Ely Sussman

Maybe! But I remember a similar sentiment going the other way at this time a year ago. Got swept by a seemingly inferior Pirates team to begin the season, then had a very favorable matchup vs. the Angels after that to "get right." I could see a scenario where the non-Sotos in the Mets lineup are stuck in an uncharacteristic slump for a bit longer, regardless of who they're facing.

Player stats from the first weekend of Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp baseball. They're off today and begin their first full-length series tomorrow.

Today's news roundup also includes the first in-season Marlins roster maneuvers. This year's NCAA men's basketball tournament has been as chalky as any in recent memory, with the Final Four being comprised of the No. 1 seeds from each region. How lame! Inexplicable hot streaks make sports much more compelling. At least in Major League Baseball, we're witnessing one of those "Cinderella" runs from the Miami Marlins. Widely projected to be non-competitive in 2025 (even before getting inundated by injuries in spring training), the Marlins are 3-1. Each of their victories have come in walk-off fashion, the latest being on a wild pitch. A bullpen built primarily with former waiver claims was terrific against the Pittsburgh Pirates, helped by a handful of highlights from the outfield defense. It is Miami's best five-game start to a season since 2020. Will there be one more unlikely win tonight before April begins, or could this continue even after the calendar flips? More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 The Marlins now have nine players on the major league injured list. Jesús Tinoco suffered a left low back strain. Right-hander Luarbert Arias was recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville in a corresponding move. One of my 2025 Call-Up Contest picks, Arias will likely make his MLB debut during the upcoming series whenever a low-leverage situation presents itself (there weren't many of those against the Pirates). 🔷 Another fresh arm, Xzavion Curry, joined the pitching staff on Sunday at the expense of Valente Bellozo. Barring injury to another Marlins pitcher, Bellozo won't be eligible to be brought back up to the majors until April 14. 🔷 Seth Martinez cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, so he'll stick around the organization as bullpen depth. 🔷 The Marlins released 14 prospects to comply with Major League Baseball's roster limits. I was most surprised to see outfielder Jake DeLeo on the list—he was their sixth-round draft pick in 2023. Also in minor league news, former Marlins Top 30 prospect José Gerardo is being converted from an outfielder to a pitcher. Gerardo always had terrific raw power, but he struck out in 38.9% of his career plate appearances in rookie ball. 🔷 I was one of the few people who collected points during the first Prediction Time of the 2025 season. Understandably, there was widespread pessimism considering how the Marlins stumbled out of the starting gate last year. 🔷 Prep right-hander Seth Hernandez is next up in Hector Rodriguez's series of 2025 MLB Draft prospect profiles. 🔷 If David Weathers hadn't suffered an injury on a bunt attempt, Mike Ferguson wonders whether he would have completed the first no-hitter in Marlins history. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals remain undefeated. The Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins—all of whom finished above .500 in 2024—are winless. The Yankees tied an all-time major league record by homering 15 times in their first three games. Several of their players have been utilizing customized bats that current Marlins field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt helped create during his tenure with the club. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Cal Quantrill) host the New York Mets (LHP David Peterson). With this being the third straight lefty that the Marlins are facing, it will be a test of how strict the new coaching staff is about platooning. They have a 39.0% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 6:40 p.m. 🔷 Join us for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE from 5:30-6:30 p.m. streaming on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. 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

Jeff Conine addresses the crowd in Miami during his Marlins Legends Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The HOF's class of 2025 is comprised of Conine, Luis Castillo, Jim Leyland and Jack McKeon. View full video

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. These notes apply to the fourth and final game of Miami's home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting Lineup SS Xavier Edwards (S) 2B Otto Lopez CF Dane Myers 1B Eric Wagaman 3B Jonah Bride DH Derek Hill C Nick Fortes RF Griffin Conine (L) LF Javier Sanoja P Max Meyer 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. These notes apply to the third game of Miami's home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting Lineup SS Xavier Edwards (S) 2B Otto Lopez 3B Jonah Bride 1B Eric Wagaman RF Dane Myers CF Derek Hill DH Kyle Stowers (L) C Nick Fortes LF Javier Sanoja P Valente Bellozo 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. These notes apply to the second game of Miami's home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting Lineup SS Xavier Edwards (S) LF Kyle Stowers (L) DH Jonah Bride 1B Matt Mervis (L) 2B Otto Lopez RF Griffin Conine (L) C Liam Hicks (L) CF Derek Hill 3B Graham Pauley (L) P Connor Gillispie View full article

Deeply appreciate the support!

Worked a lot of deep counts! They struggled in that department last season.

Nearly a month into Triple-A Jacksonville's regular season, De Los Santos has gone deep only once. However, he's still been an effective offensive player overall. The man who led Minor League Baseball in home runs last season is currently tied for seventh on his own team in that category. It has been a weird start to the 2025 season for Deyvison De Los Santos, though not necessarily a bad one. De Los Santos was homerless in 17 consecutive games to begin the season. That was the second-longest home run drought of his minor league career, trailing only a 33-gamer in 2021 when he was a teenager making the leap from rookie ball to Low-A. He snapped out of it on April 19, and even that one barely eluded the grasp of the opposing outfielder. Entering play on Friday, however, Fish On First's seventh-ranked prospect is getting on base at a substantially higher rate than he did when facing Triple-A pitching last year. Accounting for the ultra-hitting-friendly conditions that juiced his numbers during a stint in the Pacific Coast League, De Los Santos is actually a better offensive player in his current form. De Los Santos at AAA in 2024 (99 G): .264/.311/.523, 26 HR, 0 SB, 102 wRC+ De Los Santos at AAA in 2025 (22 G): .305/.363/.416, 1 HR, 3 SB, 118 wRC+ The quality of contact that De Los Santos has been making is still excellent. His 56.4% hard-hit rate is good for 17th out of the 264 players who have at least 50 plate appearances at Triple-A, according to Baseball Savant. He is virtually tied with newly promoted Athletics top prospect Nick Kurtz in that category. Elevating the ball is important for a below-average runner like De Los Santos and he is continuing to chip away at his career-long ground ball issue. His GB% rate has dropped from 57.0% in 2021 to 54.8% in 2022 to 52.8% in 2023 to 49.6% in 2024 to 41.8% so far in 2025. Also (and perhaps most importantly), De Los Santos has tweaked his plate approach to be more selective. During his first taste of Triple-A, he swung at 45.6% of pitches outside the strike zone, a chase rate which would've been the second-highest among qualified major leaguers in 2024. That was not going to be sustainable for somebody who is already vulnerable to whiffing on pitches in the zone. So far in 2025, his chase rate is 32.2%—for context, that's in the same ballpark as Otto Lopez and Kyle Stowers. You might assume that De Los Santos is getting unlucky to have only one home run to this point, but he frankly hasn't been coming close to clearing the fences. While the lineout below would've been gone to other parts of the field, that is the lone exception. All of his other batted balls have had estimated distances of 353 feet or less. eHlQOE1fV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0F3QlhVd0JYVmdRQVhsRlRCd0FIQXdWUUFBTURCVllBQVZjTUJRY0FVbEVHQ0FSVg==.mp4 If anything, luck has been on DDLS' side. His batting average on balls in play is a sky-high .444. That will not hold up regardless of how many sharp line drives he produces. So yeah, it's been a mixed bag for Deyvison De Los Santos. The Marlins will take their time letting the 21-year-old incubate in Jacksonville until he puts it all together. Between Matt Mervis, Eric Wagaman and Agustín Ramírez, first base and designated hitter are occupied at the big league level, anyway. (As a footnote, De Los Santos has been starting once per series at third base to offer a shred of defensive versatility. He looks like an emergency option there at best due to lack of arm strength, but to his credit, he's been making all of the routine plays.) 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. These notes apply to Opening Day, the first game of Miami's home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Starting Lineup SS Xavier Edwards (S) LF Kyle Stowers (L) DH Jonah Bride 1B Matt Mervis (L) 2B Otto Lopez RF Griffin Conine (L) CF Derek Hill 3B Graham Pauley (L) C Nick Fortes P Sandy Alcantara View full article

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For the second consecutive year, the Miami Marlins have completed a trade on Opening Day eve. In 2024, it was flipping Jon Berti for prospects. This time around, they're adding to the big league roster by acquiring out-of-options right-hander Tyler Phillips from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for cash considerations. The Marlins designated righty reliever Seth Martinez for assignment as the corresponding 40-man roster move. Phillips made his MLB debut midway through last season. He tossed an improbable shutout on July 27, but allowed 28 runs (all earned) in his other 27 ⅔ innings pitched. There was a poor outing against the Marlins mixed in there (4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K on Aug. 14). Phillips' pitch mix includes a sinker, sweeper, four-seam fastball, curveball and changeup. He has induced ground balls at a high rate throughout much of his professional career, including this past spring (63.0 GB%). However, the Phillies still designated him for assignment on Sunday. It might be a brief stint for Phillips in Miami as the team seems poised to churn through multi-inning, low-leverage arms until their injured guys make their way back from the IL. Seth Martinez had two separate stints with the Fish during spring training, most recently returning via waivers on March 15. He threw a scoreless inning in each of his three Grapefruit League appearances last week. Perhaps the "tiebreaker" between Phillips and Martinez was that the former was capable of providing more bulk at this stage of the season. With Martinez in DFA limbo, Anthony Bender, who turned 30 in February, is expected to be the oldest player on the Marlins Opening Day roster. View full rumor