Fish On First Prospects Report: How soon could we see Jacob Berry on the Marlins?

For the 2026 season, Fish On First will provide weekly reports on the Miami Marlins farm system, covering all levels. Here's the first May edition of our Fish On First Prospects Report.

This report covers the games played from April 28-May 3.

Triple-A Jacksonville

Our Fish On First Prospect of the Week is Jacob Berry, who going into Sunday's series finale against the Durham Bulls was slashing .313/.427/.458/.885 with two home runs, 16 RBI and a 143 wRC+. In this series against the Bulls, Berry was 7-for-26 with one home run and five RBI.

Through 24 games, Berry leads the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp in OPS, on-base percentage, slugging and is second in batting average. He is eighth in the International League in OBP.

Unfortunately, a big league call-up is being held back because of his defense, where he continues to not have a definitive home. He has played third base—where he has committed six errors—and the corner outfield spots. If Graham Pauley continues to struggle at the plate, maybe the Marlins will be left with no choice but to call up the former first-round pick.

Kemp Alderman through 28 games is slashing .287/.379/.455/.835 with four home runs, 13 RBI and a 126 wRC+. The big downside thus far has been the increased strikeout rate, now at 34.5% going into Sunday's game, but he is walking at a career-high 10.3% rate.

This past week, Alderman started a game at first base, the only time he has ever done that throughout his Marlins minor league career. With the current first base situation and so much depth in the outfield, it gives Alderman an easier path to making it to the big leagues. The only unfortunate part is that you would be limiting his arm, that grades out as above average.

On the mound, Robby Snelling continues to dominate. He is now tied with New York Mets' Jonah Tong for the most strikeouts in Triple-A this season. For the season, he now has a 1.86 ERA, 2.90 FIP, 13.66 K/9 and 4.66 BB/9 in 29 innings pitched.

In this most recent start, Snelling tossed five no-hit innings, striking out nine in the process. His fastball topped out at 96.1 mph and averaged 94.7 mph. His curveball continues to be his best pitch, generating six of his 11 total whiffs and four of his five strikeouts came on that pitch.

At this point, there is nothing left for Snelling to prove in the minor leagues. He is more than ready for a Marlins call-up, which could come as soon as Friday against the Washington Nationals.

Bradley Blalock, who the Marlins acquired from the Colorado Rockies, tossed six innings against Durham, striking out a season-high 12. Despite the high strikeout number, he has a 3.09 ERA and 4.96 FIP on the season. The main reasoning for his high FIP is the amount of elevated contact that he has allowed.

In his start against Durham, his fastball topped out at 96.0 mph and averaged 94.2 mph. With the fastball, he generated 10 whiffs and collected seven of his 12 strikeouts on that pitch. His splitter was also a good pitch, generating six whiffs and struck out three.

The Marlins likely will not need to call-up Blalock any time soon with the pitching depth that they do have on their hands, but it is worth noting that they will have to make a choice on if they want him on the big league team or not in 2027 with his final minor league option being burnt. 

Relievers William Kempner and Jack Ralston continue to be workhorses out of the Jumbo Shrimp bullpen. Kempner was called up to Miami on Tuesday. Ralston has been the more effective one with a 1.10 ERA, 2.45 FIP and 13.78 K/9. The only downside is the 6.06 BB/9. Like Kempner just did. Ralston should make his big league debut at some point this season.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos

The Wahoos enjoyed success this week as well at home against Biloxi. After dropping the first game of the series, Pensacola charged back to win out the rest of the week, improving to one game under .500 on the season.

Gage Miller had a great series for Pensacola, starting four games and going 5-for-13 including home runs in each of his first two appearances. He finished his week with a 2-for-4, two-double effort. Altogether, he drove in seven runs.

Miller came out of college as a third-round pick in 2024 highly heralded for his offensive skills, namely his bat speed and intelligence in controlling the strike zone. He was also lauded for good raw strength as scouts saw within him the possibility for 20+ homers. Miller’s patience and ability to limit strikeouts followed him to the pro level in his first full season last year, as he walked nearly as much as he struck out (65/55 K/BB), but he had trouble finding the barrel as he hit just .211 with a .313 slug. So far at Double-A this season, Miller has solved what ailed him last year and appears to be adjusting well to pro stuff as he is currently slashing .278/.355/.500. Defensively, Miller has split time between third base and second base. Because of his limited arm strength, he's probably a better fit for the latter. Miller is not a name talked about a lot, but if he keeps hitting and sticks at a premium position, that could and should soon change.

It was another great week for Marlins’ trade return piece Brendan Jones, who continues to surge on both sides of the ball. This series, Jones went 8-for-22 including a triple and two doubles. Jones lit it up in the running game, stealing six bases.

Currently slashing .241/.359/.483 with 10 steals, early returns from Jones in his tenure as a Marlin could not be much better. One area in which Jones could improve is with strikeouts as he’s striking out a career high 28% of the time, but he’s also still walking at a solid 14% clip. One of the most encouraging parts of Jones’ game is his ability to spray the ball to all fields—he’s gone pull 38% of the time and to center and left 31% each. Mostly entrusted with left field, Jones has covered all necessary ground and then some, putting his 70-grade speed to even better use. If Jones continues hitting at this clip and gets the strikeouts further in check, he may not be far away from contributing to the big league team either late this year or out of camp in 2027.

Beloit Sky Carp

Despite struggling mightily for pitching depth, the Sky Carp’s series in Lake County was a success as they won it four games to two. The series was highlighted by an explosive offensive performance on Sunday in which Beloit plated 16 runs.

Driving the Sky Carp’s 16-run barrage in the final game of their series was Colby Shade, Miami’s ninth-round pick from 2023. Coming into the game after having hit just one home run across two levels in 2025, Shade laid the hammer down on the Captains, homering three times and driving in a whopping eight runs. Shade now has four homers in his past five games.

The performance was extremely eye-popping for the 6’, 205-pound outfielder, but Shade is 24 playing at the High-A level for a third straight season. He does own remarkable speed which has alotted him 104 stolen bases in 223 career games and he also owns good patience, which has earned him a career .370 OBP, including .382 this season. However, Shade hasn’t done enough with the bat in term of contact rates and hard-hit rates to warrant consideration in what has become a crowded outfield situation at the higher levels of the minors. If this game was the start of that changing, Shade, who will be Rule 5-eligible this winter, could garner a longer look at Double-A.

Aiva Arquette, the Marlins’ first-round pick from this past year, made his long-awaited season debut with the Sky Carp after he underwent core muscle surgery during spring training. Arquette played the first two games of the series and showed well, going 3-for-8 with all three of his hits being doubles. He drove in five runs. Also, Arquette performed well in the field, showing smooth actions and a strong arm at shortstop, proving that, despite unusual size for the position, he can hold it down well. That in conjunction with his whippy line-drive bat with moderate uppercut and quiet mechanics behind it give Aiva a high floor and a pretty high ceiling as a plus offensive threat that can play premium positions. At 22, he could be challenged rather quickly to the upper minors. With continued success in Beloit, a second-half promotion is likely.

The only bad news for Arquette: he got injured again. After the third game of the series, he did not play again the rest of the week. The update on Aiva was encouraging though: Fish On First has learned that Arquette’s ailment is simple wrist soreness and he plans to play again in Beloit’s next series this week.

Low-A Jupiter

Emilio Barreras was drafted by the Marlins in the eighth round of the most recent draft. After a slow start, he has picked it up and is slashing .271/.435/.458/.894 with two home runs, nine RBI and a 153 wRC+. He hit home runs in back-to-back games. 

21-year-old catcher Carlos Sánchez is off to a hot start this season, slashing .225/.340/.525/.865 with four home runs, 10 RBI and a 132 wRC+. Sánchez, who was an international signing in 2022, was successful in 2025 in his first taste of the Low-A level, but repeated the level going into this season. He is also working great at-bats, striking out only 14.9% of the time and walking 12.8% of the time. A promotion to Beloit could be in the cards soon.

This week's MiLB schedule

• Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Charlotte
• Double-A Pensacola vs. Rocket City
• High-A Beloit at Fort Wayne
• Low-A Jupiter vs. Palm Beach
• FCL Marlins vs. FCL Mets, FCL Astros and FCL Nationals

Interested in learning more about the Miami Marlins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!