Cal Quantrill struggles in Marlins spring debut, but other arms impress

JUPITER, FL—The Miami Marlins have gotten mixed results from their starting pitchers so far in spring training. Although Cal Quantrill began his spring on the wrong foot Thursday against the St. Louis Cardinals, the veteran right-hander wasn't concerned when discussing the performance postgame.

Quantrill surrendered four runs off of two hits. He also walked two and struck out one. Out of the 28 pitches Quantrill threw, only 13 landed for strikes. "It won't go down as one of my best ones, but we'll get it all solved," he said.

After falling behind 4-0 with Quantrill on the mound, the Marlins offense tied the game, but the Cardinals immediately retook the lead in the next inning and won by a final score of 8-4.

Quantrill, 30, signed with the Marlins on a one-year, $3.5M deal. He lack control in this outing and repeatedly missed his spots to the arm side. "I don't see this being a long-term issue, just first time back out on the mound in a little while and I think that you'd like for that not to be part of part of the process, but I guess it is this time and it just gives us a little more to work on here in the next five days."

In addition to that, Quantrill's velocity dipped. In 2024, his sinker averaged 94.0 miles per hour. On Thursday, his sinker averaged 92.3 mph and topped out at 93.5 mph.

On the flip side, Valente Bellozo, who is fighting for the fifth rotation spot, made his second appearance of the spring, this time going two innings. He allowed one run off of three hits and struck out two. Bellozo's command was great, with 28 of his 37 pitches thrown landing for strikes.

In his previous outing, Bellozo's fastball averaged 92.3 mph, topping out at 92.9 mph. This time, Bellozo averaged 90.9 mph, topping out at 92.2 mph. "Feel good. I think getting tired being in the bullpen throwing and throwing, then stop, throwing and throwing, then stop, but arm feels good and keep going during spring training."

"Velo getting up just makes everything else play off of it," said Marlins manager Clayton McCullough. "Kind of go soft early, then he snuck a fastball up in the zone with two strikes. For him, just the different weapons and how he just can use them and somewhat slow a guy down, speed him up. He's a real pitcher."

After noting in his last start that he added a sweeper to his pitch mix, Adam Mazur went two innings for the Marlins, throwing it four times as classified by Jab. He finished his outing allowing one run off of two hits and striking out three. "Very good," McCullough said. "I think he changed speeds well, used the fastball appropriately. He was striking with his breaking ball, very efficient couple of innings. Quality stuff from Mazur today."

The main differences that Mazur noted between his slider and sweeper are the speed and horizontal movement. His sweeper is slower and moves more horizontally than his slider. On Thursday, Mazur's sweeper averaged 84.1 miles per hour with 13.0 inches of horizontal break. The slider on the other hand averaged 86.1 miles per hour with 2.1 inches of break.

One position player that continues to have a strong spring is first baseman Matt Mervis. Through three games, he is 3-for-7 with one home run and three RBIs. On Thursday, Mervis went 1-for-3 with an RBI single. Mervis is on track to be the Marlins Opening Day first baseman come March 27. He will split time with Jonah Bride.

"Been great," McCullough said. "I know he's really connected well with the hitting group here. He's been a performer in the minor leagues and there's a ton of hitting ability there. It's always nice when you come to a new organization and feel good about the work you're doing, then they also see some results play out in the game. It's probably a really good confidence booster for him."

Notes

- Xavier Edwards delivered his first RBI of the spring in the top of the second on a soft infield single.

- Eric Wagaman returned to the Marlins lineup after having been under the weather the last couple of days. He had the Marlins' top exit velocity of 112.6 mph on his only base hit of the game.

- Andrew Pintar, who made his second start of the spring, went 1-for-2 with an RBI single in the top of the second inning.

- Agustín Ramírez, who made his first start of the spring as the designated hitter, went 0-for-2 with a walk.

- Declan Cronin made his first appearance of the spring, but he was only able to record two outs. "Wasn't feeling great. Health is fine, just maybe dinner last night didn't cooperate with Declan," said McCullough postgame.

- Seth Martinez was scheduled to make his organizational debut on Friday. Instead, he was designated for assignment shortly after Thursday's game to make room for waiver claim Brett de Geus. Recently DFA'd by the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 27-year-old de Geus made seven relief appearances for the Marlins last season and posted a 6.35 ERA.

What's Next

Sandy Alcantara will take the mound for two innings on Friday against the Atlanta Braves (1:10 pm first pitch). Grant Holmes will start for the Braves. Expect Marlins prospect Robby Snelling to follow Alcantara and toss two innings as well.