381 feet deep to left field, trimming Miami's lead to 6-4.

“Only five innings and 95 pitches—it was a strange one,” McCullough said. “There weren’t many hard-hit balls outside of Stewart’s home run. It seemed like they were just able to move a few balls forward and extend some innings, which drove the pitch count up early.”

With the win, the Marlins improved to 7–5 on the season. On getaway day, Max Meyer will take the mound for an early 12:10 p.m. first pitch.

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2qbn · April 9

A much better performance. Crazy what putting in better hitters does, lefty/righty be damned. Great to see X in the two spot, Hicks in the lineup, and Conine looked great. Owen didn't get a hit, but glad he was in the lineup. He needs seasoning. I feel like we are wasting cooking time playing Slater, and to some extent, Heriberto. I know they use him for righty splits, but right now I think Berto and Slater are on the move on list once others get healthy. We'll see.

Let's take this nooner and split the series. Go fish!