Offishial News: Nasty Weathers forecasted to rejoin Marlins rotation soon

Miami Marlins left-hander Ryan Weathers looks fully rehabilitated from the left flexor muscle strain that sidelined him for the first six weeks of the regular season. Weathers worked five hyper-efficient scoreless innings in a rehab start for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Thursday. The only three baserunners who reached against him did so on innocuous ground balls (infield single, grounder up the middle and a fielding error).

As was the case in spring training, Weathers' fastball velocity is higher than it's been in previous years. He topped out at 99.2 mph on Thursday; for context, his MLB career-high velo is 98.4 mph.

With a six-game Marlins road trip commencing, rotation stopgap Valente Bellozo is lined up to pitch the fifth game (Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs). The likeliest scenario, in my opinion, is that Bellozo starts on Tuesday and Weathers gets reinstated to pitch Wednesday's game, with Bellozo being optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.

Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 3-1. In addition to Weathers, Derek Hill took another significant step toward returning to the Marlins by ripping a two-run single, drawing two walks and playing seven innings in center field. Seth Martinez picked up the save and extended his season-long scoreless streak to 10 ⅓ innings. Double-A Pensacola got swept in a doubleheader, 10-0 and 5-2. Forgettable performance by Robby Snelling (2.0 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 72 pitches/40 strikes). High-A Beloit won, 14-5. Ryan Ignoffo hit two grand slams! Ignoffo has 31 RBI in 25 games this season, easily leading the Marlins organization in that category. Low-A Jupiter lost, 4-2. FCL Marlins won, 4-2. Woo-Suk Go (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K) began a rehab assignment after fracturing his index finger in spring training. Dameivi Tineo, who missed the last two seasons following Tommy John surgery, pitched three innings in relief.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 While there is no statistical significance over such a small sample, I was amused to find that Marlins pitchers have thrived when paired with Nick Fortes and struggled mightily with any other Marlins catcher.

🔷 Fish On First LIVE aired on Thursday's off day. You can rewatch the full episode and submit your series predictions here.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton and elevated bench coach Don Kelly to be their interim skipper. Kelly joins Aaron Boone, Craig Counsell and Mark Kotsay as former Marlins players who currently hold MLB managerial gigs. The Kansas City Royals are surging with wins in 15 of their last 17 games. The Colorado Rockies remain on pace for a historically non-competitive season, dropping to 6-31 after being outscored by the Detroit Tigers 21-3 in a doubleheader sweep.

🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Max Meyer) begin their series against the Chicago White Sox (RHP Bryse Wilson). Meyer is eager to rebound from his last start where he surrendered five earned runs and recorded zero strikeouts. The Marlins have a 54.1% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 7:40 p.m. ET.

🔷 Today's MiLB schedule:

• Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Syracuse, 7:05 p.m. ET
• Double-A Pensacola at Biloxi, 7:35 p.m. ET
• High-A Beloit vs. Cedar Rapids, 7:05 p.m. ET
• Low-A Jupiter at Palm Beach, 6:30 p.m. ET
• FCL Marlins vs. FCL Cardinals, 12:00 p.m. ET

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