Ely Sussman

Two months removed from his introductory press conference, Clayton McCullough finally has his coaching staff in place. On Friday, the Miami Marlins announced Clayton McCullough's 12-man major league coaching staff for the 2025 season. It's mostly comprised of names that had already been reported, newcomers to the Marlins organization and individuals who are even younger than McCullough is. By MLB standards, they have assembled a very unconventional and inexperienced group. Will it work? Starting off with bench coach, Carson Vitale lands in Miami after spending the previous seven seasons with the Seattle Mariners. Vitale finished up his Mariners tenure as their field coordinator. He's replacing former Marlins bench coach Luis Urueta, who now holds the same title with the Texas Rangers. Daniel Moskos will attempt to fill the shoes of Mel Stottlemyre Jr., one of the longest-tenured pitching coaches in Marlins history. Moskos used to be the Chicago Cubs assistant pitching coach. As far as I know, Stottlemyre hasn't latched on with another MLB organization yet. Alon Leichman is the new assistant pitching coach, which is a position that did not exist on Skip Schumaker's staff. He's also now the assistant director of pitching, reporting to Bill Hezel. Not to be confused with the longtime big leaguer of the same name, hitting coach Pedro Guerrero comes here after serving as assistant hitting coach of the San Francisco Giants. Derek Shomon will be his assistant. In 2024, John Mabry was the club's hitting coach, flanked by assistants Bill Mueller and Jason Hart. Former Minnesota Twins organizational coach Tyler Smarslok takes over the duties that previously belonged to Jon Jay and Jody Reed. He'll be coaching first base, infield defense and baserunning. It is a low bar to clear, but new third base coach Blake Lalli has the most MLB games (32) and seasons played (three) of anybody on McCullough's staff. Lalli has five seasons of minor league managerial experience, including three in charge of the Arizona Diamondbacks' Triple-A affiliate. His predecessor was Griffin Benedict. Bullpen coach Brandon Mann is the lone holdover from the 2024 Marlins. He was their pitching strategist last season. The old bullpen coach was Wellington Cepeda. The baby of the staff is 27-year-old Joe Singley. He will double as catching coach and bullpen catcher while assisting director of catching Maxx Garrett. The last Marlins field coordinator was Rod Barajas, who played 1,114 games in the majors. His replacement, Aaron Leanhardt, comes from a completely different background, having studied electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, earned a PhD in physics and returned to his alma mater to become a professor, only to make a drastic pivot to baseball. He worked as a major league analyst for the New York Yankees in 2024. Finally, Bryson Nakamura has been hired as the franchise's first performance & data integration strategist. He comes from the college baseball ranks where he was director & head sports scientist at Stanford Baseball Science Core. With the exception Shomon, all of these coaches are trying something new, having been promoted from the positions they held on other major league staffs, making the leap from the minors/college or taking on a different set of job responsibilities. Any way you slice it, they cumulatively have not been around the game as long as typical MLB coaches. That does not necessarily mean they're unqualified, but they won't have quite as much credibility on day one in the eyes of most players, media and fans. Not directly part of the coaching staff, it's worth mentioning that L.J. Petra is Miami's new head athletic trainer and Austin Lamkey has been retained as video coordinator. Vitale, Guerrero and Moskos were each guests on the Marlins Hot Stove Show over the last month. Those extended interviews are embedded below. View full article

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder and South Florida native Nick Castellanos (who grew up a Marlins fan himself) discussed the state of the Fish on The Chris Rose Rotation. View full video

The similarities are there. I specifically wonder about whether Andrew will face the same limitation when it comes to game power. That being said, Andrew's defense is meaningfully better than Jose's at the same age. I'd be surprised if he doesn't at least get a cup of coffee in the majors someday.

That's because Puerto Rican players are eligible for the draft! They used to be treated as international players, but that changed a few decades ago.

Shortly after finalizing their 2025 international signing class, the Miami Marlins traded away a chunk of their leftover bonus pool money to acquire right-handed reliever William Kempner from the San Francisco Giants. Marc Delucchi reports that it's $250,000. A third-round draft pick of the Giants in 2022, Kempner has been used mainly as a reliever in pro ball. Across four different minor league levels (primarily Low-A and High-A), he has posted a 3.89 ERA, 4.52 FIP and .227 BAA in 71 ⅔ career innings pitched. His 2024 campaign was wiped out by foot surgery, but he resurfaced with four appearances (3.2 IP) in the Arizona Fall League. Kempner operates from a very low, practically sidearm release point. His arsenal includes a mid-90s fastball and low-80s sweeper. Several of the sweepers he threw in the AFL registered spin rates north of 2,900 RPM, which would be elite even by MLB standards. kw1hoh_1.mp4 Kempner is not yet on the 40-man roster. He will be Rule 5 Draft-eligible following the 2025 season. He's most likely to begin the year in Double-A Pensacola's bullpen. Between their initial 17 signings and this trade, the Marlins have used up more than 92% of their bonus pool for the current international signing period.

Introducing all of the players who inked deals with the Marlins on January 15. Wednesday marked the start of a new signing period for international amateur free agents. The Miami Marlins have an 11-month window to allocate their $7,555,500 bonus pool, but almost all of that money has been spent on the very first day. Here's what we know so far about the prospects they just added from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Mexico. This is the first Marlins signing class being overseen by David Hernandez Beayne. Hernandez Beayne, who's been with the organization since 2019, was promoted to director of international scouting last fall. The bonuses for these initial 17 signings total $6,745,000, sources tell Fish On First. Deals of $10,000 or less do not count toward the club's bonus pool, so $6,735,000 of their bonus pool was used on them. However, the Marlins also traded away $250,000 in bonus pool money on Wednesday afternoon to acquire RHP William Kempner from the San Francisco Giants—that leaves them with only $570,500 remaining. FOF can confirm reporting by Francys Romero that Cuban RHP Adriano Marrero is expected to sign in the near future, so there won't be much wiggle room to make further additions to this class. Players born between September 1, 2007 and August 31, 2008 are newly eligible to sign and the majority of the Marlins' additions are in that age range. Name Country Signing Bonus Anthony Abreu Dominican Republic $550,000 Luis Arana Venezuela $30,000 Edelson Canelon Venezuela $200,000 Keyner Cedeño Venezuela $50,000 Kevin Defrank Dominican Republic $560,000 Diego Godoy Venezuela $10,000 Steven Herrera Dominican Republic $125,000 Santiago Linares Venezuela $170,000 Johan Machado Venezuela $330,000 Diego Martínez Venezuela $200,000 Pedro Montero Dominican Republic $35,000 Moises Morales Mexico $35,000 Adrian Peña Dominican Republic $400,000 Jesús Pérez Venezuela $50,000 Sandy Presbot Dominican Republic $70,000 Isaac Prince Dominican Republic $230,000 Andrew Salas Venezuela $3,700,000 INF/OF Andrew Salas (Venezuela) Born: 3/4/08 | B/T: S/R | Ht/Wt: 6'2"/180 Salas was born in Florida and spent his early childhood there before the family moved to Venezuela. He is an above-average, fundamentally sound defender at both center field and shortstop. He has good plate discipline and hits to all fields, though the 16-year-old hasn't demonstrated much game power yet. Last summer, Salas played 33 games against grown men in Venezuela's Liga Mayor de Béisbol Profesional. The league listed him at 6'0", 160 pounds, but he's now up to 6'2", 180 pounds. Salas' eldest brother, José, was the headliner of the 2019-20 Marlins signing class ($2.8 million bonus). Now with the Minnesota Twins org, his career has stalled at the High-A level. The Marlins hope Andrew's superior defense and overall athleticism will give a higher floor. RHP Kevin Defrank (Dominican Republic) Born: 8/11/08 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'5"/202 fukx71_1.mp4 The top pitcher of this Marlins signing class, Defrank pairs a mid-90s fastball with a nasty changeup. The 6'5" right-hander just turned 16 in August, which will make him one of the youngest players to sign with any MLB team during the 2025 IFA period. INF Anthony Abreu (Dominican Republic) Born: 1/8/08 | B/T: L/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/180 Likely a third baseman long term, Abreu garners praise for his pitch recognition. He arguably has the highest offensive upside of this signing class. RHP Adrian Peña (Dominican Republic) Born: 5/2/08 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'7"/194 From David Hernandez Beayne: "A guy who just has elite size, still very projectable, very athletic and coordinated. He's already been up to 94 miles per hour for us with an absolute plus breaking ball that he spins up to 2,700-2,800 [RPM]. Just in terms of understanding his development timeline, his age and where he needs to get to, we think he has one of the highest upsides of any player in this class...Might take some time because it's always difficult for those bigger guys to be able to coordinate their bodies and get that functional strength needed to be able to repeat consistently, but we feel very excited about his potential and what he can become." INF Johan Machado (Venezuela) Born: 11/7/07 | B/T: S/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/140 ihslv6_1.mp4 The wiry Machado has all of the ingredients to stick at shortstop, but will need to develop a lot physically. Like Andrew Salas, Machado got his first taste of pro ball in 2024 with Liga Mayor de Béisbol Profesional, appearing in 12 games (mostly off the bench). RHP Isaac Prince (Dominican Republic) Born: 9/20/07 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/175 RHP Edelson Canelon (Venezuela) Born: 10/28/07 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'4"/165 C Diego Martínez (Venezuela) Born: 12/29/07 | B/T: L/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/198 RHP Santiago Linares (Venezuela) Born: 12/8/07 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/187 INF Steven Herrera (Dominican Republic) Born: 2/21/08 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'0"/160 From David Hernandez Beayne: "We don't know if he's going to be able to stick at shortstop; we do know that he's gonna be able to play all over the field...All the tests that we did amongst all our players, he's number one in raw explosiveness, bat speed, power...If it all clicks for him, he's one of the guys that we picked internally as our dark horse to be somebody that can become impactful." INF Sandy Presbot (Dominican Republic) Born: 10/20/07 | B/T: S/R | Ht/Wt: 5'7"/160 LHP Keyner Cedeño (Venezuela) Born: 9/13/07 | B/T: L/L | Ht/Wt: 6'0"/180 OF Jesús Pérez (Venezuela) Born: 3/12/08 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 5'11"/174 RHP Pedro Montero (Dominican Republic) Born: 7/11/07 | B/T: R/R | Ht/Wt: 6'1"/144 C Moises Morales (Mexico) Born: 5/2/08 | B/T: L/R | Ht/Wt: 6'0"/172 zk1by2_1.mp4 INF Luis Arana (Venezuela) Born: 3/19/08 | B/T: S/R | Ht/Wt: 5'10"/154 LHP Diego Godoy (Venezuela) Born: 11/29/04 | B/T: L/L | Ht/Wt: 6'0"/165 View full article

The O's have missed Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby more than they expected while getting nothing from the former All-Star Rogers. After going out meekly during the 2024 playoffs, they've been MLB's been disappointing team so far this year. Peter Bendix has crammed a lot of transactions into his brief tenure as Miami Marlins president of baseball operations, including six moves on the day of the 2024 MLB trade deadline. None of them were as popular among Marlins fans in the moment as the deal sending left-hander Trevor Rogers to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for infielder Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers. It doesn't take an industry insider to see a robbery in broad daylight. Squint very hard and you can see the Orioles' vision (sort of). They had to try something at the deadline to bolster their perpetually shaky starting rotation. The defending American League East division champions were clinging to a half-game lead over the New York Yankees, but the market was thin on starters who had multiple years of club control remaining. They settled for Rogers and had a plan for maximizing his potential after several seasons of injuries and mediocrity. And the O's were justified in viewing Norby and Stowers as expendable assets. They already had bigger and better versions of them in Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad. Both Mayo and Kjerstad were consensus top-50 MLB prospects entering the 2024 season and had been performing as such with Triple-A Norfolk, each with an OPS in the high .900s at the time of the deal. Rogers had posted a 4.53 ERA, 4.43 FIP and .276 BAA for the Marlins that season, averaging five innings per start. He couldn't even reach that level in Baltimore (7.11 ERA, 5.01 FIP and .338 BAA with 4.75 IP/GS), striking out fewer batters than any other comparable stretch of his career. The Orioles optioned him to Triple-A after only four outings and did not recall him the rest of the year. They finished three games behind the Yankees and got knocked out in the opening round of the postseason, swept by the visiting Kansas City Royals in the AL Wild Card Series. As disappointing as that was, Rogers' contractual situation still gave the Orioles hope of salvaging the trade entering 2025. The 27-year-old settled for a modest $2.6 million to avoid arbitration and had a full winter to put the club's fresh ideas into practice. It turns out he made it only most of the way through the winter before suffering a right knee dislocation. Rogers was behind schedule this spring and had to be placed on the injured list. He began a minor league rehab assignment on April 23. His first four starts on the farm looked a lot like his last four big league starts of 2024, so they formally optioned him again on May 11. An Orioles pitching staff with a 5.52 ERA (ranked 29th in MLB) does not view this version of Rogers as a clear reinforcement? Yikes. Regardless, the Orioles' ultra-talented lineup would be productive enough to keep them in contention this season, right? Not even close, as it turns out. All-Star third baseman Jordan Westburg regressed and suffered a left hamstring strain in late April. There is no timeline for his return following a recent setback. His understudy, Coby Mayo, was called up, only to be jettisoned back to Norfolk less than a week later. In 21 career MLB games dating back to the Rogers trade, Mayo has an inconceivably bad .094/.186/.094 slash line with strikeouts in nearly half of his plate appearances. Meanwhile, manning the same position, Norby has been a league-average bat with his new team. The O's also figured that the corner outfield spots were accounted for. They already had Kjerstad and 2024 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Colton Cowser. Moreover, their largest position player expenditure of the offseason was inking Tyler O'Neill to a three-year, $49.5 million free agent contract. Kjerstad, Cowser and O'Neill have combined to hit .195 with seven home runs. All by himself, Stowers is hitting .305 with 10 homers. Stowers' 1.3 fWAR in 2025 easily clears anybody on Baltimore's roster. 886a8e41-bf144095-5db4725e-csvm-diamondgcp-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Despite spending more than twice as much on their payroll this season as the Marlins, the Orioles' record is three games worse. They have just fired manager Brandon Hyde for shortcomings that were very clearly beyond his control. The front office could have capitalized on the prospect hype surrounding Mayo or Kjerstad (or both) to trade for a true top-of-the-rotation starter, rather than a reclamation project like Rogers. Jesús Luzardo's value was dinged coming off an injury-riddled 2024 campaign—the O's easily had enough ammunition to outbid the Philadelphia Phillies, but didn't. The silver lining for Orioles GM Mike Elias is his team has cratered so badly, they are in contention for one of the top picks in the 2026 MLB Draft. Elias has consistently turned early-round picks into quality big leaguers, even if the process takes awhile as it did for Stowers. However, if next season's results are anything like what we're currently witnessing, he won't remain employed long enough to oversee the development of that draft class. View full article

Today's news roundup also includes franchise valuations from Forbes and tons of season preview material. It's Opening Day for the Miami Marlins! Do you realize that the last time the Marlins won a season opener with fans in the stands, Jeff Baker was starting at second base? Yeah, it's been a minute. The Marlins have lost on Opening Day in nine of their past 10 opportunities. The only exception was their visit to Philadelphia in 2020 amidst a pandemic. They will be looking to buck that trend this afternoon at loanDepot park. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Poor Seth Martinez finds himself in DFA limbo again. The Marlins acquired right-hander Tyler Phillips from the Phillies for cash considerations to take Martinez's spot on their roster. Phillips has consistently been used as a starter during his professional career, but he likely slots in as the club's mop-up guy for the time being. 🔷 We have learned that Graham Pauley, Anthony Veneziano and Javier Sanoja are each making the club. Sanoja, 22, is the youngest player to be on a Marlins Opening Day roster since José Fernández and Christian Yelich in 2014. 🔷 By my best estimation, 17 of the 26 projected members of Miami's initial active roster will be experiencing their first Opening Day as big leaguers. Once the roster is finalized later today, I'll have a separate article about that. 🔷 Alex Krutchik explores which key factors will determine whether or not the Marlins exceed expectations this season. 🔷 The Good Phight asked for my thoughts on the 2025 Marlins as part of their NL East preview. 🔷 Isaac Azout has the specifics on how the new Norwegian Cruise Line Home Run Harbor will work: 🔷 Longtime Marlins television analyst Tommy Hutton will be sidelined for the first homestand due to an upper respiratory illness, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. Rod Allen will call those games instead alongside Kyle Sielaff. FanDuel Sports Network Florida confirmed in a press release on Wednesday that they are scheduled to produce and broadcast all 162 of the club's regular season games. 🔷 The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp showed off the renovations they've made to Vystar Ballpark. Longtime Jumbo Shrimp player Troy Johnston said on the Turn 2 podcast that he's satisfied with the new batter's eye. 🔷 Prior to the 2024 season, Jazz Chisholm Jr. vented about how isolated and unhappy he felt in the Marlins clubhouse earlier in his MLB career, in part because he wasn't embraced by veteran team leader Miguel Rojas. Chisholm elaborated further in a new feature from Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Forbes published its annual list of MLB franchises ranked by total value. The Marlins again ranked dead last ($1.05 billion). 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Sandy Alcantara) are hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates (RHP Paul Skenes). The Marlins have a 45.8% chance to win, according to FanGraphs. First pitch at 4:10 p.m. (ceremonial first pitch by Dan Marino at approximately 3:45 p.m.). 🔷 Prior to the game, Fish On First LIVE will preview the series beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Our series preview streams include lots of analysis and laughs plus live reporting from the ballpark. FOF LIVE is presented by About The Fans. Check out our new merchandise collection (coupon code fof10 for 10% off). Marlins podcast episodes View full article

On Tuesday, March 25, right in between their 2025 Grapefruit League finale and Opening Day, the Miami Marlins will face the New York Yankees in an exhibition game at loanDepot park, Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reports. Marlins Members and partners have access to a ticket presale beginning on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. ET, while the general public has to wait until a later date for access. The Yankees make their spring training home in Tampa and have previously participated in exhibitions like this before returning north. In 2023, for example, they played at Nationals Park on the same Tuesday leading into the start of the regular season. Fish On First's Isaac Azout also recalls that the Yankees played at newly opened Marlins Park on April 1, 2012. It will be the Yankees' first appearance in Miami since August 11-13, 2023. Those three games drew a total attendance of 100,001, setting a single-series record for the stadium. This exhibition will be managed exactly like a spring training game, to be clear. Starters will be removed midway through and you'll be seeing heavy involvement from players who aren't even going to be on the Opening Day active rosters. Perhaps the most intriguing angle is Jazz Chisholm Jr. will be making his return to loanDepot park for the first time since being traded last summer. The regular season matchup between these teams will be August 1-3.

The most coveted international amateur free agent since Shohei Ohtani, Sasaki is reportedly deciding between the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays. You will likely have an opportunity to watch Japanese fire-baller Roki Sasaki pitch at loanDepot park this season, but he'll be doing so as a Marlins opponent. Several reporters, including ESPN's Jeff Passan, have identified the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and (somewhat surprisingly) Toronto Blue Jays as finalists to sign the 23-year-old right-hander. Sasaki's deadline to finalize a deal is a week from Thursday. As detailed way back in November, Sasaki is the rare major league-ready, All-Star-caliber free agent that the Marlins could have actually afforded. Due to his age, Major League Baseball classifies him as an international amateur, limiting his earnings to what teams have available in their 2025 international bonus pools. The Marlins have $7,555,500 in their pool, tied for the largest among all MLB teams during the signing period that officially opens on Wednesday. Alas, there is no indication that they had the recruiting appeal to even get a meeting with him during this process. Sasaki pitched in Miami during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, representing his native Japan (the eventual tournament champions). The Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays each visit loanDepot park for a series in 2025 during May, July and August, respectively. The vast majority of the Marlins' bonus pool has instead been committed to a more traditional sort of international free agent: projectable teenagers from Latin America. They're expected to announce more than a dozen signings on Wednesday, including Venezuelan outfielder/infielder Andrew Salas ($3.7 million bonus), Dominican right-hander Kevin Defrank ($560,000) and Dominican infielder Anthony Abreu ($550,000). Fish On First will be bringing you detailed coverage of those additions to the organization. View full article

Sielaff is switching mediums in 2025 after previously handling the club's radio play-by-play. The Miami Marlins and FanDuel Sports Network Florida concluded their search for Paul Severino's replacement on Friday by staying in house, naming Kyle Sielaff as lead play-by-play announcer for local television broadcasts in 2025. Sielaff has spent the vast majority of his broadcasting career with the Fish. Originally from Trumansburg, NY, he is a University of Miami alum and has been involved with the Marlins Radio Network in various roles since 2013, handling regular play-by-play duties in 2023 and 2024. He has worked on a variety of video projects during his Marlins tenure, so the on-camera aspect of this shouldn't be an issue. Despite being relatively young for the TV gig at 34 years old, his familiarity with this franchise's unique history and the fanbase is a definite plus. Sielaff is the seventh lead television play-by-play announcer in Marlins history, following in the footsteps of Jay Randolph, Joe Angel, Dave O'Brien, Len Kasper, Rich Waltz and Severino. Longtime color commentator Tommy Hutton, who has worked alongside all of them during his career with the exception of Randolph, tweeted his congratulations. Hutton and Rod Allen are among the rotating group of analysts who will share the booth with Sielaff this season. As of last week, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that Craig Minervini was one of the candidates "being given serious consideration" for the position. Minervini has been a versatile part of Marlins TV broadcasts for many years as a studio host, reporter and Severino's play-by-play backup. Baltimore Orioles announcer Geoff Arnold was also "very much in the mix." I have listened to dozens of Minervini's game broadcasts (a combination of Marlins and last year's Caribbean Series). Completely unfamiliar with Arnold prior to Jackson's report, I closely analyzed several games that he called on MASN in 2024. This is all very subjective, but if those were the realistic alternatives to Sielaff, I believe the Marlins got the decision right. Back in October, the Marlins' television partner rebranded from Bally Sports to FanDuel Sports Network, but the broadcasts will still be available in all of the same places. The network hasn't announced details about spring training coverage yet. It is safe to assume that Sielaff will be on the call for at least one Grapefruit League game so he isn't drinking out of a fire hose on Opening Day. View full article

Today's news roundup also includes another international free agent being linked to the Marlins and an updated look at renovations to the club's spring training facility. Marlins Opening Day is 73 days away. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 RHP Adriano Marrero is expected to be the first Cuban player included in the Marlins' 2025 international signing class, Francys Romero reports. The 17-year-old has generated interest with the high spin rate of his pitches. His fastball velocity currently sits in the low 90s. Marrero previously had a verbal agreement with the Astros that fell through. If a deal gets done, this would be the fourth time in the last five signing periods that the Marlins have acquired Cuban talent. A reminder that the new signing period gets underway on Wednesday! 🔷 Troy Johnston is slashing .289/.357/.500 during the Dominican Winter League Round Robin, including a .469 OBP during his current seven-game on-base streak. His Tigres del Licey team has LIDOM's best record so far in the Round Robin as they pursue a third consecutive league championship. 🔷 Xavier Edwards reflected on his seventh annual youth baseball camp with MLB.com's Christina De Nicola. This offseason, Edwards says his arm is the "best it's felt in years" after following a throwing program created by Marlins director of catching Maxx Garrett. He has changed his grip and release and practiced using it four to five days a week. In 2024, Edwards ranked 49th in arm strength velocity out of 52 MLB shortstops who made at least 100 throws, and accuracy was an issue as well. He'll have to demonstrate improvement in that department this season to solidify himself as the team's primary shortstop. 🔷 Miami's new hitting coach, Pedro Guerrero, explained on the Marlins Hot Stove Show how he wants to leverage technology to help players distinguish balls from strikes. The Marlins posted the highest (worst) chase rate in the majors last year. 🔷 Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium held its annual Fan Fest on Saturday. Ethan Eibe updated the progress of their renovations, including the patch of foul territory where the Marlins bullpen used to be (it's being moved behind the outfield wall). 🔷 The Marlins are currently accepting applications for 25 positions, including those related to analytics, ticket sales and player education. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, old friend Garrett Cooper signed a minor league deal with the Braves. In the last 18 months, Coop has cycled through six different MLB organizations (the Marlins, Padres, Cubs, Red Sox, Orioles and now Atlanta). Marlins podcast episodes View full article

New Marlins hitting coach Pedro Guerrero explains to the Marlins Hot Stove Show how he plans to leverage technology to get the most out of his players. View full video

After taking three players to arbitration hearings in 2024, negotiations went much smoother for the Marlins this time around. The Miami Marlins entered Thursday with one of their smallest and cheapest classes of arbitration-eligible players in recent memory. Numerous trades made over the past year left them with only five players under club control who have enough MLB service time to qualify and weren't already under contract: Anthony Bender, Edward Cabrera, Nick Fortes, Braxton Garrett and Jesús Sánchez. The Marlins announced that all five of them have reached settlements on their 2025 salaries, totaling $11.26 million, according to the Associated Press. This is the first time since 2021 that Miami has successfully avoided arbitration hearings. Anthony Bender Second year of arbitration eligibility (three years and 153 days of MLB service time) Made $770,000 in 2024 Settled at $1.42 million for 2025 (had been projected for $1.4 million, per MLB Trade Rumors) Under club control through 2027 Edward Cabrera First year of arbitration eligibility (2.147) Made $761,000 in 2024 Settled at $1.95 million for 2025 (projected for $2.2 million) Under club control through 2028 Nick Fortes First year of arbitration eligibility (2.149) Made $759,000 in 2024 Settled at $1.86 million for 2025 (projected for $1.6 million) Under club control through 2028 Braxton Garrett First year of arbitration eligibility (2.168) Made $764,000 in 2024 Settled at $1.53 million for 2025 (projected for $1.8 million) Under club control through 2028 Jesús Sánchez Second year of arbitration eligibility (3.118) Made $2.1 million in 2024 Settled at $4.5 million for 2025 (projected for $3.2 million) Under club control through 2027 Old friends View full article

The way this offseason has played out suggests to me that they aren't sweating about the threat of a greivance. Maybe they feel confident in justifying the dollars they've spent off the field. More likely, they're betting that a potential greivance will simply be dropped during the next round of CBA negotiations, which are less than two years away.

I would call it probable rather than a guarantee. Max was lousy in every aspect during the second half of the season. He has to arrive at camp showing some sort of improvement, whether it's his command, fastball velo or changeup consistency (hopefully all of those things), otherwise the results aren't going to be much better. I have faith in him, but he'll still have to earn it.

I had completely forgotten about Stripling. Very weird 2024 for him, allowing a ton of hits but hardly any homers. He has never come close to completing a full season as a starter. At least he'd be cheap!