Ely Sussman

Martorella at least had the good fortune of changing organizations along with Jakob Marsee, who is a close friend of his. Marsee has underwhelmed as well, but not nearly to the same extent. If Martorella had more defensive ability or room to continue develop physically, I'd be less concerned.

Nearly 10 years apart, Myers and Stanton made identical plays in right field. At 28 years old, Dane Myers is still fighting for steady playing time on the Miami Marlins. He's stuck on the short side of a right field platoon with merely average-ish offensive numbers this season (.239/.312/.388, 97 wRC+ in 77 PA). When Giancarlo Stanton was Myers' age, he had already completed his extraordinary Marlins tenure, earning four All-Star selections and the 2017 National League MVP award, signing a $325M contract extension and setting numerous franchise records. On the surface, they don't have much in common, but defensively, the resemblance between present-day Myers and prime Stanton is uncanny. (All credit goes to Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase for matching up these two specific plays.) In the second inning of Friday's game at loanDepot park, Chicago White Sox third baseman Lenyn Sosa hit a liner to right field. To Sosa and anybody who watches baseball regularly, it looked like a surefire double. Myers had to run 78 feet toward the foul line—and away from second base—just to get to the ball, gathering it near the lip of the warning track. Myers was pleased that Sosa took the bait. He unleashed an excellent one-hop throw to Xavier Edwards in front of the second base bag, who applied the tag for the first out of the inning. Rewinding to July 28, 2014, Stanton did the exact same thing in this ballpark (which was then known as Marlins Park). He tracked down a Jayson Werth hit only a few feet away from where Myers was and caught the Washington Nationals outfielder trying to hustle for a double. Adeiny Hechavarría was on the receiving end of it. dane vs. stanton.mp4 Stanton's play proved to be a crucial momentum swing in the Marlins' favor. Trailing 6-0 in the top of the seventh, the game was seemingly decided with Miami's win probability at roughly 1%, per Baseball-Reference. However, the Fish scored seven unanswered runs after that to complete an exhilarating comeback. During that season, Stanton recorded seven outfield assists in 1,262 ⅓ defensive innings. A converted pitcher, Myers is already up to five assists in only 160 innings! Myers has a long way to go to establish himself, and the Marlins are going to lose a lot of ballgames in 2024 regardless of his contributions, but there's no disputing that he has a big league-caliber arm. 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 first game of Miami's home series against the Chicago White Sox. View full article

Two months since being acquired by the Marlins, Martorella has been their farm system's most disappointing hitter. In the estimation of many analysts, including our own Fish On First staff, Nathan Martorella was the No. 3 piece of the Luis Arraez trade package. He lacked the upside of Dillon Head and the well-rounded skill set of Jakob Marsee, but Martorella's hit tool still made him a meaningful addition to the Miami Marlins organization. "If he finds more loft and continues to show patience in the upper minors, he could contribute to the Marlins by 2025," Alex Carver wrote in the aftermath of the deal. Martorella had prior Double-A experience as a San Diego Padres prospect and joined the Pensacola Blue Wahoos everyday lineup. He made a solid first impression during his debut series, collecting multiple hits in three of his first six Pensacola games with a .320/.370/.360 slash line. That was back in early May. Martorella has only one multi-hit game since then. Very quietly, he's been in a lengthy, awful slump. What's gone wrong for the 23-year-old? Martorella with AA San Antonio: 48 G, .264/.354/.404, 5 HR, 12.1 BB%, 15.0 K%, 110 wRC+ Martorella with AA Pensacola: 46 G, .169/.223/.221, 1 HR, 4.3 BB%, 19.7 K%, 33 wRC+ Yikes. The statistical similarities between him and recently DFA'd Tim Anderson are striking. Martorella's walk rate is one-third of what it previously was against Double-A competition and he isn't even slugging his own weight (listed at 224 pounds). Per FanGraphs, no position player who's starting regularly at any level of the Marlins org has a lower wRC+ than him. It is not a matter of platoons for the left-handed hitter—he's been equally lousy vs. lefty and righty pitchers. In the aforementioned post-trade write-up, Carver noted Martorella's slightly concerning groundball rate, but that hasn't been the culprit either. His 38.0 GB% is lower than the Southern League average, so he's giving himself ample opportunities to produce runs on balls in the air. Martorella is still demonstrating solid contact ability. The quality of that contact leaves a lot to be desired, though. His .204 BABIP is the lowest of any Marlins minor leaguer with a comparable number of plate appearances. Your gut reaction to that stat might be to let Martorella off the hook as a victim of bad luck, but here are all the balls that he put into play during a recent series in Birmingham. He went 1-for-12 on these with the Barons defense exerting ordinary effort to record each out. Even when he got hittable pitches in favorable counts, he couldn't square the ball up. Nathan Martorella vs. Birmingham.mp4 As is the case with Nick Fortes in Miami, a player who's prone to popping the ball up will struggle in the BABIP department. In addition to swinging underneath the ball, Martorella is compounding this issue by arriving late, hence his propensity to pop out to third basemen in foul territory. Beyond the damage being done to his individual numbers, he's seldom making productive outs to benefit his team. No surprise, with Martorella regularly residing in the heart of their lineup, the Blue Wahoos have the Southern League's lowest-scoring offense. He has driven in only 10 runs since his acquisition. I have not detected any meaningful changes in Martorella's swing mechanics over the course of the season: same deep crouch, same low hand position, same small stride. Rather, opponents seemingly took notice of how vulnerable he is against elevated pitches. Whether they feed him high fastballs or hang offspeed stuff by mistake, he's making outs or fouling them off. Martorella will be heavily scrutinized by Marlins fans because of his inclusion in the Arraez trade, but any way you slice it, he's in a low-stakes situation right now. There is no rush to get him to the big leagues in 2024. He isn't even eligible for the Rule 5 Draft until after the 2025 season. Time is on his side to solve this problem. Nonetheless, it's discouraging to see such a stark contrast between his Marlins and non-Marlins splits. Long term, as a first baseman/left fielder, he'll need to markedly improve both his power and plate discipline to make a major league impact. View full article

Offishial News for 7/5/24 On Thursday, Nick Pivetta (7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 K, 89 pitches, 64 strikes) came up seven outs shy of a no-hitter. Jesús Sánchez tripled to break it up, and he was just getting started. Sánchez added a double in the ninth and a game-tying home run in the 11th, accruing nine total bases from the seventh inning onward. He's the only Marlin ever to do that in a game. Jake Burger wore the platinum sombrero, striking out swinging in each of his five plate appearances. Eventually, Miami ran out of competent relievers. The Fish fell behind for good in the 12th with Matt Andriese on the mound. The Marlins lost, 6-5. They got swept by the Red Sox and fell into a tie with the Rockies for worst record in the National League. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 8-3. OF Griffin Conine hit his 16th homer and 1B Troy Johnston raised his batting average to .288. Double-A Pensacola blew a 5-1 lead and lost, 6-5. High-A Beloit lost, 9-0. Awful outing for RHP Karson Milbrandt (3.1 IP, 5 H, 8 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 56 pitches/30 strikes). Fourth time in his last five starts that he has had more walks than strikeouts. Low-A Jupiter won, 6-4. FCL Marlins won, 7-3. They continue to have the best record of any domestic MiLB affiliate at 31-10. DSL Marlins lost, 6-3. DSL Miami lost, 2-1. Here's more Marlins news and content: 🔷 To continue on Jesús Sánchez, he's been very productive over the last month-plus since Fish On First highlighted how unlucky he had been. His overall season slash line (.247/.297/.409) is now virtually identical to Bryan De La Cruz's (.241/.289/.419). No qualified MLB hitter has a longer average home run distance than Sánchez (429 feet). 🔷 Bryan Hoeing (hamstring) is returning from a two-month injured list stint to make a spot start for the Marlins tonight. However, Otto Lopez is sidelined for at least the next week with lower back inflammation. The rookie second baseman is slashing .252/.279/.350 (76 wRC+) with six stolen bases and excellent defense in 54 games this season. Vidal Bruján will see an uptick in playing time during Lopez's absence. Jonah Bride has been summoned from Triple-A to fill out the active roster. 🔷 Through 28 Marlins series, here's an updated look at the Prediction Time leaderboard. Make series predictions with us all season long when you become a Fish On First SuperSub. 🔷 Thomas White ranks 43rd, Max Meyer ranks 46th and Noble Meyer ranks 63rd on Baseball America's updated Top 100 prospects list. 🔷 Christina De Nicola of MLB.com observes that Burger is hitting well against sliders during what has been an otherwise disappointing, sub-replacement level season. Burger says his strong support system off the field is helping him weather the storm. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Reds became the first National League team in the history on interleague play to sweep the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Christian Walker clubbed five home runs during the Diamondbacks' series win at Dodger Stadium. The Astros have won nine of their last 11 games. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter RHP Bryan Hoeing) host their series opener against the moribund White Sox (RHP Drew Thorpe). Hoeing will be the 15th different starting pitcher used by Miami this season. The Marlins have a 57.6% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET. 🔷 Join us for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE tonight from 6:00-7:00 p.m. ET on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. Special guest: Reice Stark. FOF LIVE is presented by Berger & Hicks. If you’ve been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, give them a call at (305) 670-7050. 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Charlotte, 7:04 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola vs. Montgomery, 7:35 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Wisconsin, 7:40 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter vs. Palm Beach, 6:30 p.m. ET FCL Marlins at FCL Astros, 12:00 p.m. ET DSL Marlins vs. DSL Rockies, 11:00 a.m. ET DSL Miami at DSL Mets Blue, 11:00 a.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes 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 and final game of Miami's home series against the Boston Red Sox. 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 Boston Red Sox. View full article

I listened as well. While the team's lack of local revenue is legitimately a hindrance, I do not buy his insistence that the franchise as a whole is losing money every year. The Marlins are buoyed by their split of national league revenue and what they receive from larger market teams via revenue sharing.

Here is the moment when Beloit Sky Carp manager Billy Gardner told RHP Noble Meyer and LHP Thomas White that they've been selected to represent the Miami Marlins in this year's Futures Game (courtesy of marlins/Instagram): 54njwy.mp4 The exhibition will be held at Globe Life Field (home of the Texas Rangers) on July 13.

That would shock me. There was a big gap between his performance and the bare minimum that a competitive team looks for from a backup. I expect him to be out of baseball for the rest of the season, then try to reboot his career next spring.

In Bell's case, at least his recent history includes some stretches of good baseball. For what it's worth, he really is a leader in the clubhouse. I think it makes sense to keep trotting him out there until the deadline, then moving on if there are zero takers.

Offishial News for 7/3/24 On Tuesday, Valente Bellozo (5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 98 pitches/61 strikes) was a bit better than his final line would suggest. He set a Marlins franchise record for most strikeouts in a single game by a Mexican-born pitcher. Ceddanne Rafaela's wall-scraping three-run home run allowed the Red Sox to pull away. Jesús Sánchez's 448-foot round-tripper was his second-longest of the season. The Marlins lost, 8-3. Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville won, 8-0. RHP Max Meyer (4.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 86 pitches/53 strikes) had his first scoreless start of the season, and just as importantly, his longest outing since being optioned. I project him to return to the majors before the end of the month. 1B Troy Johnston hit a three-run homer and should have had a solo shot as well. Double-A Pensacola lost, 6-1. 1B Nathan Martorella went hitless for the fifth consecutive game. His slash line is .173/.228/.226 through 45 games with the Blue Wahoos. High-A Beloit won, 7-3. 1B Brock Vradenburg went 1-for-4 with a stolen base in his High-A debut. Low-A Jupiter lost, 2-0. Having started and recorded extra-base hits on four straight days, INF José Devers is seemingly on the verge of completing his rehab assignment. DSL Marlins lost, 2-0. DSL Miami lost, 1-0. Here's more Marlins news and content: 🔷 The Fish have mercifully pulled the plug on Tim Anderson, designating the 31-year-old for assignment. Hard to argue that any shortstop in Marlins history has ever struggled more during an extended audition at the position. TA's -1.2 fWAR is tied for sixth-lowest among all MLB hitters this season. He simply brought nothing to the table other than his intangibles and past experiences. In his place, Xavier Edwards will get regular starts at shortstop, Skip Schumaker said. Edwards was involved in a couple plays on Tuesday that showed how a lack of arm strength limits his defensive ceiling. I wouldn't be surprised if, by the end of the season, Edwards and Otto Lopez swap middle infield assignments. merge-0j2y4e.mp4 🔷 RHP Noble Meyer and LHP Thomas White are Arlington-bound as the Marlins' Futures Game representatives. They are undoubtedly the organization's top two prospects, though I wouldn't have minded seeing C Joe Mack get priority over Meyer on the basis of superlative individual production. Hopefully, both pitchers get to throw an inning during the exhibition. White just climbed 27 spots on MLB Pipeline's updated Top 100 prospects list. In a Marlins Radio Network interview (embedded below), Meyer referenced multiple times that he wants to get a taste of the Double-A level before season's end. 🔷 Bryan Hoeing (left hamstring strain) is back from his rehab assignment and just waiting for a spot in the Marlins bullpen to open up. Sadly, Ryan Weathers (left index finger strain) is still at least a week away from getting the green light to resume throwing. Don't expect to see him stretched out as a starter until late August. 🔷 The Marlins added another international free agent signing, 17-year-old Venezuelan right-hander Victor Rodriguez. He has been assigned to the DSL Miami roster. 🔷 The Florida Panthers have left Bally Sports Florida for Scripps Sports in an effort to reach a larger South Florida television audience. Bally still has local TV rights for the Marlins and Miami Heat. "Scripps has not had recent conversations with the Heat or Marlins," according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. 🔷 Former Marlins GM Kim Ng has been hired by the Athletes Unlimited Softball League as a senior advisor. The league will launch next May. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, talented yet injury-prone Twins third baseman Royce Lewis is likely bound for another IL stint after hurting his groin. The Mets offense again roared to life in extra innings, propelling the club above .500. Aaron Judge hit his 32nd home run and Shohei Ohtani hit his 27th. 🔷 Today's MLB game: the Marlins (probable starter LHP Trevor Rogers) continue their series against the Red Sox (RHP Brayan Bello). The Marlins have a 48.7% chance to win, per FanGraphs. First pitch at 6:40 p.m. ET. 🔷 We had a great turnout for the latest episode of Fish On First LIVE! Check out the replay if you missed it the first time. 🔷 Today's MiLB schedule: Triple-A Jacksonville vs. Charlotte, 6:05 p.m. ET Double-A Pensacola vs. Montgomery, 7:05 p.m. ET High-A Beloit vs. Wisconsin, 7:35 p.m. ET Low-A Jupiter vs. Palm Beach, 6:00 p.m. ET FCL Marlins vs. FCL Cardinals, 12:00 p.m. ET Marlins podcast episodes 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 first game of Miami's home series against the Boston Red Sox. View full article

That may have been the last we'll see of Anderson in the major leagues. The Tim Anderson era is over in Miami, as first reported by Craig Mish of SportsGrid on Tuesday. Anderson has been designated for assignment with the expectation that he'll be released in the coming days. Just a week removed from his 31st birthday, he has rapidly declined from perennial American League batting title contender to one of MLB's least-valuable players. Anderson was the most expensive pickup of an uneventful 2023-24 Marlins offseason, signing a one-year, $5M deal in late February. The club handed him their starting shortstop job despite struggling mightily with the Chicago White Sox the year before (.245/.286/.296, 1 HR, 13 SB, 60 wRC+, -0.2 fWAR in 123 G). Given his age and impressive track record, Anderson looked to be a logical bounce-back and change-of-scenery candidate, plus none of Miami's in-house alternatives at the position were particularly exciting. It was the epitome of a low-risk, high-reward move. Unfortunately, Anderson did virtually nothing to "reward" the Marlins' faith in him during his half-season tenure. I expressed my concerns in early May and he made no improvements from there. He was useless offensively, lacking any semblance of plate discipline or power (.214/.237/.226, 0 HR, 4 SB, 31 wRC+, -1.2 fWAR in 65 G). At shortstop, his defensive performance was mixed at best. TA departs on a particularly low note. During Sunday's Marlins loss, he committed a crucial error that helped the Philadelphia Phillies score two unearned runs, then struck out swinging on a non-competitive pitch to make the final out. Anderson's DFA continues a trend. Last month, the Marlins moved on from outfielder Avisaíl García and catcher Christian Bethancourt. That veteran trio had more than $30M of guaranteed money remaining on their contracts. Dane Myers essentially replaced García on Miami's active roster, Ali Sánchez replaced Bethancourt and now Xavier Edwards will replace Anderson. Each of the newcomers are five-plus years younger than their predecessors. Midway through a non-competitive season, the Marlins are reallocating playing time toward guys who could have a future with their organization. It'd be a shame for Anderson to vanish from baseball so suddenly. Here's hoping that he finds a way to reinvent himself and resurface as a viable big leaguer in 2025. View full article

The annual Futures Game that kicks off MLB All-Star festivities is a fascinating snapshot of baseball's young talent. Beginning in 1999, it has given a platform to highly ranked prospects, many of whom will go on to play in the major leagues, whether that be for their current organization or another that is enticed to trade for them. The Miami Marlins' delegation at Citizens Bank Park for the 2026 event will include right-hander Karson Milbrandt, a homegrown stud who has had a huge breakthrough during his fifth professional season. MLB.com's Futures Game all-time roster was a crucial resource to me in compiling this list. However, that page includes several typos where participants were incorrectly labeled as representatives of the Marlins org. It's possible that I am missing a few names from the "Florida Marlins" era in cases where players were mislabeled. Please comment if you notice any omissions! Bold names went on to produce at least 5.0 fWAR during their major league careers. 1999—RHP A.J. Burnett and INF Pablo Ozuna 2000—RHP Josh Beckett and C Ramón Castro 2001—INF Miguel Cabrera and 1B Adrián González 2002—INF Miguel Cabrera and 1B Jason Stokes 2003—RHP Denny Bautista 2004—LHP Bill Murphy 2005—OF Jeremy Hermida and C Josh Willingham 2006—RHP José García 2007—INF Chris Coghlan and RHP Rick van den Hurk 2008—RHP Jesús Delgado 2009—OF Giancarlo Stanton (known as "Mike Stanton" at the time) 2010—INF Osvaldo Martínez and 1B Logan Morrison 2011—RHP Jhan Mariñez 2012—RHP José Fernández and OF Christian Yelich 2013—OF Christian Yelich 2014—RHP Domingo Germán 2015—LHP Jarlin García 2016—1B Josh Naylor 2017—INF Brian Anderson and RHP Tayron Guerrero 2018—RHP Jorge Guzman 2019—INF Isan Díaz, OF Monte Harrison and RHP Sixto Sánchez 2021—LHP Jake Eder and RHP Max Meyer 2022—RHP Eury Pérez 2023—LHP Patrick Monteverde and INF Nasim Nuñez 2024—RHP Noble Meyer and LHP Thomas White 2025—C Joe Mack and LHP Thomas White 2026—RHP Karson Milbrandt View full article

I'd say the realistic best-case scenario is that he becomes the primary Marlins catcher exactly 1 year from now. Enter 2025 with some combo of Fortes/Ali Sánchez/cheap veteran free agent. If Mack holds his own at Triple-A through half a season, that will earn him a call-up.