Offishial News, 1/22/24: Noble Meyer's offseason development

To lead off, I deeply appreciate everybody who has supported Fish On First up to this point and ask for patience as we fully grasp the capabilities (and iron out the bugs) of this redesigned site. Super Subscribers are still essential to what we do! We’re now calling them SuperSubs. Sign up this week for as little as $4 and you’ll be entered to win an officially licensed Eury Pérez replica jersey ($149.99 value). Second prize is a Sandy Alcantara City Connect t-shirt.

🔹 Sunday’s winter ball notes: In the Dominican Republic, 3B Vidal Bruján went 1-for-5 as Estrellas Orientales won again. They have a 2-0 lead in LIDOM’s best-of-seven championship series. 

🔹 Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is just as flummoxed as the rest of us about why the Marlins still haven't signed any major league free agents (each of the other 29 MLB teams have). "Marlins officials briefed on the team’s strategy say (Peter) Bendix is devoting most of his time and resources to improving the team’s infrastructure," Rosenthal reports, echoing what Craig Mish of SportsGrid has previously said this offseason. Rosenthal wraps up his column with this gloomy forecast:

Quote

At this rate, a familiar cycle for the Marlins will begin anew. Team declines to spend. Team fails to contend. Team trades off veterans at the deadline, pointing to the future.

No one should be surprised to see Miami’s season play out just like that.

Wash, rinse, repeat. The Marlins are at it again.

🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, big dominoes fell on the relief market with Josh Hader (5/$95M) signing with the Astros and Robert Stephenson (3/$33M) going to the Angels.

🔹 Jesús Luzardo and Colton Welker hosted their fourth annual baseball clinic, instructing kids ages 5-12 at their alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Anthony Bender, Xavier Edwards and old friend Lewis Brinson were also there to assist.

🔹 RHP Noble Meyer has bulked up to 205 pounds this offseason, per Walter Villa of Baseball America (20 pounds above his listed weight when the Marlins drafted him six months ago). He’s determined to get more vertical movement on his fastball, command it on the inside corner and top of the strike zone, and differentiate his slider from his curveball.

🔹 Contingent on the Marlins trading one of their controllable starting pitchers, Brian Dunleavy of Marlin Maniac makes the case for signing free agent Hyun Jin Ryu to a short-term deal.

🔹 Happy 34th birthday to Jon Berti. The utilityman extraordinaire hit a career-best .294 in 2023 while playing far more shortstop than he had in any of his previous seasons. Did you realize he’s the longest-tenured position player on the Marlins 40-man roster?

🔹 Congratulations to Braxton Garrett and Cloie Crocker on their engagement! They’ve been dating for more than three years.

🔹 And lastly, congrats to @claudsluna on being voted the 2024 winner of Marlins Twitter Madness. She's now in the esteemed company of @DanielDeVivo (2021), @jeremytache (2022) and @AlfreAlvarez3 (2023).

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