Ely Sussman

The Nats took Nuñez from the Fish in the MLB Rule 5 Draft. They'll carry him on their active roster despite severe struggles at the plate during spring training. Following a series of transactions on Tuesday, infielder Nasim Nuñez has secured his place on the Washington Nationals' Opening Day roster. Developed by the Miami Marlins for the first four-plus years of his professional career, Nuñez will be making his major league debut with one of their NL East rivals. Nuñez was the Marlins' second-round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. His blazing speed and stellar shortstop defense stood out throughout his time in the organization. He averaged a stolen base every other game during his minor league journey (184 SB in 366 G), represented the Fish in the 2023 Futures Game, was named MVP of said game and participated in the Arizona Fall League. However, Nuñez was left unprotected entering December's Rule 5 Draft when the Marlins declined to select him to their 40-man roster. He was the first hitter and the fifth overall player taken in the major league phase of the Rule 5. Why would the Marlins be willing to lose a toolsy 23-year-old who plays a premium position when their farm system is already so thin? Well, it's premature to say that they've lost Nuñez for good considering the concerns about his hitting ability. Nuñez had a career 89 wRC+ in the minors and posted a 79 wRC+ at Double-A last season, and those numbers were buoyed by a tremendous walk rate that is unrealistic for him to maintain against MLB pitching. As a Rule 5 guy, he cannot be optioned to the minors during the 2024 season despite lacking any Triple-A experience. Nuñez predictably struggled in the Grapefruit League. In 22 games played, he slashed .152/.200/.182 with a 2 wRC+ and two stolen bases. Only one of his five hits came off of a notable major leaguer (bunt single vs. Miles Mikolas). The bright spot was his excellence at shortstop. ZW5LOWJfWGw0TUFRPT1fQmxRSFZsSldBRlFBV1ZRQ1VRQUFBd0lDQUZoV1VnTUFWZ0JUQlZWV0JRdFdWUXBX.mp4 Vmc0anZfWGw0TUFRPT1fQmdaUVhWRUVCMU1BQ2dNRVhnQUFCZzhIQUFCV1VGRUFBUUFIVXdaWEJGWldWQXRm.mp4 Even on a Nats team that's in rebuilding mode, Nuñez must perform significantly better at the plate during regular season action to justify his roster spot. If not, there could come a point where they offer to return him to the Marlins for $50k (like how the Marlins returned RHP Nic Enright to the Cleveland Guardians in the middle of last year). In the meantime, though, Nasim Nuñez is on the verge of playing in The Show. The 2019 Marlins draft class has produced a surprising number of big leaguers already: JJ Bleday, Peyton Burdick, Bryan Hoeing, Easton Lucas, Andrew Nardi and Jeff Lindgren. Still with Miami, Anthony Maldonado is a near-lock to debut in 2024 himself and reigning Marlins Minor League Player of the Year Troy Johnston ought to get an opportunity before season's end. The first regular season meeting between the Marlins and Nats will be April 26-29 at LoanDepot Park. View full article

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs... View full article

Dane Myers was optioned to the minors on Friday despite putting up extraordinary numbers in Grapefruit League action. Dane Myers did everything he possibly could to earn a spot on the 2024 Miami Marlins Opening Day roster. He had a .412/.474/.735 slash line, three home runs and four stolen bases in 17 Grapefruit League games. Manager Skip Schumaker called him "really impressive" and a clubhouse favorite. He is already on Miami's 40-man roster. It still wasn't enough: Myers was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville on Friday. While spring training production can carry some weight, it rarely pushes MLB teams to take drastic measures. As Schumaker emphasized on Friday, depth will inevitably be needed over the course of the season, so the Marlins are not in a hurry to designate out-of-options veterans for assignment just to reward Myers—there will be room for him eventually. It was a very healthy spring for their position player group, meaning there aren't any pending injured list stints for Myers to capitalize on yet. I still want to put Myers' dominance in historical perspective. According to FanGraphs, he posted a 218 wRC+ at the plate during his Grapefruit League campaign (100 represents league average). They have detailed preseason stats dating back to 2006. In that span, Myers is one of only five Marlins to enjoy a spring with at least a 200 wRC+ while averaging one plate appearance per team game. (The 2020 and 2022 springs have been excluded due to their shortened exhibition schedules stemming from COVID and a lockout, respectively.) Let's briefly reflect on these other Myers-like standout performances and what happened to those players once the real games began. Josh Willingham (220 wRC+ in 2006) Willingham is the closest comp for Myers, a 27-year-old who previously had a couple cups of coffee in the majors and thoroughly conquered minor league pitching. Besides a brief midseason injury, he would stick as the Marlins' everyday left fielder in 2006 (120 wRC+). Willingham spent much of the next decade as a nice middle-of-the-order bat who you could perennially count on for two-ish wins above replacement (career 122 wRC+). The circumstances that surrounded Willingham made all the difference. The '06 Marlins operated with MLB's lowest payroll and gutted their roster of veteran players to get there. Nobody was blocking him and there wasn't any pressure on that team to be competitive. Chris Coghlan (203 wRC+ in 2011) The 2009 National League Rookie of the Year, Coghlan was seemingly a strong bounce-back candidate coming off a quiet and abbreviated sophomore season. The Marlins deployed him as their leadoff hitter and starting center fielder. He finished April 2011 with a .287/.352/.521 slash line (133 wRC+). However, by mid-June, Coghlan was a liability and got demoted to Triple-A. From that point through the end of his Marlins tenure in 2013, he played more games in New Orleans than he did in Miami, providing zero offensive impact. He enjoyed a career resurgence with the Chicago Cubs, but never got back to being a true everyday player. Christian Yelich (214 wRC+ in 2013) A first-time non-roster invitee to spring training at 21 years old, Yelich certainly looked the part of an elite MLB prospect and long-term franchise building block. He slugged .818 with nine of his 16 spring hits going for extra bases. Yelich was too phenomenal for his own good! Having embarked on yet another rebuild, the Marlins let him incubate in the minors until the second half of the 2013 season to delay his arbitration eligibility. That would later help them negotiate an extremely club-friendly contract extension. Yelich was arguably the NL's best all-around player from 2018-19. Unfortunately, the Marlins had already traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers by then. Garrett Cooper (202 wRC+ in 2021) M09kWTFfWGw0TUFRPT1fQlFoVFZGQlJWd0VBQ2xNR0F3QUFBbFZSQUFBQkJ3QUFDMUZXQUFJSENBSUFWQVFB.mp4 Cooper's roster spot was secure and his ability to rake against MLB arms was not in doubt. He still was plenty motivated, angling for steady playing time in a world without the universal DH. His spring training success earned him semi-regular starts in right field. Through the first quarter of the 2021 season, Cooper struggled mightily in all aspects of the game. Then from mid-May through mid-July, he was scorching hot, not far off from his Grapefruit League pace. Overall, Cooper had a .284/.380/.465 slash line (129 wRC+) on July 18 when he suffered a season-ending elbow injury. Fast-forward to 2024, he had a solid enough Cactus League audition to make the Chicago Cubs roster as an NRI. View full article

We may have to wait until Brazoban eventually arrives to get a clearer idea of why the process has been so messy for him specifically. Doesn't seem as though the team employees can explain it.

Martinez gets $12M guaranteed, but agreed to defer most of the money. Why couldn't the Marlins get him at that price? The top bat remaining on the MLB free agent market, J.D. Martinez, finally found his new home on Thursday night, agreeing with the New York Mets on a one-year, $12M deal. His salary for the upcoming season will be a mere $4.5M with the rest being paid out a decade later (annual $1.5M installments from 2034-2038). The 36-year-old still has to pass his physical to make things official. Martinez slashed .271/.321/.572 (135 wRC+) with 33 HR and 103 RBI in 113 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Ever since they signed Shohei Ohtani to be their designated hitter in December, it's been apparent that Martinez would need to find another employer. The Miami Marlins seemed like a natural fit for the South Florida native. The Marlins weren't comfortable paying market value to retain All-Star designated hitter Jorge Soler, but Martinez's age and troublesome strikeout rate in 2023 made him a cheaper alternative. Per Craig Mish of SportsGrid, he was seeking a two-year deal in talks with the Fish earlier this month. Even in what's been a cruel market for hitters, it is hard to believe that Martinez had to ultimately settle for a one-year contract with a present-day value that's approximately the same as his previous deal. How could the Marlins pass on Martinez at such an efficient price tag? Well, some of Martinez's offensive contributions would have been negated by the club's defensive clumsiness. Occupying the DH spot would've forced Josh Bell and Jake Burger to handle the corner infield spots practically every day. Without Martinez, there is a lot more flexibility—Jon Berti can get occasional reps at the hot corner, Nick Gordon can fill in for Luis Arraez at second when he's giving Bell a breather at first, etc. On the other hand, Martinez is a hitting savant who still seemingly has a lot left in the tank. The quality of his contact is as impressive as ever. Imagine the intangible benefits of having him around the clubhouse as somebody who's gone from sub-replacement-level player early in his career to MLB's fifth-leading home run hitter over the last 10 years. It's like hiring another assistant hitting coach. He could've taken Avisaíl García's roster spot, an indisputable upgrade for the Marlins even if some age-related regression is probable in 2024. Too often, we analyze rosters as if they are always going to be at full strength. That's rarely how it plays out in reality. Even if there would be some redundancy between Martinez, Bell and Burger when they're all healthy, what if one of them goes on the injured list at any point? A signing like this would add crucial lineup depth for a Marlins organization that is thin on quality hitters to call up from the minors. In the aftermath of recent pitching staff injuries, expectations for the Marlins must be tempered. A great J.D. Martinez campaign would not assure them a postseason berth or even a .500 record. But that's the beauty of a one-year deal: you can move him at the trade deadline! Peter Bendix inherited a depleted farm system and has done virtually nothing to add talent to it thus far. Signing short-term free agents allows you to address that indirectly. A player who has a résumé and reputation like Martinez does would be especially appealing to contenders in July and bring back prospects with all of their club control still ahead of them. Instead, the Marlins have the challenge of facing Martinez head-to-head up to 13 times this season. And if the Mets fall out of the race (again), at least he'll be a trade asset for them. View full article

With several Marlins starting pitchers suffering injuries before the 2024 season has even begun, Craig Mish joins Isaac Azout and Ely Sussman to discuss the possibility of signing polarizing free agent Trevor Bauer. View full video

Marlins news roundup for 3/21/24 Fish On First is providing extensive coverage on location throughout Marlins spring training. Click here to keep up with our latest updates. 🔷 On Wednesday, Jonah Bride (home run) and Troy Johnston (double) had the Marlins' only extra-base hits. Sixto Sánchez threw yet another scoreless inning, this time with only two days' rest in between outings. The Marlins lost to the Mets, 6-3, ensuring they'll finish with a sub-.500 record in Grapefruit League play. 🔷 The Marlins have designated sections 201-204 of LoanDepot Park as all-you-can-eat seats. Starting at $52 per person (I'm already seeing some weekend games at $71/person and even $81/person), fans can get unlimited access to the Caliente Grill concession stand. Alcoholic drinks are not included in the promotion. Sub-optimal seat location, too—those sections are in foul territory deep down the right-field line. I'll be curious to see if anybody actually makes a habit of buying these seats on a consistent basis. It feels more like a try-it-once novelty. 🔷 The Marlins also announced their minor league coordinators for the 2024 season. Former hitting coach Matt Snyder has transitioned to the role of hitting coordinator while Driveline Baseball trainer Maxx Garrett has been hired as a hitting and and catching coordinator. Still awaiting full details about MiLB coaching staffs. 🔷 Ryan Weathers defeated his boss, Peter Bendix, to win the Marlins' annual ping pong tournament. Garrett Hampson won it in 2023. Luis Arraez, Braxton Garrett, Vladimir Gutierrez and Max Meyer also made deep tourney runs this year, per Noah Berger. 🔷 He is Luis Arraez's "brother," Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s "best friend" and Skip Schumaker's Swiss army knife. Our intern, Nate Karzmer, wrote about Nick Gordon. 🔷 Alex Carver and Kevin Barral joined forces to highlight eight in-house options to fill the voids in the Marlins' season-opening starting rotation. 🔷 Congrats to our newest Marlins Jeopardy champion, Ethan Eibe! Ethan edged out our own Isaac Azout by a single point (8,001 to 8,000). This contest was particularly difficult. FOF LIVE is presented by Berger & Hicks. If you’ve been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, give them a call at (305) 670-7050. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Michael Lorenzen (1/$4.5M) signed with the Rangers. Regardless of how severe Eury Pérez's injury proves to be, it's hard to justify the Marlins passing on Lorenzen at the price considering he threw 153 innings with a 105 ERA+ last season. The Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani's popular interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, in connection with alleged theft and illegal gambling. Giancarlo Stanton had a three-homer game. He homered only once in his 11 previous spring training games. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Offishial News for 10/10/24 On Wednesday in the desert, two more Marlins made their Arizona Fall League debuts. LHP Patrick Monteverde (3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 49 pitches/30 strikes) relied on pitching to contact and Jay Beshears went 0-for-3 with a walk while starting at third base. LF Kemp Alderman homered for the second consecutive day and CF Andrew Pintar went 1-for-4 with a walk. The Peoria Javelinas won, 5-3. Jesse Borek of MLB Pipeline spoke to Alderman about postponing his wedding to participate in the AFL and making "a conscientious effort" to drive balls to right-center field instead of to his pull side (left field). Both of Alderman's long balls this week having gone out the other way. Here's more Marlins news and content: 🔷 Kevin Barral wrote about shadowy Marlins minority owner David Ott. 🔷 Join us for a new edition of Marlins Jeopardy tonight at 6:00 p.m. ET on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. Special guest: Kyle Sielaff. Special format: trivia focused entirely on the 2024 Marlins season. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Tigers, Mets, Yankees and Dodgers won their respective ALDS/NLDS games. Francisco Lindor's grand slam accounted for all of the Mets' scoring as they eliminated the favored Phils, who won only one postseason game coming off their best regular season since 2011. Giancarlo Stanton delivered three of his team's four hits, including a game-winning solo home run in the eighth inning, his 12th homer in 30 career postseason games. The Tigers and Dodgers both shut out their opponents without using conventional starting pitchers. The roof of Tropicana Field was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton. 🔷 Today's MLB postseason schedule: Cleveland Guardians vs. Detroit Tigers, 6:08 p.m. ET (ALDS Game 4) New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals, 8:08 p.m. ET (ALDS Game 4) View full article

A reasonable take! (if this implies money and a roster spot being spent on a productive corner OF/DH instead of Anderson)

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs... View full article

On The Pivot podcast, Jazz Chisholm Jr. explains what happened when veteran Marlins players called for a meeting regarding his conduct and attire. View full video

In a lengthy interview, Chisholm tells The Pivot about how the first few seasons of his Marlins career were the worst years of his life due to tension between he and his older teammates, including veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas. There is a lot to unpack from Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s 82-minute interview on The Pivot podcast, which was released on Tuesday. He covered various aspects of his personal life and professional journey. What I found most relevant to the Fish On First audience was his recollection of his first three seasons as a Miami Marlins major leaguer (2020-2022). "My first three years in the big leagues were the worst three years of probably my life," Chisholm said. "Outside of baseball was great, but playing baseball, which that was the thing that really I loved doing more than anything else, was the worst. I got to where I wanted to get to at that point—not to the level of it yet, but I got to the big leagues—and I hate it." Although Chisholm withheld the names of his problematic ex-teammates, he didn't go out of the way to conceal their identities. Repeatedly, he spoke disparaging about the "team captain" from that era of Marlins baseball. As anybody who followed the Fish during those seasons is aware, that was Miguel Rojas, the longtime Marlins shortstop who was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023. "Our team captain tried to get me out of here," Chisholm insists. "My team captain would come and tell me, 'Bro you're the best on the team, bro. Keep on going, bro. You're gonna be great. You're gonna lead us one day.' But then the next two seconds, he's in (manager Don Mattingly's) office telling the manager something, and then the manager coming and telling me, 'Bro, this is what your team captain said.' "Our manager doesn't play that. He didn't play that B.S. garbage. The last year that I got through all that stuff, we had a team meeting and he shut it all down." Ah yes, the infamous Marlins team meeting of June 2022. Multiple reports at the time described it as a veteran-led airing of grievances regarding Chisholm's conduct. He confirms that in here. "It was nothing to do with baseball at all," Chisholm says. "That's what made it so wild to me—we're having a whole team meeting with guys who I don't even talk to off the field, so why are we having an off-the-field team meeting when he play baseball?" "They wanted to put me in the box," Chisholm continued, "and it wasn't happening cuz I'm not ever gonna be put in a box." That included how he was dressing while coming to the ballpark and boarding flights. Additionally, Chisholm vented about being the victim of hazing. He describes an incident where a veteran player (not necessarily Rojas) damaged his cleats, poured milk in them and threw them in the trash, cleats that he personally designed. He insinuated that when playing shortstop in place of an injured Rojas, first baseman Jesús Aguilar didn't always make his best effort to pick Chisholm's throws out of the dirt, negatively impacting Chisholm's defensive stats and reputation. The Marlins have since converted Chisholm into a center fielder. There was another time when multiple vets reprimanded a recent call-up for mimicking Juan Soto's "Soto Shuffle" in the batter's box. I believe the young hitter in question was Jesús Sánchez and that the incident occurred in 2021, though the details that Chisholm provides make it difficult to fully verify that. At least on the position player side, the Marlins have overhauled their roster recently. Of the seven guys who played the most games for the 2022 team, five have since gone elsewhere. Don Mattingly also parted ways with the organization and was replaced by Skip Schumaker. "We got a new manager who switched the whole thing up," Chisholm says. "He changed the whole culture...He showed me that in baseball, when you're together, you really are unstoppable." Chisholm pointed to Luis Arraez, Josh Bell, Tim Anderson and his "best friend" Nick Gordon as current teammates who make him feel more comfortable in the clubhouse. He says he's even enjoying spring training more than usual. For what little it's worth, with a major boost from Tuesday's two-homer performance, he has posted an incredible .364/.417/.697 slash line in Grapefruit League play. The full YouTube version of the podcast is embedded above, or you can find The Pivot wherever else you normally get your pods. View full article

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins games. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs... View full article

Marlins news roundup for 3/19/24 Fish On First is providing extensive coverage on location throughout Marlins spring training. Click here to keep up with our latest updates. 🔷 On Monday, Jake Burger and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit back-to-back jacks for their first home runs of the spring. Red-hot Dane Myers went deep himself with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, taking a well-located, 2-2 slider the other way. Mychal Givens tossed a scoreless inning. The Marlins won, 6-5. 🔷 The Marlins reassigned non-roster invitees C Will Banfield, INF Tristan Gray, INF/OF Javier Sanoja and LHP Devin Smeltzer to minor league camp. High likelihood that we will see Banfield and Gray in Miami at some point during the regular season. 🔷 Griffin Conine (first team), Yiddi Cappe (second team) and Thomas White (second team) were named to the inaugural All-Spring Breakout Team. 🔷 Baseball America's latest 2024 MLB mock draft has the Marlins selecting Florida State third baseman Cam Smith with the 16th overall pick. Through 18 games played this season, Smith is slashing .487/.556/.782. 🔷 Today's games: Marlins (RHP Yonny Chirinos) vs. Cardinals (RHP Kyle Gibson) at 1:05 p.m. and Marlins (LHP A.J. Puk) vs. Astros (RHP Brandon Bielak) at 6:05 p.m. No television coverage for either. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Blake Snell (2/$62M) finally signed with the Giants. 🔷 Marlins Jeopardy returns on Wednesday night! As always, we want to feature your audience questions. Submit clever trivia here. 🔷 Remember to bookmark the Fish On First injury/rehab tracker to stay updated on how Marlins players are progressing. View full article