Ely Sussman

As of this writing, the MLB trade deadline is only 13 days and 12 hours away. I maintain the belief that Sandy Alcantara will remain with the Miami Marlins after the deadline passes, but the possibility of a departure cannot be entirely ruled out—this front office is always having conversations. If a strong enough package of young talent is offered to them, Alcantara's eight-year Marlins tenure could abruptly come to a close. Alcantara will take the mound at loanDepot park tonight and he's very likely to do so again next Wednesday. After that, the Marlins don't play again in Miami until August 1, when their roster will inevitably look different. Understandably considering his poor performance, fans haven't been buying tickets specifically to see Alcantara lately. If it's feasible for you to make it to the one of these home games, maybe make an exception, just in case the former ace becomes a former Fish at the deadline. Down on the farm, Luis Arana, Diwarys Encarnación and Almen Tolentino were named Dominican Summer League All-Stars. All three have put up terrific offensive numbers, but Arana has been particularly impressive, making the majority of his appearances at shortstop and striking out only 4.5% of the time. Also, it's his first minor league season, whereas Encarnación and Tolentino are repeating the level. DSL Marlins won, 3-0. Outfielder David Shirley went 0-for-2 with two walks and a stolen base in his MiLB debut. DSL Miami won, 3-2. Kevin Defrank (4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K) made his third consecutive scoreless start. His fastball velocity topped out at 100.4 mph. This video from Josh Norris of Baseball America includes swinging strikes on his changeup and slider, too. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 The Marlins will be without Connor Norby for most of the second half following left hamate bone surgery. "If you truly know me, you know how hard I’ll work to beat timelines and how hard I have and will continue to work to learn from this season and be better for it," he tweeted on Thursday. Graham Pauley should be the club's primary third baseman in the meantime. 🔷 Michael Petersen is back in the Marlins organization after being claimed off waivers from the Atlanta Braves. The right-handed reliever pitched out of Miami's bullpen last September. He'll report to Jacksonville this weekend. Jesús Tinoco was transferred to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding roster move. Tinoco has been on the IL for 45 days already. The Marlins are optimistic that he could be ready for reinstatement as soon as he's eligible on August 2. 🔷 In partnership with About The Fans, we made a Gus Bus t-shirt! It's available in black and heather deep teal (as pictured below). Use coupon code fof10 at checkout for 10% off your order. 🔷 On this day in 1995, the Marlins topped the Giants in 14 innings in large part thanks to Greg Colbrunn's 7 RBI. 🔷 More than 60% of Fish On First Twitter followers voted that, aside from Kyle Stowers, Eury Pérez is the likeliest player on the team to be selected as an All-Star in 2026. 🔷 Aram Leighton of Just Baseball delves into the significant progress that the Marlins have made this year and urges Bruce Sherman to provide the resources that his front office will need to continue piecing together a legitimate contender. 🔷 Per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Marlins internally view Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards as their starting middle infielders moving forward. The prospects most impacted by that are Maximo Acosta and Jared Serna, both of whom have been used exclusively at shortstop and second base in 2025 and are already on the 40-man roster. Also on the prospect front, Jackson describes the Marlins as "inclined" to have Robby Snelling spend the rest of this season in the minors, "though that’s subject to change." 🔷 Emilio Barreras and his family were overcome with emotion after Barreras was drafted by the Marlins in the eighth round. 🔷 A pair of 2024 draftees, Grant Shepardson and Nate Payne, were ranked among Baseball America's top 25 Florida Complex League prospects. Shepardson is 14th and Payne is 21st. They're scheduled to make one more start each before the FCL season ends. 🔷 Chad Jennings and Tim Britton of The Athletic observe that corner outfield bats are in short supply on the trade market this year, which could boost Jesús Sánchez's value. 🔷 Congratulations to Matt Mervis and Sydney Leonard on their engagement. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, 13-year MLB veteran Kyle Gibson announced his retirement. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins host the Kansas City Royals in the opener of a three-game series. Following Alcantara, Cal Quantrill is lined up to start on Saturday and Janson Junk on Sunday. Bobby Witt Jr. was among the hottest hitters in baseball entering the break, slashing .369/.400/.631 during a 16-game on-base streak. Full organizational schedule below. 🔷 Prior to the game, Fish On First LIVE will preview the Royals series beginning at 6:00 ET. Marlins podcast episodes

So many spots on the diamond were unsettled for the Miami Marlins entering the 2025 season. Third base actually looked like one of the few exceptions—Connor Norby showed a lot of upside offensively after being acquired at last year's trade deadline and had the strong work ethic to gradually improve his defense at the hot corner. Instead, the 25-year-old has been among the weakest links on Miami's roster. Norby will have limited reps to rebound from a mediocre first half. As initially reported by FanDuel Sports Network Florida's Craig Mish, he underwent surgery Wednesday on a broken left hamate bone. The procedure will keep him out for 6-8 weeks. In 72 games this season, Norby is slashing .241/.289/.364 with a 81 wRC+, six home runs and seven stolen bases. Combined with below-average defense, he's been essentially a replacement-level player (0.2 fWAR/0.1 bWAR). In particular, his production against secondary stuff has plummeted—Norby has homered only once off of breaking pitches and offspeed pitches, slugging .250 and .242 against them, respectively. On the bright side, Norby is making about as much hard, in-the-air contact as he previously did. His expected weight on-base average is practically unchanged from last season and he had recorded hits in five straight games prior to landing on the injured list. Better results were likely right around the corner. Still, Norby's long-term fit with the Marlins is hazy. Even in a best-case scenario where he is reinstated in late August, he'd have 100 plate appearances or so to impress. His natural position, second base, is occupied by Xavier Edwards. "Norby is expected to be given a chance to compete for the starting third base job next season, though the Marlins likely will bring in competition," according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Graham Pauley filled in at third for the first three weeks of the season while Norby recovered from an oblique strain. He'll get a more extended runway this time around. Pauley had a .260/.340/.496 slash line (123 wRC+) in 34 games with Triple-A Jacksonville, but a meager .200/.258/.271 slash line (47 wRC+) in 29 games for the Fish. Pauley brings better defense and plate discipline then Norby—this is his chance to show enough aptitude as a run producer to be taken seriously as a potential big league regular. Expect to see Javier Sanoja make starts at third against most left-handed pitchers. Elsewhere on Miami's active roster, Eric Wagaman and Otto Lopez can play the position in emergency situations.

Agustín Ramírez began his Miami Marlins career with an extra-base hit binge. Three months later, nobody's been able to stop the "Gus Bus" from driving in runs. In collaboration with About The Fans, we have designed a Gus Bus t-shirt! Save 10% when you enter coupon code fof10 at checkout. The "50" above the windshield refers to Ramírez's uniform number and the "042125" license plate is for his April 21 debut date. Acquired from the New York Yankees last season as the centerpiece of the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade package, Ramírez made his major league debut on April 21. Since then, he leads all Marlins players in extra-base hits (35), runs scored (40) and plate appearances (301). He has also recorded three of the club's top four exit velocities during that span. Gus has the potential to serve as Miami's primary designated hitter for years to come. The FOF merch collection also includes products inspired by Xavier Edwards, Ichiro Suzuki and Jeff and Griffin Conine. Feel free to comment with any additional design ideas that you believe Marlins fans would be interested in. Those submitted by our loyal SuperSubs will be prioritized.

Everywhere you look around Major League Baseball, you see former college position players excelling. MLB's top two hitters so far this season, Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh, were drafted out of Fresno State and Florida State, respectively. The 2025 All-Star Game MVP, Kyle Schwarber, is an Indiana University alum. Even the Miami Marlins' All-Star representative, Kyle Stowers, attended Stanford to further his academic career. Stowers, of course, was not drafted directly by the Marlins. On the heels of the franchise's first-ever all-college draft class, I was straining to come up with examples of Miami draftees out of four-year universities who developed into productive MLB regulars. Formal research confirmed that their track record has been awful in this area. The Marlins hit a home run with their first-ever amateur draft pick, selecting University of Miami catcher Charles Johnson in 1992. CJ was an elite defender and key cog on the 1997 World Series team who is still the Marlins' all-time leader in games caught. Their 1996 first-rounder, Cal State Fullerton's Mark Kotsay, accrued 20.5 fWAR across 17 MLB seasons, the vast majority of which came with other clubs. Very good players, but far from generational talents. Decades later, those two are still the most successful college bats to come through the Marlins organization. Josh Willingham (North Alabama, 2000) was a sweet find in the 17th round—never an All-Star, but he slashed .266/.361/.472 as a Marlin and amassed nearly 200 total home runs in the majors. They didn't recognize what they had in Mark Canha (Cal State Berkeley, 2010). Plucked from the Fish via the Rule 5 Draft more than a decade ago, Canha is still bouncing around as a defensively versatile steady source of on-base percentage. Brian Anderson (Arkansas, 2014) had a few above-average seasons before shoulder issues accelerated his decline. Everybody else from this demographic had—with all due respect—inconsequential careers. The Marlins' long-running problem has been whiffing on the "safest" and most expensive college bats. Since Johnson and Kotsay, the only other times they've gone back to this approach with their first-round pick were Colin Moran in 2013, JJ Bleday in 2019 and Jacob Berry in 2022. Those mistakes are debilitating for a franchise. This season, the Marlins have used 19 position players. The only one of them to be drafted out of college and developed by them is 2018 fourth-rounder Nick Fortes. He has value, but it's marginal. Unbothered by this history, the Marlins went with back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back college bats atop their 2025 draft class, headlined by Oregon State's Aiva Arquette. The Marlins are operating differently under president of baseball operations Peter Bendix and director of amateur scouting Frankie Piliere. Time will tell whether or not "different" is actually better.

Even after his challenge was deemed unsuccessful, Kyle Stowers was wearing a big smile, and that's what mattered most, right? He had just taken a called third strike on the epitome of a borderline pitch to end the bottom of the eighth inning, striking out for the second straight plate appearance in his MLB All-Star Game debut, but at least he was enjoying himself. Stowers belonged on that field among baseball's best players and he wasn't letting the results damper the final moments of the experience. Little did Stowers know, there was another chapter still to be written. The National League team blew its 6-4 lead and went down quietly in the ninth. In lieu of traditional extra innings, the Midsummer Classic would be decided via a "swing-off"—a mini home run derby featuring three participants from each roster. Representing the AL, Brent Rooker, Randy Arozarena and Jonathan Aranda. Representing the NL, Pete Alonso, Kyle Schwarber and Eugenio Suárez. Earlier in the night, Suárez was hit by a pitch on the left pinky. X-Rays came back negative, but out of caution, the NL's second-leading home run hitter was understandably scratched from the swing-off. That opened up a spot for Stowers, which happened to be the leadoff spot. After Rooker gave the AL a 2-0 advantage, Stowers stepped to the plate for his round, with NL third base coach Dino Ebel throwing the balls. Allotted three swings, Stowers popped up the first, snuck the second over Truist's brick wall in right-center field and popped up the third. Although the official box score won't credit him for it, he joined Gary Sheffield (1993) and Jeff Conine (1995) as the only Marlins to ever homer in an All-Star Game. j3usuk.mp4 The real hero of the swing-off was Schwarber, who went a perfect 3-for-3 to put the AL ahead. A homerless round from Aranda ended the contest before Alonso's services were required. Schwarber received All-Star Game MVP honors. Down on the farm, FCL Marlins won, 10-3, snapping the affiliate's nine-game losing streak. They drew a season-high 14 walks. Fenwick Trimble resurfaced to begin a rehab assignment nearly two months after suffering a hamstring strain. He went 1-for-4 and played seven innings in center field. Aiden May retired all six batters he faced as he continues stretching out as a starter following arthroscopic elbow surgery. Grant Shepardson threw five scoreless innings in relief of him. DSL Marlins won, 7-4. Luis Cova homered and stole two bases. Deivis Mosquera had a career-high 4 RBI. DSL Miami won, 8-3. Pedro Montero lowered his ERA to 1.37. Opponents are slugging .185 against Montero through six career starts. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Vote here on which Marlin (with the exception of Stowers) has the best shot of making the 2026 All-Star Game. 🔷 SuperSub Ron Cox assessed the state of the Marlins organization on his View From Left Field blog. 🔷 Another one of our SuperSubs, @Casey Marika, created these interactive charts illustrating how each Marlins position player has accumulated wins above replacement this season.

"You try to get the college bats early." The Miami Marlins didn't land any with their top three picks of the 2024 MLB Draft, but Frankie Piliere took a drastically different approach in his second year running the organization's amateur scouting operation. The Marlins selected six consecutive position players from power-conference schools to kick off their 2025 class. All 21 of their draftees came from the college ranks, with north of 90% of their bonus pool dollars projected to go to hitters. Such a distribution is totally unprecedented in Marlins history. And yet, Piliere attributes this outcome to "the coincidences of a draft board." Had the teams around them passed on desirable high school alternatives, the Marlins would have pivoted, he says. Most of Miami's 11 pitcher picks will come cheaply because of the control issues they exhibited as amateurs. Piliere believes that his colleagues in player development are well-equipped to unlock their potential: "We think we can do a lot of things with pitchers, especially with pitchers with big fastballs. If they have baseline things that we like, we think we can help build off of that." As news of player signing bonuses trickle in throughout the rest of this month, I will be updating this tracker. Without any preps who need to be bought out of their college commitments, there is a high likelihood of the Marlins signing every pick. Down on the farm, FCL Marlins lost, 5-0, despite brilliance from Juan De La Cruz (4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K). De La Cruz has struck out 41.0% of opposing batters since his latest demotion to the FCL to go along with a 1.25 ERA; it just hasn't translated to the Low-A level, where he has an underwhelming 18.8% strikeout rate over parts of three seasons. DSL Miami beat DSL Marlins, 5-3. Diego Godoy continues to have a great MiLB debut season, lowering his ERA to 2.04 with a fantastic ratio of 26 strikeouts to three walks. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Kyle Stowers was named National League Player of the Week again. He previously received the honor during the week of April 28. Cool nugget from Marlins Communications: the only other players in franchise history to win it multiple times in a single season were Miguel Cabrera (2007), José Fernández (2013) and Giancarlo Stanton (2017). 🔷 "Happy birthday, Rob Brantly! You've been designated for assignment." Ouch. That's the present Brantly received from the Marlins on Monday while celebrating his 36th b-day. It is the least surprising roster move of the season, to be fair. Brantly has been a glorified coach for the Fish dating back to spring training. He spent the past week playing rehab games with Triple-A Jacksonville, filling in for Futures Game selection Joe Mack and injured backup Brian Navarreto. This was the inevitable outcome once his playing services were no longer required at the AAA or MLB levels. Brantly will undoubtedly clear waivers and remain with the Marlins organization. 🔷 Stowers holds the top spot in the first edition of the official Marlins White Boy of the Year rankings, followed by Janson Junk, Lake Bachar, Karson Milbrandt and Stephen Strom of Marlins Radio. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, longtime Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg has reached an agreement in principle to sell the franchise for about $1.7 billion to a group led by Patrick Zalupski. The transaction could be completed as soon as September. Cal Raleigh became the first catcher to ever win MLB's Home Run Derby. He edged out Junior Caminero in the finals. Old friend Jazz Chisholm Jr. had by far the weakest showing among derby contestants, homering only three times. 🔷 Up next: the MLB All-Star Game at 8:00 p.m. ET. FOCO has unveiled its annual Marlins All-Star Bobbles on Parade bobblehead, which is now available to pre-order here. Marlins podcast episodes

For the first time in franchise history, the Miami Marlins began the MLB Draft with four consecutive college picks: Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette, Clemson outfielder Cam Cannarella, Arizona State outfielder Brandon Compton and Florida State outfielder Max Williams. The convenience of taking prospects who were everyday starters for power conference schools is we have a preponderance of data and video available to forecast with a high degree of confidence what their player profiles will be in the professional ranks. Forecasting whether or not they will be successful in the pros remains a crapshoot, however. I am in a good mood this morning, so I'd like to share 90th-percentile scenarios for the careers of the Day 1 picks. Taking into account their tools, size, handedness and position, I see similarities to the following big leaguers: Arquette = Kris Bryant Cannarella = Nyjer Morgan Compton = Jason Kubel Williams = Tyler Naquin Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 7-2. Jakob Marsee reached base safely four times, but none of his teammates could drive him in. Double-A Pensacola lost, 4-1. Kemp Alderman sat out the entire week, but Fish On First farm director Alex Carver reports that the unspecified issue "isn't serious." High-A Beloit won, 8-3. Big day offensively for Connor Caskenette (3-4, 2 RBI, 2 SB). Five more stolen bases for the Sky Carp, who continue to pace the entire minor leagues this season with 228 as a team. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 I'm very grateful for the massive live viewership that our annual draft countdown/reaction show received (embedded at the bottom page). Alex Carver hosted a Twitter Space here after that where we analyzed the Cannarella, Compton and Williams picks. 🔷 Connor Norby (left wrist inflammation) landed on the 10-day injured list. Per manager Clayton McCullough, he is scheduled to see a specialist in Arizona to determine next steps. Just from my experience, that suggests to me an absence far longer than the 10-day minimum regardless of what feedback Norby receives. Graham Pauley will serve as the club's primary third baseman in the meantime against right-handed pitching with Javier Sanoja as his platoon partner. 🔷 On the other hand, Edward Cabrera (right posterior elbow discomfort) dodged a bullet. McCullough believes he will be ready to go on the other side of the All-Star break with no IL stint needed. Assuming Cabrera doesn't start the very first game out of the break, the precious trade chip is lined up to make only two more starts prior to the July 31 deadline. 🔷 The Marlins matched their largest margin of victory of the season on Sunday, with Kyle Stowers (5-5, 3 HR, 6 RBI) driving in the majority of those runs himself. He broke the all-time franchise record for most total bases in a single game. Stowers bumped up his wRC+ to 151, which ranks 12th among all qualified MLB hitters this season. It's on pace to be the sixth-highest mark for any qualified season in Marlins history. 🔷 If not for Stowers, Eury Pérez would have gotten more attention for shoving seven scoreless innings, a career-long outing for him. He leaned on his fastball 64% of the time—the O's knew it was coming and it didn't matter. The combined line over his last three starts: 18.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 21 K. Pérez looks every bit as special as he did during the first half of his rookie season, and that shouldn't be taken for granted. 🔷 The Prediction Time leaderboard has been updated through the first 31 series. Become a SuperSub and we'll keep track of your predictions all season long! 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Boston Red Sox have won 10 games in a row, while the Milwaukee Brewers are riding a seven-game streak. The Detroit Tigers head into the break with an MLB-best 59-38 record despite just being swept at home by the Seattle Mariners. 🔷 Day 2 of the draft gets underway at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Marlins are on the clock next with the 108th overall pick. They will be selecting 17 total players throughout the day (one each in Rounds 4-20). I'll be adding their bios and scouting reports to this page. Marlins podcast episodes

The Miami Marlins will begin assembling their 2025 MLB Draft class on Sunday night with the seventh overall pick ($7,149,900 slot value). Here is an aggregation of what draft insiders are predicting them to do in their latest mock drafts. Some of the mocks also include the club's Competitive Balance Round A pick (43rd overall) and second-rounder (46th overall). Carlos Collazo of Baseball America No. 7 pick: Ike Irish "Irish to the Marlins was another popular link in the last 48 hours or so. It sounds like he has a chance to go even higher than this, but Miami is the team I’ve heard on him the most. The Marlins have been tough to pin down because like many of the next few teams on the board, they’ve largely been tied to all of the top players available...Other Names We're Hearing: Eli Willits, Aiva Arquette, Billy Carlson, JoJo Parker." No. 43 pick: Charles Davalan "I’m tempted to tie the Marlins to one of the many prep shortstops I’ve heard them linked to, but Davalan could also be a good fit for them and might be more likely to come off the board sooner." Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline No. 7 pick: Billy Carlson "We’ve written repeatedly how much the Marlins like Willits, but with him gone, Carlson could be the top target, though they also are looking at Parker. This could be another landing spot for Irish, and Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill’s name has been mentioned. Arnold is the main arm brought up in this spot." No. 43 pick: Mason Neville Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline No. 7 pick: Aiva Arquette "The Marlins are hunting for hitters: Arquette and Irish from the college ranks, and Willits and Parker from the high school crop. If they somehow all go in the top six, Carlson would be the fallback." No. 43 pick: Charles Davalan Kiley McDaniel of ESPN No. 7 pick: JoJo Parker "I think this will come down to Parker, Irish, and Billy Carlson—and I think Parker has the edge." Keith Law of The Athletic No. 7 pick: Billy Carlson "The Marlins are one of the only teams in the top 10 I’ve heard primarily on high schoolers all spring, mostly the shortstop group with Eli Willits, Carlson and JoJo Parker, along with right-hander Seth Hernandez." Tyler Jennings and Jared Perkins of Just Baseball No. 7 pick: Billy Carlson "The buzz surrounding the Marlins is leaning heavily into the prep side, which certainly fits their approach. With Willits off the board, it comes down to Billy Carlson and JoJo Parker, with Carlson seeming more likely than Parker. "I wouldn’t discount Carlson’s high school teammate, Hernandez, either."