Ely Sussman

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. Welcome back, Sandy Alcantara. Here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs. These notes apply to Miami's road exhibition game against the New York Mets. View full article

Player status updates, insightful stats and more information to fully equip you for today's Marlins game. We are so back. For the first time in 2025, here are the latest Miami Marlins game notes, produced by the Marlins communications department and relayed to our loyal SuperSubs. These notes apply to Miami's home exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals. View full article

Edward Cabrera has just been announced as Tuesday's SP, which lines him up to be in the #3 rotation spot.

Today's news roundup also includes an addition to Miami's 2025 international signing class. Kevin Barral and Alex Krutchik have your on-site coverage from Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium today as the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals meet in their 2025 Grapefruit League season opener. Valente Bellozo's first pitch is coming at 1:10 p.m. Listen to the radio call on FOX Sports 940AM. Marlins Opening Day is 33 days away. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Go to Fish On First's Instagram or Twitter account to submit your prediction for who will hit the first spring training home run for the Marlins. Two people who get it right will win a glass from Miami Hops. 🔷 Sandy Alcantara starts Sunday for the Fish, followed by Ryan Weathers on Monday, which suggests that Weathers is being lined up to start the second game of the regular season. 🔷 Mexican infielder Juan Alva is the 19th member of this year's Marlins international signing class. Alva got a modest $10,000 bonus, sources tell Fish On First, the maximum amount that a player can receive without counting against a club's bonus pool. According to my calculations, the Marlins have $220,500 remaining in their pool (the signing period runs through December 15). 🔷 The Marlins have hired Nate Medrano as their vice president of ticket sales and service, overseeing Marlins memberships, premium sales, inside sales and membership experience. Medrano previously worked for the Miami Dolphins. The Marlins now have 13 different executives with the VP title. 🔷 Marlins clubhouse attendant José Oviedo manages the music that blares around their spring training complex, curating 15 playlists across various genres, as MLB.com's Christina De Nicola detailed. 🔷 Nicole Cahill of Pitcher List wrote about the unsettling public comments that Bruce Sherman and Peter Bendix made earlier this week. "This city has proven it will show up when you give it a reason to, but the franchise has repeatedly failed to make an effort in good faith." 🔷 Baseball America considers this to be a "critical season" for Marlins OF Dillon Head coming off hip surgery: "Head’s first step is proving he’s fully healthy. Then he’ll need to work on refining bat-to-ball skills that have been fairly inconsistent when he’s been on the field. The Marlins don’t have many close-to-the-majors bats at the top of their system. For their system to take a step forward, players like Head must show progress in 2025 and beyond." For what it's worth, he has looked impressive in early minor league camp. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the New York Yankees announced an amendment to their longstanding facial hair policy, allowing players and other uniformed personnel to wear beards. They also agreed with Aaron Boone on a contract extension through the 2027 season. Boone is tied for the fifth-longest-tenured manager in MLB, entering his eighth season in the Bronx. For the first time since the 1980s, Major League Baseball may be leaving ESPN after terminating their television rights agreement beyond this season. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

On Nothing Personal with David Samson, former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez reflects on the challenges he had dealing with star shortstop Hanley Ramírez, especially on May 17, 2010, when Ramírez showed a lack of hustle chasing a ball down the left field line. View full video

The title of "oldest active Miami Marlins player" has changed hands again. Right-hander reliever Seth Martinez, who turns 31 in August, was claimed by the Fish on Thursday. Eury Pérez (Tommy John surgery rehab) was placed on the 60-day injured list to make room for Martinez on the 40-man roster. Martinez had been designated for assignment by the Arizona Diamondbacks earlier in the week, but all of his prior major league experience came as a member of the Houston Astros. He has posted a 3.93 ERA, 4.24 FIP and .240 BAA in 111 MLB appearances (all in relief). He pitched especially well in 2022 (2.09 ERA, 3.32 FIP and .187 BAA in 38.2 IP) and won a World Series ring for his efforts, though the Astros didn't use him in the postseason during that year or any other. After striking out 23.5% of opposing batters from 2021-2023 (approximately league average for a reliever), Martinez's K% plummeted to 16.2% in 2024. His sweeper wasn't generating whiffs as often as it previously did in two-strike counts—I imagine that the Marlins will be focused on finding a fix for that. Like Ronny Henriquez earlier this month, Martinez has used up all of his minor league options. Barring injuries or catastrophic spring training performances, expect to see both of them on the Marlins Opening Day roster. Martinez is still pre-arbitration eligible and under club control through the 2028 season. As for Pérez, his placement on the 60-day IL was inevitable. It officially prevents him returning to the majors before May 26, but he isn't going to be ready until July anyway. By all accounts, his rehab from last April's TJ surgery has gone smoothly thus far. View full rumor

The club's Grapefruit League game coverage will sound a little different this year. The ways that fans can access it have also changed. The five-month drought without Miami Marlins baseball games mercifully ends this Saturday (sort of). They'll be embarking on a series of exhibitions against seven different MLB opponents leading up to Opening Day. Spring training wins and losses are completely inconsequential, but the Grapefruit League at least provides us with a glimpse of the Marlins' future, particularly during the first few weeks of action while so many prospects are still assigned to big league camp. Last season's radio play-by-play announcer, Kyle Sielaff, is making the transition to television in 2025 and the club hired Jack McMullen to fill Sielaff's shoes. With the exception of split-squad road games against the New York Mets (March 3), Washington Nationals (March 10) and Houston Astros (March 22), McMullen will call every spring training game with Stephen Strom hosting a 15-minute pregame show. Those broadcasts can be streamed through the MLB app and MLB.TV. Approximately half of the games are also being carried locally in South Florida on FOX Sports 940 AM Miami—those are the ones that say "WINZ" in the "broadcast" column of the table below. In recent years, the Marlins often set up a camera in the pressbox behind home plate to produce a video feed on Marlins.com that was synced with the radio broadcast's audio. Unfortunately, those streams will not be happening this spring. Radio Mambí 710 AM WAQI will have Spanish broadcasts of nine exhibition games. FanDuel Sports Network Florida—previously known as Bally Sports Florida—will have spring training TV coverage on March 11, March 16, March 17, March 18 and March 20. Only two of those will be conventional Marlins broadcasts featuring Sielaff and an FDSN Florida analyst (3/17 and 3/20). The other three are matchups against the St. Louis Cardinals, which will be shared productions with FDSN Midwest. That includes sharing TV talent by pairing Sielaff with a Cardinals analyst or pairing Chip Caray with a Marlins analyst. Just in time for spring training, FanDuel Sports Network has partnered with Amazon Prime Video, offering a $19.99 per month subscription as an alternative for local fans who don't have cable (or don't have FDSN Florida included in their cable package). That Prime Video add-on will carry the same broadcast that regular TV viewers get. For MLB.TV subscribers, there are five additional games available to watch that'll be produced by the Marlins' opponents: February 23 (Mets), February 28 (Braves), March 6 (Braves), March 9 (Astros) and March 23 (Mets). Out-of-market fans can also find the 2/28 game on MLB Network. Some of the March ones could potentially be shown on MLB Network as well—I'll have confirmation as those dates get closer. View full article

Today's news roundup also includes a new injury and an addition to the team's television broadcast crew. The starting pitchers for the Miami Marlins' first two Grapefruit League games will be Valente Bellozo and Sandy Alcantara on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. No announcement yet from the St. Louis Cardinals or New York Mets regarding their probable starters against Miami. It will be Alcantara's first appearance in a game setting since he made a Triple-A rehab start 17 months ago. SNY is doing a television broadcast that day and Clover Park utilizes Statcast, so we'll have real-time highlights and data to share/overreact to. Marlins Opening Day is 35 days away. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Reliever Woo-Suk Go fractured his right index finger. Even if healthy, Go wouldn't have been in the mix for an Opening Day roster spot, but this setback ensures he will begin the regular season on the minor league injured list (either with Triple-A Jacksonville or Double-A Pensacola). As a reminder, bookmark this page for frequent MLB/MiLB injury updates. 🔷 Wednesday's episode of Fish On First LIVE is embedded below. It included an impromptu NRI quiz. Our staffers will be streaming with special guests on a weekly basis throughout spring training. 🔷 Congratulations to Marlins Twitter legend Craig Mish on joining FanDuel Sports Network Florida's rotation of studio analysts. Craig Minervini and Kelly Saco will be the Marlins’ primary TV studio hosts this season, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports, while Rod Allen, Jeff Nelson and Gaby Sanchez will be the primary studio analysts. Mish will no longer be co-writing Marlins columns for the Herald with Jackson like he had been doing since 2021. 🔷 We are still almost three weeks away from FDSN Florida's first spring training broadcast, but I put together a primer on how to watch/listen to games in the meantime. 🔷 The Marlins Radio Network has a weekly show debuting this Sunday called "Clayton's Corner" featuring exclusive interviews with Clayton McCullough. 🔷 The Jumbo Shrimp will use "Honey Drippers" as their alternate identity for four games this season. It refers to "a delicious frozen treat served in a variety of flavors while often including fresh fruit." 🔷 Here is one more plug for HOMAGE's teal Florida Marlins Starter jacket that has been newly restocked with higher-quality fabric. I'm literally wearing mine as I type this. Fish On First receives a commission from that link, so any purchases simultaneously enhance your wardrobe while supporting our hard-working staff. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Right-hander Valente Bellozo wasn't even in the Miami Marlins organization at this time a year ago. Now, he's been tabbed as the starting pitcher for their 2025 Grapefruit League opener, manager Clayton McCullough announced. The Marlins will face the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday at 1:10 p.m. at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. Traded from the Houston Astros to the Marlins shortly after the 2024 regular season began, Bellozo's workload was split evenly between the minors (66.0 IP) and the majors (68.2 IP). In terms of run prevention, he was significantly better in Miami (3.67 ERA) than he was at Double-A/Triple-A (4.64 ERA). On the other hand, his strikeout rate plummeted against MLB competition—from 25.0% to 14.9%—and he was heavily reliant on fly balls, which makes it difficult to envision the soft-tosser replicating that effectiveness in his sophomore season. He's firmly behind Sandy Alcantara, Ryan Weathers, Cal Quantrill and Edward Cabrera on the current starting rotation depth chart, and likely behind Max Meyer, too. That makes this an appropriate assignment for Bellozo. Even under previous front offices and coaching staffs, the Marlins have consistently maximized Grapefruit League reps for pitchers who are on the Opening Day roster bubble. Jordan Yamamoto started the first spring game in 2020, for example. Daniel Castano did it in 2021, Braxton Garrett in 2023 and Weathers in 2024. (Due to an MLB lockout, 2022 spring training was abbreviated with fewer participating players and roster battles than usual, so the Marlins started Alcantara in that year's opener). Bellozo is only expected to go one or two innings on Saturday, which means a handful of other Marlins pitchers will also make appearances. There will be radio broadcasts on FOX Sports 940 AM Miami and Radio Mambí 710 AM WAQI (Spanish). Fish On First will have on-site coverage as well.

The Offishial Show—Episode #221 Isaac Azout, Kevin Barral and Alex Carver join Ely Sussman for a five-round draft of Miami Marlins minor leaguers. The objective is simple: predict which of them will be called up by the Marlins and make their MLB regular season debuts in 2025. Find The Offishial Show on the Fish On First YouTube channel, our new-look Apple Podcasts channel and wherever else you get your pods. FOF's audio programming also includes Fish Unfiltered, Swimming Upstream, Big Fish Small Pod and more. Alex's team: Robby Snelling, Joe Mack, Austin Roberts, Josh Ekness and Jared Serna Isaac's team: Liam Hicks, Victor Mesa Jr., Ronny Simon, Troy Johnston and Dale Stanavich Kevin's team: Robinson Piña, Deyvison De Los Santos, Jakob Marsee, John Rooney and Max Acosta Ely's team: Agustín Ramírez, Luarbert Arias, Matt Pushard, Jacob Berry and Nigel Belgrave Who has the best chance of going 5-for-5? Any unselected players who you believe could sneak up to the majors this season? Let us know in the comments. Follow Ely (@RealEly), Alex (@marlinsminors), Kevin (@kevin_barral), Isaac (@IsaacAzout) and Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) on Twitter. Join the Marlins Discord server! Complete Miami Marlins coverage here at FishOnFirst.com. View full article

Doubling down on his offseason comments, Sherman boasted about investing in infrastructure and player development as if it were an acceptable substitute for upgrading the talent on the Marlins roster. The contrast is staggering. Over the last two offseasons combined, the Miami Marlins have spent a total of $8.5 million on major league free agent deals. Meanwhile, Juan Soto's contract with the New York Mets guarantees him approximately that same amount during every regular season month (March/April through September) from now through the end of the 2030s. The Mets have also signed nine other free agents to deals exceeding $8.5 million during that span, including relievers and less-than-full-time position players, because that is how the market values them as MLB revenue continues to rise. "Everybody wants you to sign every free agent that's available," Marlins chairman & principal owner Bruce Sherman joked during Monday's press conference. "We understand that." Sherman's responses throughout the presser made it clear that he does not actually understand why there's widespread concern about the direction of the Marlins franchise under his stewardship. It's crucial for top decision-makers to be aligned on their values. To Sherman's credit, he and president of baseball operations Peter Bendix have that going for them. "Player development continues at all levels for every single player in this organization," Bendix said on Monday, with Sherman nodding by his side. "We are about getting them better, no matter where they are in their career. Everything that we're going to be doing is for that purpose." Sherman boasted about assembling one of the largest front-office staffs in baseball. While that may have been an exaggeration, it is meaningfully larger and more organized than it had been prior to Bendix's arrival. There are now 11 different directors within the player development department that each have their own niche. But what happens if/when players become the best versions of themselves in the majors? They will get traded to other teams in exchange for prospects. That is what Sherman's track record has been throughout his seven-plus years of ownership and all indications are that this cycle will continue. The last player to receive a contract extension from the Marlins was middle reliever Richard Bleier in March 2022. The only Sherman-era player to receive an extension guaranteeing more than two years has been Sandy Alcantara, a deal that aged very well for Miami even with Alcantara missing an entire season due to injury. Alcantara's extension was backloaded. His salary is spiking from $9.3 million in 2024 to $17.3 million in 2025. That is still far less than the former NL Cy Young award winner would make on the open market, but it's more than Sherman has ever paid an active Marlins player for a single season. When asked on Monday whether he could make a commitment to keeping Alcantara throughout this season, Sherman said he would defer to the front office. vz7mzw.mp4 Alcantara's salary alone does not make a trade inevitable—it's the combination of his salary and the hopeless supporting cast that he's been surrounded by. Waiting until he's nearing the end of his contract would diminish what the Marlins could get in return, and there's no reason to wait when the 2025 team is so ill-equipped to contend. "I think we're gonna win a lot of games, a lot more games than you think we're gonna win this year," Sherman predicted. He cited improvements to the Marlins' defense and baserunning as well as the influence of new manager Clayton McCullough, who's coming off a World Series title as first base coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "(McCullough) gave the most inspiring speech I've seen in all my years as an owner of this club," Sherman claimed. Sherman is blindly rooting for individual breakout performances because that's all you can do when you don't pay for reliable veterans. Alcantara is the only current Marlins player who has previously posted at least 2.3 fWAR in a season. For context, the Marlins have traded away Luis Arraez, Jesús Luzardo and Jazz Chisholm Jr. within the past year, all of whom have cleared that mark and would've still been under club control for 2025 if retained. Veterans can also provide intangible value by helping younger guys get acclimated to the MLB lifestyle. Even if Bendix's player development processes are brilliantly executed, top prospects are at a greater risk of underachieving in the majors in the absence of those leadership figures. Sherman awkwardly tried turning this roster deficiency into a brag: "We have two players [Cal Quantrill and Anthony Bender] who are 30 years old—and they both turned 30—on the 40-man roster. I'm excited about that." As Aram Leighton of Just Baseball recently detailed, the Marlins farm system is deep with potential big league contributors. Few of them realistically profile as above-average regulars, though. To this point, Alcantara has been an outlier—he blossomed into a star and found common ground with the Marlins on a contract that covered most of his prime years. What happens if other talents like that emerge? Either Sherman will need to convince them to accept similarly team-friendly deals, or he'll have to spend outside his comfort zone to keep pace with his fellow MLB owners. Marlins fans are not insisting that Sherman "sign every free agent." Operating like the Mets or the Dodgers is too inefficient to work in this market. They just want to see more of the club's revenue-sharing proceeds reinvested into the payroll so that this latest rebuilding opportunity doesn't go to waste. View full article

Today's news roundup also includes Max Meyer's offseason adjustments and a hypothetical redesign of the Marlins' uniforms. Today, the Marlins will hold their first full-squad workout of spring training. We're expecting 67 players to be involved. Chairman & principal owner Bruce Sherman and president of baseball operations Peter Bendix will be speaking to the media. Follow Kevin Barral and Isaac Azout for live coverage from Jupiter! Marlins Opening Day is 38 days away. Beginning today and continuing through October, Offishial News returns to its usual Monday-Friday schedule. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 Early spring training GIFs have been added to Fish On First's Marlins GIF database. Database access is a SuperSub perk. For as little as $4 per month, become a SuperSub to fuel our coverage. 🔷 Designated for assignment last week, Xzavion Curry cleared waivers and was outrighted to the minors. Curry is highly likely to make it back up to the majors at some point in 2025, whether it be as a long reliever or spot starter. 🔷 To put the Cal Quantrill signing in perspective, I did a roundup of other veteran pitchers who received comparable contracts in free agency this offseason. 🔷 With the 2025 college baseball season getting fully underway last weekend, Sean McCormack published his initial big board of top MLB Draft prospects. 🔷 The Marlins have more talent from Duke than any other college/university. Kevin Barral spoke to Matt Mervis and Griffin Conine about how that familiarity has helped with Mervis' transition to the organization. 🔷 Max Meyer discussed his expanded pitch mix with MLB.com's Christina De Nicola, most notably how his new sweeper can complement his signature slider. “My slider is going to be more down in depth and my sweeper's going to come across the plate,” Meyer said. “I feel like with the movement, there's definitely a big separation between those two." Pitching coach Daniel Moskos also identified a sinker grip based on Meyer's arm path and delivery, so let's see if that becomes a more significant piece of his attack plan after accounting for only 2.1% of his total pitch usage in 2024. Meyer underwent LASIK eye surgery, De Nicola adds, so no more pitching with goggles. 🔷 Unsurprisingly, the Marlins have MLB's youngest GM/manager/hitting coach/pitching coach quartet, per BrooksGate, with an average age of 39.5 years old. 🔷 Left-handed reliever Richard Bleier announced his retirement. A South Florida native, Bleier had stints with eight different MLB organizations, but the vast majority of his work was split between the Orioles (3.15 ERA in 154.1 IP) and Marlins (3.16 ERA in 122.1 IP). Fun fact: he is the last player to receive a contract extension from the Marlins—it was a two-year, $6 million deal signed in March 2022. Also, Bleier owns the highest groundball rate in franchise history (60.2 GB%) among pitchers with a minimum of 100 innings. "Looking back on my career I don’t think I would have done anything differently," he said in an Instagram post. 🔷 PGHconcepts is doing a series of jersey design refreshes for each MLB team. Here are the Marlins ones: Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Baseball America's JJ Cooper and Geoff Pontes describe how Marlins top prospect Thomas White has taken huge steps forward in his development since being drafted. View full video