How Liam Hicks made Marlins history with Opening Day roster nod

There will be a handful of Miami Marlins players participating on Thursday in their first career Opening Day as major leaguers. It'll be an extra-special milestone for Liam Hicks, who is on the verge of making his MLB debut.

Hicks is the first Rule 5 catcher in franchise history to seamlessly break camp with the big league club the following year. A social media post from the Marlins on Friday confirmed that he has made the 26-man active roster. Manager Clayton McCullough delivered the news to him.

Looking back at it, I was surprised by how few Marlins Rule 5 picks regardless of position matched that modest feat. Most notably, Dan Uggla (2005 draft/2006 roster) hit the ground running and quickly emerged as a key cog. The only others who began the regular season in Miami were Sterling Sharp (2019/2020) and Paul Campbell and Zach Pop (2020/2021). That's it!

Particularly in recent years, Marlins picks have been hampered by health issues. Elieser Hernandez, for example, eventually logged six seasons in the majors, but his debut was delayed in 2018 by a tooth infection. An even more atypical (and frightening) case, Nic Enright seemingly had a clear path to cracking the 2023 roster before being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

It's rare for catchers to be taken by any team in the major league phase of the Rule 5. Prior to Hicks, it hadn't happened since 2016 when Luis Torrens and Stuart Turner were picked and subsequently made the Opening Day roster with their new clubs (the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds, respectively). In terms of rookie season performance, Torrens and Turner set a very low bar for Hicks to clear. Both of them were buried on the bench for most of the 2017 season and neither came close to "hitting their weight"—Torrens slashed .163/.243/.203 in 139 plate appearances, while Turner slashed .134/.182/.244 in 89 plate appearances. The latter never received another opportunity in the majors after that.

In 12 spring training games prior to Friday, Hicks slashed .208/.424/.250 with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five) and gained experience catching most members of the projected Opening Day pitching staff, including Sandy Alcantara, Cal Quantrill and Max Meyer. He received approximately the same amount of Grapefruit League playing time as Nick Fortes, though that's in part because the veteran was slowed by back and groin injuries. Expect Fortes to start the majority of Marlins games behind the plate for the time being.

It'll be interesting to see if Hicks, Fortes and Agustín Ramírez can co-exist on the Marlins roster later this year when Ramírez is deemed major league-ready. Rule 5 picks cannot be optioned to the minors during the season following their draft. In the unlikely scenario that Hicks slumps extensively both offensively and defensively and Ramírez's glove work behind the plate is meaningfully improved, the Marlins might return Hicks to his previous team, the Detroit Tigers. However, if they view Hicks as anything more than a partial-season stopgap, it's worth noting that he and Ramírez each have MiLB experience at first base which adds to their versatility.