Fish On First is publishing weekly Miami Marlins minor league summaries throughout the 2025 season, covering the progress of FOF Top 30 prospects and lesser-known players in the organization who are worth monitoring. Each full-season MiLB affiliate has its own section below.
Player stats are up to date entering June 11.
Triple-A Jacksonville
With his 28th birthday fast approaching and the Marlins offense struggling, Troy Johnston is still waiting for a call-up that may never come. He continues to produce, slashing .276/.351/.432/.783 with five home runs, 24 RBI, 19 stolen bases and a 113 wRC+.
With the addition of Matt Mervis to the Jacksonville roster, along with Deyvison De Los Santos (Fish On First’s No. 8 prospect) nearing his return from a quad strain, Johnston is heading back to left field on a part-time basis, where he had been playing frequently before De Los Santos went down.
Speaking of Mervis, he has three homers in eight games since being outrighted to the minors. He’s been playing first base and also DH’ing.
Jakob Marsee (FOF #23) is now up to 36 stolen bases this season. He is slashing .212/.359/.337/.696 with four home runs, 17 RBI and a 101 wRC+. His plate discipline and speed could earn him a call-up toward the end of this season, depending on what the Marlins do with their most experienced outfielders at the trade deadline.
Minor league free agent signing Robinson Piña has quietly been very consistent this season. He hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any of his 12 appearances (ten starts). Piña has posted a 3.51 ERA, 3.99 FIP, 8.24 K/9 and 2.63 BB/9 with the same effectiveness against right-handed and left-handed batters.
Double-A Pensacola
Kemp Alderman began the 2025 season on a tear and he’s on another one right now. The Blue Wahoos right fielder is slashing .294/.358/.446/.804, including an 1.162 OPS in June. His strikeout percentage continues to drop, now at 19.6% on the season, the lowest of his career. Alderman is leading all Marlins minor leaguers with 60 hits.
Through 17 appearances (27.1 IP), reliever Josh White has a 1.32 ERA, 1.14 FIP, 15.80 K/9 and 3.95 BB/9. A 2022 fifth-round pick, White is repeating AA, but should soon find himself in AAA-Jacksonville.
With the recent graduation of Agustín Ramírez from prospect eligibility, we added Nigel Belgrave to the final spot of the FOF Top 30 list. Through 15 appearances (26.1 IP), Belgrave has a 2.39 ERA, 2.25 FIP, 15.04 K/9 and 3.08 BB/9. He has allowed only three hits to right-handed batters this season.
Newly signed by the Marlins after being cut by the New York Yankees, outfielder Grant Richardson is making a great first impression. Through five games with the Wahoos, he is 7-for-17 with two home runs and five RBI.
For Richardson to move up through the minor league system, he must find a way to reduce his high strikeout rate. This season, it is at 39.5%, and that is despite the advantage of being heavily platooned.
High-A Beloit
In two outings since returning from index finger soreness, Marlins top prospect Thomas White hasn’t allowed an extra-base hit. Not a single High-A batter has homered off of White this season. Despite a somewhat limited workload (31.0 IP), he is well on his way to another Futures Game selection.
Noble Meyer‘s overall production with the Sky Carp looks extremely similar to 2024, with one notable difference as of late—he’s attacking the strike zone. Meyer has issued only one walk in each of his last four starts with a 66% strike rate (compared to 58% in his previous six starts).
Ranked second in the Midwest League with a .446 on-base percentage, Michael Snyder has been a pleasant surprise. The Marlins paid him a paltry signing bonus of just $17,500 as their 10th-round draft pick. A corner infielder in college, Snyder has added left field to his toolbox. A Double-A assignment would be more age-appropriate for the 24-year-old.
Low-A Jupiter
June has not been too kind for Jupiter. In the month, the Hammerheads are 2-7.
Fortunately, the Andres Valor turnaround featured in our previous Marlins Minor League Report has sustained. During the past three-plus series, Valor is hitting a solid .303/.385/.500. He has two home runs and seven doubles over that span.
Looking at Valor’s setup and approach from season’s start until now, there are some noticeable changes. Valor used to have his bat out in front of his shoulders and turned his heel in as a timing trigger, which cost him some leverage. He still has a mostly upright stance, but is much more relaxed in his approach, alleviating some stiffness that caused him to lose balance and pull off on many of his swings, leading to weak contact.
Nowadays, Valor is resting his bat on his shoulder, letting the ball travel deeper, and is quieter on his front foot. The more compact approach has not affected his bat speed and natural plus power. Valor will likely always be a pull-first batter, but these improvements have allotted him longer at-bats and better chances at making loud contact. Maybe most encouraging is that despite his limited batting average, Valor is now walking at a 12% clip.
This is the single most encouraging offensive player in the Marlins’ system over these past two weeks.
In June, Cam Clayton is hitting .360/.489/.800. Billed as a shortstop out of the draft, Clayton has spent seven games there while also moonlighting at first base and second base this season.
Clayton features a split stance and a short swing with some slight uppercut capable of reaching all fields. Much like in his college days, he’s also shown good plate discipline and the ability to limit whiffs. Clayton is limited in terms of speed and overall raw power, but he’s off to a good start to his pro career. Eligibility at multiple positions and solid contact rates should carry him to an eventual big league debut.
FCL Marlins
The FCL squad has picked it up a bit offensively over the past two weeks and they are now averaging over five runs per game. However, their pitching staff is allowing 5.58 per game. They sit at an appropriate 10-13.
Jancory De La Cruz continues to impress on the backfields in Jupiter after coming stateside for the first time this season. Through his 14 games, the 19-year-old is slashing .341/.500/.523. Despite the smaller sample, the most impressive aspect to his game is his newfound ability to limit strikeouts. He came into this season with a 110/65 K/BB. So far in 2024, he has a 10/15 K/BB. He’s already just one homer shy of his 2024 total.
JDLC is huge for his age at 6’2”, 180. It seems so far this season, he has much better control over his body and he is using much more of the field. After a 61% pull rate last year, he’s only pulling the ball 48% of the time. His ground ball rate is up, but many of them have resulted in hits, proving he’s not trying to force power in every situation. These are all great developments for the $405k signing. He will be worth keeping a close eye on as the season progresses. A call-up to the full-season ranks shouldn’t be ruled out.
Grant Shepardson continues to build up his workload as a starting pitcher. After missing last season due to a minor post-draft injury, Shepardson has been arguably the best pitcher in the FCL for the Marlins this season. Featuring a plus slider and 93-95 mph heat, Shepardson is already standing out. This past Saturday, he went up against the FCL Cardinals and in a career-high five innings, allowed just three hits and a single unearned run on a career-high-tying five Ks and one walk.
Coming out of the draft, there was thought to be reliever risk for Shepardson due to limited size and lack of a third pitch. However, he has taken steps forward with velocity and continues to show plus spin rates on the aforementioned slider. He is developing a solid changeup as well as a still-improving high-70s curveball with tight arc and vertical drop.
There’s a lot to like about this still very young player. Multi-inning reliever is looking more like his floor, with a rotation role in the big leagues being very plausible. Shepardson will likely spend all of 2025 in the FCL.
DSL Marlins/DSL Miami
The DSL squads kicked off their seasons this past week in a big way. Helped by games in which they scored 28 and 14 runs, DSL Miami is pacing the league by a large margin in offensive production. On the other squad, there have been some very encouraging initial samples, despite their small size. Overall, the DSL squads are 7-6.
One interesting development in the DSL this season has been the conversion of former two-way player Janero Miller to pitching exclusively. It’s a very unique progression path, but the Marlins still believe in the arm enough for him to continue progressing as a pitcher. Miller’s fastball velocity is sitting at 93 mph and touching 95. He complements it with a gyro slider and a changeup. He will need to build up a very raw skill set that he took a year off from.
After being delayed to start the season due to a minor ailment, Miller allowed two runs on two walks and two strikeouts in his first outing while throwing five wild pitches. From a source, Miller will continue to be stretched out and eventually start games.
Another high-priced international signing, Luis Cova has been an early standout for the DSL Miami squad. After hitting .239/.376/.438 over the course of the full short season schedule last year, Cova is off to a robust .385/.485/.846 start this year. In seven games, he’s already matched his 2024 home run total with three, two of which came in his first game of the season. Cova is lauded for great bat-to-ball skills, which he showed both late last year and so far this season. His patience allows him to select swings well and make consistent contact. Still building physically, he’s ahead of schedule offensively. He will need to continue to develop defensively to stick in center field, namely with reads and routes, but there is a solid footing here. Cova could’ve started 2025 stateside and is deserving of facing more advanced competition.
Only one DSL player has hit more home runs than Cova: Almen Tolentino. An 18-year-old catcher who is also repeating the DSL after an offensively limited first showing, Tolentino is off to a scorching start to the season: he is slashing .385/.484/1.000. Seven of his 10 hits have gone for extra bases. The four homers leads the DSL circuit. At 6’1”, 160, Tolentino already has decent bulk and obvious budding power. If this continues, the Marlins may have found a gem for just $145k.
Next Up (June 12-15)
Triple-A Jacksonville at Rochester
Double-A Pensacola at Rocket City
High-A Beloit at Quad Cities
Low-A Jupiter at Bradenton
Interested in learning more about the Miami Marlins’ top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!