Noble Meyer plans to silence doubters in 2025

JUPITER, FL—Last season did not go the way Noble Meyer would have liked, but he's using it as motivational fuel. Back at spring training for the second time in his career, the 20-year-old has something to prove to both himself and the world.

"My overarching goal would be to prove that last year was a fluke,” Meyer said on Friday afternoon.

The 2024 season started swimmingly for Meyer. After taking part in his first big league spring training, he was assigned back to the Low-A Jupiter Hammerheads. In eight starts, the righty held down a dazzling 2.65 ERA with a 43/23 K/BB, earning him a selection to the inaugural MLB Futures Game. The end of May greeted Meyer with a promotion up the MiLB ladder as he was assigned to the High-A Beloit Sky Carp. Things could not have been going much better for the Marlins' 2023 first-round draft pick.

Early on in his tenure with Beloit, though, things started to go in the opposite direction. With velocity, control and ground ball rates all noticeably down, Meyer limped his way to a 5.18 ERA and 6.14 FIP the rest of the year. Though he was never placed on the IL, it was clear something was amiss. Meyer divulged he was dealing with a nagging injury for most of his tenure with the Sky Carp.

"I ended up hurting something in my lower back. It caused little issues with my leg, specifically my back leg and it kind of just leaked into the rest of the year," Meyer said. "It caused a little discomfort and a mechanical change, something I tweaked along the way and I kind of lost my feel for the zone. I spent all offseason working on that and it’s been amazing so far. I don’t think I’ve thrown more than two balls in a row in my eight outings here.”

Meyer arrived back in Jupiter at full strength. Recently, he experienced some discomfort in his throwing arm which has limited him slightly so far, but the issue is not thought to be serious. Meyer described it as fluid buildup in his bicep, which simply required rest to heal.

"Today, not quite full intent, but getting closer," Meyer said. "I would expect to be around 95-97, maybe 99-ish (percent) range. I went out at 100. Obviously, that may tick down as we go through the year. Hopefully it goes up. But I feel great: velocity, command, everything."

With new brass around camp working with Meyer, a major focus is altering the grip on his slider from a four-seam grip to a two-seam grip. Meyer showed that pitch frequently during his live BP session on the day and could be seen frequently conversing with staff on the alteration. The staff and Noble both believe the change will allow the already-60-grade pitch to gain more consistent action via more horizontal and vertical break.

"With the four-seam slider, it’s solely reliant on how much I can kick the spin efficiency to like closer to 100%, so fully spinning towards the plate. The more it is, the more it will sweep. And then I have to worry about how much I can spin it which can be tough,” Meyer said. "What we were working on today was a two-seam slider. I will be able to throw it a little harder and let the seams create the movement rather than the spin. I saw a little bit of a dip in the spin rate from like 2,800 (rpm) to 2,600, but with the axis, my best one was 83 (miles per hour) and six (inches of vertical break) and negative-20 horizontal. If that's in game, if I can replicate that, I could see myself throwing an 86 mile-per-hour, 20-horizontal slider. If you ask me, that'd be 80-grade."

For context, Meyer's slider last season averaged approximately 83 mph with 12 inches of horizontal.

Regarding the organizational changes around his second big league spring training, including the changes to staff and implementation of new research tools, Meyer approved and believes spring training will put him in a prime position to bounce back.

"I’m a very huge fan. I have a little bit of a background with a couple of the guys, specifically Brandon Mann—my agent, one of his first clients was Brandon," Meyer said. "I love the way that they're very numerically driven and analytically driven. It's kind of my style of how I like to attack things, especially on the pitching side. Lot of very intelligent minds around me. I'm really lucky to get a chance to work with them."

Meyer was also in favor of throwing to live hitters early in camp. On a day like today in 2024, he would have been scheduled for a bullpen.

”Big proponent of this change. It’s really nice to get in there, feel competitive and not have to just go up there and kind of lob it in,” Meyer said. “It gives me a chance to work on stuff in a game-like situation. A lot of strikes, as compared to last year where I was a little more wild than I wanted. Stuff looked great today, I felt good. A good day all around.”

With health returning, added strength leading to added velo, and with the work being done with his secondaries, Meyer believes 2025 will be different and that he will be back on track to reach his full potential.

"Out of high school, I was tagged as a strike-thrower, so having a lot of walks was new to me, a little alarming," Meyer said. "I think this year, feeling how I'm feeling right now and physically in great shape, and able to pretty much throw it wherever I want right now, I think cutting down on the walks, keeping that low batting average against and seeing a lot more whiffs given my velo being a handful of miles per hour higher than it was last year. I know my changeup was probably my best pitch last year and I think it's gotten even better this year. I just feel really confident."

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