Ely Sussman

I am high on Meyer, but he also needs to prove that his changeup is a consistent pitch. It showed flashes of being effective in 2022. It's possible he passes that test in Spring Training with enough reps against live batters, but I still think he's more likely to go to Triple-A and standby for his opportunity.

Marlins news roundup for 2/12/24 Here's what you should know with 45 days to go until Marlins Opening Day... 🔹 The Marlins and Twins have been frequent trade partners in recent years, with their latest swap exchanging Nick Gordon for Steven Okert. I'd say both players are better fits with their new clubs for the 2024 season than their previous ones. The transaction could also have repercussions further down the road as Gordon and Okert are just in their first years of arbitration eligibility. Baseball Trade Values considers it a minor overpay by the Marlins. 🔹 The half-brother of former Marlins All-Star Dee Strange-Gordon, Nick was raised in central Florida and had spent his entire professional career in the Twins organization since being their first-round draft pick in 2014. He played two MLB games at LoanDepot Park last season and also participated in the 2017 Futures Game, which was in Miami. Gordon has played six different defensive positions in the majors, though the vast majority of his reps have come at center field, left field and second base. 🔹 Okert concludes his three-year Marlins tenure with a 3.51 ERA, 4.25 FIP and 1.17 WHIP in 146.0 IP. He's tied with Kevin Gregg for 22nd place among all pitchers in franchise history with 158 appearances. 🔹 I did an updated Marlins roster projection with Gordon in and Okert out. Which 26 players would you go with? 🔹 On Marlins Spaces, Kevin Barral, Alex Carver, Isaac Azout and I spoke extensively about the trade and the rest of last week's transactions. 🔹 Replying to Fish On First in a since-deleted tweet, outfielder Victor Victor Mesa confirmed a Miami Herald report that he won't be playing for the Marlins organization this season despite still being under contract. Mesa has struggled to hit throughout his minor league career (.233/.289/.289 slash line with eight home runs in 290 games) and spent the second half of the 2023 campaign on the restricted list. 🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, Yasmani Grandal (1/$2.5M) signed with the Pirates and Spencer Turnbull (1/$2M) signed with the Phillies. 🔹 Glenn Geffner's View from the Bleachers is skeptical about LoanDepot Park's lively Caribbean Series crowds carrying over to Marlins regular season games. 🔹 Jordan Groshans, Kaleb Ort and Peyton Burdick all remain in DFA limbo. 🔹 Lastly, congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs, who've won three of the last five Super Bowls. Their previous two championships coincided with Marlins postseason berths. Will the streak continue?! Marlins Podcast Episodes View full article

It was fair to wonder in November whether he could potentially be non-tendered, but Baseball Trade Values placed his surplus value at $3.5M. I would definitely take the under on that.

In the aftermath of the Nick Gordon trade, projecting which 26 Marlins players are best positioned to make the Opening Day roster. With pitchers and catchers reporting to Jupiter this week and the rest of their teammates joining them in the subsequent days, it's time for my start-of-spring Miami Marlins Opening Day roster projection. I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that there will be discrepancies between this projection and the ultimate 26-man active roster. Injuries are almost inevitable over the next six weeks. There will be extreme Grapefruit League performances that cannot be forecasted and may tilt a roster battle. Even so, hopefully you find some value in this exercise. Look out for an updated roster projection in early March. Position Players Catchers (2): Christian Bethancourt, Nick Fortes Infielders (6): Luis Arraez, Josh Bell, Jon Berti, Vidal Bruján, Jake Burger, Xavier Edwards Outfielders (5): Jazz Chisholm Jr., Bryan De La Cruz, Avisaíl García, Nick Gordon, Jesús Sánchez Just missed: Jonah Bride, Trey Mancini The catching situation is straightforward. Fortes' active roster spot could be in jeopardy early in the regular season if he continues to scuffle at the plate just as much as he did in 2023, but he's doubtful to be usurped on the depth chart until the real games begin. The Marlins traded three prospects in their deal to acquire the out-of-options Bruján, which clearly indicates they expect him to break camp with the club, though the acquisition of Gordon shrinks his role. Edwards vs. Bride is relatively close to a coin flip if Edwards doesn't assert himself as part of the shortstop mix. Even assuming the Marlins believe that Edwards has more long-term potential, they might prefer having him in Triple-A Jacksonville's everyday lineup instead of playing sporadically in Miami. The Marlins continue to reject the notion that García is a sunk cost. Perhaps they will change their tune before Opening Day, but I can't count on that. Tough break for Mancini, who would otherwise have an easy path to make it as a non-roster invitee. That means backup first base duties would have to be handled by a committee of Arraez, Burger and Bethancourt. Pitchers Starters (5): Jesús Luzardo, Braxton Garrett, Eury Pérez, Edward Cabrera, Trevor Rogers Relievers (8): Anthony Bender, Huascar Brazoban, JT Chargois, Bryan Hoeing, Andrew Nardi, A.J. Puk, Tanner Scott, George Soriano Just missed: Anthony Maldonado, Max Meyer, Ryan Weathers Pretty good pitching staff, though pretty boring considering all of these arms finished last season in the Marlins organization. Hoeing would be the projected mop-up man and likeliest pitcher to get optioned to the minors when making room for a fresh arm. Maldonado has nothing left to prove in Triple-A. Wouldn't be a shock if a preseason reliever injury paves the way for him to make the cut. However, it will be very tempting to delay his debut until mid-April, limiting enough MLB service time to ensure that club control carries through 2030 instead of only 2029. I believe Sixto Sánchez—who is out of options—will either open the season on the injured list due to his interminable right shoulder issues or get designated for assignment. Any differences between your roster projection and mine? Comment to let me know. View full article

Awkward fit from the standpoint that he has ugly platoon splits like Jazz and Sánchez. I have to assume they acquired him with a plan to use him occasionally at 2B/SS too.

Highlights of new Marlin Nick Gordon making impact plays with the bat and the glove as a member of the Minnesota Twins. View full video

I feel like there is too much emphasis being put on a single season. Prior to 2023, Burdick had never been above a 30 K% in any minor league season. He was in that "flawed player, but could do enough in other areas to still be helpful" category. For a team that is so thin on 2024 major league hitting options, I was pretty surprised that they would risk losing him for nothing just to make room for such an underwhelming arm.

Top plays from Marlins prospect Troy Johnston, who is a non-roster invitee at 2024 Spring Training. View full video

Top plays from Marlins prospect Patrick Monteverde, who is a non-roster invitee at 2024 Spring Training. View full video

Top plays from Marlins prospect Will Banfield, who is a non-roster invitee at 2024 Spring Training. View full video

Top plays from Marlins prospect Javier Sanoja, who is a non-roster invitee at 2024 Spring Training. View full video

Top plays from Marlins prospect Jacob Berry, who is a non-roster invitee at 2024 Spring Training. View full video

For the first time in six-plus years, there seems to be an industry consensus that the Marlins' prospect pipeline is in very bad shape. It's not exactly breaking news. This has been building for half a year following a season of lousy minor league performances, deflating injuries, substantial "win-now" trades and prospect graduations. We still had to wait for the dawn of Spring Training for reputable national outlets to update their MLB farm system rankings in concert. The Miami Marlins have one of the worst farm systems in baseball. When that was previously the case (following the 2017 season), new ownership detonated the major league roster to start fresh. This time around, the response has been a front office shake-up. The latter approach won't bear fruit immediately, hence the unsightly rankings below. Beneath each outlet's 2024 Marlins ranking, I've included the blurbs from their respective articles summarizing the current state of the system. Baseball America staff Ranked 27th entering 2024 (ranked 20th entering 2023) No one doubts Miami’s ability to scout, develop and graduate pitchers, and new additions like Noble Meyer and Thomas White add more firepower. But the system falls off quickly after that and has very little offensive impact talent to speak of, especially considering the rough start to pro ball that 2022 No. 6 pick Jacob Berry has had. Baseball Prospectus prospect staff Ranked 28th entering 2024 (ranked 23rd entering 2023) The Marlins bought at the last deadline, which did weaken the system a bit, but they’ve also dealt with pitcher injuries and have spent significant draft capital on prep arms that will take a while to develop. They should also probably stop immediately trading interesting Day Two draft picks to the Rays every year, that wouldn’t hurt. This is obviously going to be an organization in flux over the next calendar year as new POBO Peter Bendix puts his stamp on things. The Athletic's Keith Law Ranked 28th entering 2024 (ranked 21st entering 2023) The Marlins’ system has been depleted by some trades and some underwhelming drafts, plus some international free agents who’ve stalled out quickly in the low minors despite big tools. They do have pitching on the way, although it’s probably a few years out, while their position-player group is really light. Their draft last year started with two very high-upside high school pitchers, and if both stay healthy this year the top of the system will look quite a bit better. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel Ranked 29th entering 2024 (ranked 18th entering 2023) There have been solid recent graduations in Miami, with Eury Perez, Max Meyer, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera all either in the big league rotation or expected to join soon. I also liked the bold decision Miami made to take the top two prep pitchers in the 2023 draft—Noble Meyer and Thomas White—along with thumpers Kemp Alderman and Brock Vradenburg soon after. But there have also been some clear negative results in the system as of late. Dax Fulton was progressing well but got his second elbow surgery, Marco Vargas was traded to the Mets for a rental reliever (though the Fish made the playoffs), and there wasn't a notable jump forward in the system with a number of half or full steps back. After coming from the Rays, new President of Baseball Ops Peter Bendix will likely take an infrastructure-and-process oriented view to building things back up and there's a good bit of work to be done. View full article

It's an accurate summary. My only rebuttal is that the MLB offseason as a whole has moved at a glacial pace. Waiting so long for substantial action may have lulled us to sleep, but it doesn't preclude a surprise or two from happening before the season begins.