Anthony Maldonado makes most of opportunity on bigger stage

Anthony Maldonado had a strong case to make the Marlins major league roster coming out of camp. The right-handed reliever allowed just one run in seven spring training games and six innings.

The 26-year-old was instead sent down to Triple-A Jacksonville, where he continued to produce solid numbers with a 2.31 ERA in 11 ⅔ innings.

Up in Miami, pitchers were dropping left and right. Already without starters Sandy Alcantara, Eury Pérez, Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett, and relief pitcher JT Chargois—only Cabrera has returned so far—the Marlins then lost A.J. Puk to shoulder fatigue and Jesús Luzardo to elbow discomfort.

Luzardo, the team’s ace while Alcantara recovers from Tommy John surgery, complained of stiffness in his elbow the day before his start on Friday. On short notice, this meant that not only did the Marlins need to call up Maldonado for his fresh arm, but he’d be starting against the Washington Nationals as well. Maldonado was a starter at Bethune-Cookman University for three years (2017-2019), but had spent his whole professional career adapting to a relief role.

"Honestly, I was really excited for it,” Maldonado said after the game. “The coaching staff talked to me. (They said) just treat it like I'm coming out of the bullpen. I didn't try to warm up like a starter, I did my own routine. I liked it a lot.”

Whatever the Wellington, Fla. native did to get himself ready worked well. In front of a large contingent of friends and family, Maldonado threw three scoreless innings while allowing just three hits, zero walks, and striking out two.

Maldonado, who was drafted by the Marlins in the 11th round of the MLB draft in 2019, said he will always remember walking off the mound after inducing a double play to end the third inning and seeing his loved ones cheer for him.

“I didn't know where the family section was, but I hear them going crazy,” Maldonado said. “And looking up and seeing my friends and family and fiancé cheer meant a lot. I gave them a point so they knew I saw them.”

It was the second time Maldonado completed three innings in his professional career, with the last instance coming with Double-A Pensacola in 2022.

“He stuck with his strengths,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “And that's the slider. Slider is real, played a little bit with the cutter, he has enough fastball to keep you off guard. But I think lefties, righties, it doesn't matter. He's got a real slider. We knew that in spring training.”

It was in spring training where Maldonado tinkered with the grip on his fastball. Sitting around 92 mph, it behaviors more as a sinker now, which helps to set up his slider. He also throws a changeup and cutter. On Friday night, he threw one of each.

“(The fastball) was a work in progress, and I think it got better every outing,” Maldonado said. “My last two outings in Jacksonville, the fastball was really good and I was really getting confident with it, throwing it a lot more. My last outing in Jacksonville, I didn't even throw a slider—I was all fastball and cutter. And I thought that really helped to make the slider more effective if I have other pitches to protect it.”

Both of Maldonado’s strikeouts Friday were on the slider, one to right-hander Joey Meneses and another to lefty Joey Gallo. He induced six whiffs on 15 swings with that pitch.

It was not his first pitching time in loanDepot park, however. Maldonado threw a scoreless inning and struck out two batters for Puerto Rico in the 2023 World Baseball Classic in Miami in front of 35,399 people.

That experience, combined with his solid outing Friday against major league hitters, gave him the confidence that he can compete at this level.

“You always picture this moment when you're a young kid,” Maldonado said. “But I think it was better than I imagined...I would say it proves myself right that I do belong here. There's definitely stuff to improve, but I’ll go from here and continue to get better, and work hard and see what happens.”