Offishial News: Best Marlins of March/April; Eury Pérez continues rehab progress

Polls are not closed as of this writing, but I've seen enough to stop the count. Fish On First followers have voted Max Meyer as the Miami Marlins Pitcher of the Month for March/April and Kyle Stowers as the Hitter of the Month.

The Marlins posted the third-worst monthly earned run average in franchise history, largely because of how awful four-fifths of their starting rotation performed. Meyer was the lone bright spot. He has a 3.18 ERA mark through six starts with an even more impressive 2.88 FIP. The former top draft pick has already surpassed his MLB strikeout total from the 2024 season. With an expanded pitch mix and uptick in velocity, Meyer's slider is living up to its plus-plus potential.

To my shock, Stowers has firmly asserted himself as Miami's best outfielder, and put himself in the discussion for best position player, period. It's still fair to be nervous about his extreme whiff rate, but a .323/.396/.510 slash line speaks for itself. He homered as many times in Wednesday's April finale alone as he did in 50 Marlins games last season.

Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 10-3. Nick Fortes (oblique strain) went 0-for-3 with a walk to begin what should be a brief minor league rehab assignment. Adam Mazur allowed five runs in the first inning and seven overall en route to his worst start of the season. Andrew Pintar is hitting an even .400 over his last 10 games. Double-A Pensacola won, 6-5. Josh Ekness still has a flawless 0.00 ERA while striking out 44.4% of opposing batters. Low-A Jupiter won, 5-1. Eury Pérez made his second rehab start, retiring five of six batters faced and throwing 26 pitches. Andrew Salas raised his on-base percentage to a Florida State League-leading .508.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 I explain how Fortes, Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks can co-exist on the Marlins active roster for the foreseeable future.

🔷 The Florida Complex League season is about to begin. The FCL Marlins play the opener of their 56-game schedule on Monday. Prospects poised to make their professional debuts include 2024 draft picks Dub Gleed, Cody Schrier and Nate Payne and $1.5 million international free agent signing Luis León. Check out the full roster here.

🔷 Austin Dobbins of Five Reasons Sports Network did a deep dive on Sandy Alcantara's struggles, as did Michael Baumann of FanGraphs.

🔷 Kiley McDaniel of ESPN updated his ranking of the top 10 Marlins prospects. Perhaps most notably, he bumped Noble Meyer out of the top 10 entirely. (Programming note: the FOF Top 30 will be updated next week.)

🔷 The Prediction Time leaderboard has been updated through the first 10 series. Become a SuperSub and we'll keep track of your predictions all season long!

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Texas Rangers demoted old friend Jake Burger to Triple-A. Very much like last year, Burger has gotten off to an awful start, slashing .190/.231/.330 with a 56 wRC+ and -0.4 fWAR through 30 games. The Marlins stuck with him through that slump and he balanced things out with a second-half power surge, but there is more urgency for the Rangers to make personnel changes amidst a team-wide offensive slump. Bad news for another old friend, A.J. Puk—he has been transferred to the 60-day IL due to an elbow injury. He won't be eligible to return for the Arizona Diamondbacks until mid-June at the earliest. The Los Angeles Angels have lost six straight games and 13 of their last 16.

🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Valente Bellozo) begin a new homestand against the Athletics in what will be the major league debut of RHP Gunnar Hoglund. Luarbert Arias was optioned to Jacksonville to make room for Bellozo. The Marlins have a 41.8% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 7:10 pm ET.

🔷 Prior to the game, Fish On First LIVE will preview the series beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET. FOF LIVE is presented by About The Fans. Check out our new merchandise collection (coupon code fof10 for 10% off).

🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: 

• Triple-A Jacksonville at Durham, 6:35 p.m. ET
• Double-A Pensacola at Birmingham, 8:00 p.m. ET
• High-A Beloit at Peoria, 6:00 p.m. ET (doubleheader)
• Low-A Jupiter at Fort Myers, 6:30 p.m. ET

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