A six-pack of Marlins notes on a Thursday:<\/p>\n
\u25aa New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan was mentioning this week that former Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson taught him to try to squirrel away as many draft picks as he can in order to have \u201cmore swings at the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Marlins president\/baseball operations Peter Bendix follows a similar approach when trading for prospects. Yes, he\u2019s seeking quality foremost. But the way he views it, the more players with upside that you acquire, the greater the odds of hitting on one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no coincidence that the Marlins asked for \u2014 and received \u2014 four prospects from the Yankees in the Ryan Weathers trade, with high-end outfielder Dillon Lewis headlining that haul.<\/p>\n
And even in the seemingly less-significant Jesus Sanchez deal last July, the Marlins made sure they received three players back. While Sanchez struggled badly for Houston and was traded to Toronto this offseason, the Marlins have three players who could amount to something from that deal. The three players:<\/p>\n
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1). Ryan Gusto struggled with the Marlins in three late-season starts (9.77 ERA) and wasn\u2019t good Thursday against Toronto (three runs allowed in 1 1\/3 innings). But he flashed enough with the Astros last season (7-4, 4.92 in 24 games) to suggest he could become a decent big-league arm, as a starter or reliever.<\/p>\n
2). Shortstop\/second base prospect Chase Jaworsky, a 20-year-old former fifth-round pick of the Astros, got his first hit in his first at-bat on Tuesday and went 1 for 1 Thursday with a triple and three RBI. He has 59 steals in 69 attempts and a .346 on base average in 157 minor league games.<\/p>\n
3). Twenty-year-old outfielder Esmil Valencia has 191 steals, 39 extra base hits and a .337 on-base average in three minor-league seasons.<\/p>\n
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Will any of the three help the Marlins? Impossible to say. But the Marlins never viewed Sanchez as a long-term starter when they\u2019re ready to win big, and so the thinking was: Why not turn him into multiple players who have a chance?<\/p>\n
Sanchez, for his part, is trying to revive his career in Toronto after hitting .199 with four homers in 48 games for Houston. Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins told MLB.com that the Astros did him no favors after acquiring him from the Marlins: \u201cHe went over to Houston, and they had some ideas for him to change some things and I think they didn\u2019t quite resonate with his personality and who he is as a hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa Left-hander Braxton Garrett, pitching in a game for the first time since December 2024 elbow surgery, started in Dunedin and allowed two hits, two walks and two runs (while striking out one) in one inning against Toronto on Thursday.<\/p>\n
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Garrett said he \u201cwasn\u2019t happy\u201d about the results \u2014 \u201cI felt I was moving a little too fast; need to clean up the command\u201d \u2014 and said he \u201cfelt a little nervous\u201d pitching after a long layoff but was very \u201cexcited\u201d to be pitching again. He said he has tinkered with his arsenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have perspective,\u201d Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. \u201cThis day to me was Braxton back on a major-league mound again and appreciating all the days leading up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa Top prospect Thomas White, MLB\u2019s No. 17 overall prospect, allowed two hits and two earned runs in his one inning Thursday. \u201cHe looked calm out there,\u201d McCullough said… Owen Caissie, the top outfield prospect acquired from the Cubs, is 0 for 6 with five strikeouts so far this spring… Miami is 3-3 after Thursday\u2019s 8-7 win against the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
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\u25aa The Marlins are bullish on Tyler Phillips, who had a 2.78 ERA and four saves in 54 games after being acquired for cash from Philadelphia last April. (Add Phillips to the growing list of Bendix\u2019s getting something-for-practically nothing deals.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s so great about him is his efficiency,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cHe can do anything and everything. He\u2019s got that type of repertoire to start. He can handle right-handed hitters, can handle left-handers. Guys who can provide multiple innings is incredibly advantageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Phillips, Gusto and Janson Junk, the Marlins have three veterans who can pitch three to six innings if a starter is chased (or injured) early. Junk, recovering from an ankle injury, still has a shot at a rotation spot.<\/p>\n
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The Marlins also got something for absolutely nothing with Lake Bachar, who was claimed off waivers from the Reds in September 2024, and is coming off an 8-2 season with a 3.93 ERA and three saves and 71 strikeouts in 75 innings for the Marlins last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cLake is really good,\u201d McCullough said this week. \u201cYou look at his fastball and sweeper and split. He gets a lot of swing and miss and can get punch. He can go through a tough part of a lineup in a leverage spot and also can go multiple innings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa Marlins No. 3 starter Chris Paddack, who gave up the most earned runs in the American League last season (94), has been \u201cincredibly open-minded\u201d about working with Marlins coaches to try to get him back to previous levels, McCullough said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s going to fill up the zone,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cGuys are helping him get some better weapons to put guys away, to generate more miss. We\u2019re trying to put into practice into game settings some of the things we\u2019ve been working on, with the shape of his breaking ball. Now\u2019s a good time for trial and error with different pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa The Marlins will continue calling pitches from the dugout, something they began last September. But McCullough said pitchers still have the authority to shake off the call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A six-pack of Marlins notes on a Thursday: \u25aa New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan was mentioning this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[145,5,8218,752,6381,1081,139,15601,4942,5973,1816,778,58,4171,4,9677,144,5100,1073,7965,1947,282,12436,142],"class_list":["post-596678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-marlins","tag-arsenal","tag-baseball","tag-braxton-garrett","tag-chris-paddack","tag-clayton-mccullough","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-houston","tag-janson-junk","tag-jesus-sanchez","tag-lake-bachar","tag-marlins","tag-miami","tag-miami-marlins","tag-miamimarlins","tag-mlb","tag-owen-caissie","tag-philadelphia","tag-ryan-gusto","tag-ryan-weathers","tag-the-astros","tag-the-marlins","tag-toronto","tag-tyler-phillips","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116144296666031289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}