Offishial News: Let the exhibition games begin

Kevin Barral and Alex Krutchik have your on-site coverage from Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium today as the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals meet in their 2025 Grapefruit League season opener. Valente Bellozo's first pitch is coming at 1:10 p.m. Listen to the radio call on FOX Sports 940AM.

Marlins Opening Day is 33 days away.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 Go to Fish On First's Instagram or Twitter account to submit your prediction for who will hit the first spring training home run for the Marlins. Two people who get it right will win a glass from Miami Hops.

🔷 Sandy Alcantara starts Sunday for the Fish, followed by Ryan Weathers on Monday, which suggests that Weathers is being lined up to start the second game of the regular season.

🔷 Mexican infielder Juan Alva is the 19th member of this year's Marlins international signing class. Alva got a modest $10,000 bonus, sources tell Fish On First, the maximum amount that a player can receive without counting against a club's bonus pool. According to my calculations, the Marlins have $220,500 remaining in their pool (the signing period runs through December 15).

🔷 The Marlins have hired Nate Medrano as their vice president of ticket sales and service, overseeing Marlins memberships, premium sales, inside sales and membership experience. Medrano previously worked for the Miami Dolphins. The Marlins now have 13 different executives with the VP title.

🔷 Marlins clubhouse attendant José Oviedo manages the music that blares around their spring training complex, curating 15 playlists across various genres, as MLB.com's Christina De Nicola detailed. 

🔷 Nicole Cahill of Pitcher List wrote about the unsettling public comments that Bruce Sherman and Peter Bendix made earlier this week. "This city has proven it will show up when you give it a reason to, but the franchise has repeatedly failed to make an effort in good faith."

🔷 Baseball America considers this to be a "critical season" for Marlins OF Dillon Head coming off hip surgery: "Head’s first step is proving he’s fully healthy. Then he’ll need to work on refining bat-to-ball skills that have been fairly inconsistent when he’s been on the field. The Marlins don’t have many close-to-the-majors bats at the top of their system. For their system to take a step forward, players like Head must show progress in 2025 and beyond." For what it's worth, he has looked impressive in early minor league camp.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the New York Yankees announced an amendment to their longstanding facial hair policy, allowing players and other uniformed personnel to wear beards. They also agreed with Aaron Boone on a contract extension through the 2027 season. Boone is tied for the fifth-longest-tenured manager in MLB, entering his eighth season in the Bronx. For the first time since the 1980s, Major League Baseball may be leaving ESPN after terminating their television rights agreement beyond this season.

Marlins podcast episodes