Offishial News: There goes the Bride; Joe Mack cracks the Top 100

I was on site at Citi Field for Connor Gillispie's previous start against the New York Mets where he struggled to grip the ball in chilly weather and his control suffered accordingly. Other than the quality of the opponent, there was no such excuse for his performance at 79-degree loanDepot park on Tuesday night. Gillispie allowed eight earned runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks in his five-plus innings of work. Jesús Sánchez manned center field in his return from the injured list. On Jackie Robinson Day, the Marlins lost, 10-4.

Down on the farm, Marlins minor league affiliates got swept. Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 6-3. Connor Norby played seven innings at third base in what should be his penultimate rehab game. Ronny Simon was a double shy of the cycle. In 12 games this season, he is slashing .368/.458/.579 (179 wRC+) with four stolen bases and more walks than strikeouts. Double-A Pensacola lost, 3-0. The Blue Wahoos could not capitalize on Jacob Miller's quality start (6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 90 pitches/58 strikes). High-A Beloit lost, 4-0. Gage Miller, the Marlins' third-round draft pick in 2024, has begun the year in an 0-for-23 slump. Low-A Jupiter lost, 17-6. The Hammerheads pitching staff has the highest walk rate in Minor League Baseball, issuing 14 more free passes in this contest.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 Jonah Bride was designated for assignment by the Marlins to make room on the roster for Sánchez. With Bride's hitting profile changing for the worse this season, it was a defensible move, as detailed on the Small Pod embedded below. It still feels premature. Placing Dane Myers on the IL for a minimum 10-day stint—he hasn't played since last Wednesday—would have bought Bride a few extra reps to show something offensively. If this proves to be the end of Bride's Marlins tenure, he finishes with a .250/.334/.408 slash line (104 wRC+), 11 homers and 0.5 fWAR in 83 games. There is now an open 40-man spot.

🔷 DFA'd by Miami last week, Xzavion Curry cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Jacksonville. Good chance of him getting called up again at some point in 2025 for either mop-up duty or an emergency spot start.

🔷 Kevin Barral observed that Kemp Alderman has changed his batting stance from last season. The early returns have been highly encouraging.

🔷 Matt Mervis was the leading vote-getter in our FOF Twitter poll regarding the most surprisingly successful Marlins player of 2025 thus far.

🔷 Marlins director of pitching Bill Hezel tells Craig Mish of FanDuel Sports Network Florida that catchers throughout the farm system no longer have pitch-calling responsibilities. Minor league coaches are calling the shots instead and relaying that information to the backstops from the dugout.

🔷 Baseball America has added Joe Mack to their Top 100 MLB prospects list. Fellow Marlins Thomas White and Starlyn Caba currently rank 31st and 67th, respectively.

🔷 On this day in 2015, Giancarlo Stanton seized the top spot on the all-time Marlins home run list. He would finish his tenure with the franchise with 267 homers, a record that I don't foresee anybody challenging anytime soon. To underscore how inexperienced the current Marlins are, the position players currently on their active roster have combined for only 116 MLB homers! More than half of those belong to Jesús Sánchez (59).

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Tyler Soderstrom went yard two more times and now leads the majors with eight long balls. The San Diego Padres lost a home game for the first time this season.

🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Max Meyer) continue their series against the Arizona Diamondbacks (RHP Brandon Pfaadt). The Marlins have a 45.0% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 6:40 p.m.

🔷 Today's MiLB schedule:

• Triple-A Jacksonville at Memphis, 7:45 p.m. ET
• Double-A Pensacola at Columbus, 7:05 p.m. ET
• High-A Beloit vs. Quad Cities, 12:10 p.m. ET
• Low-A Jupiter at Daytona, 6:35 p.m. ET

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