{"id":673204,"date":"2026-04-11T10:54:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673204\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T10:54:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T10:54:44","slug":"jacob-berrys-bat-has-woken-up-2-months-ahead-of-schedule-fof-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673204\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Berry’s bat has woken up 2 months ahead of schedule – FOF Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tI have never seen anything like it. Miami Marlins prospect\u00a0Jacob Berry<\/a>, whose value on the field depends entirely on what he provides offensively, is always helpless at the plate early in the season.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Helpless” is a strong word, but you can check his track record\u2014it’s been warranted.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tEarly in the 2023 season, Berry was the worst hitter in the Midwest League. Early in the 2024 season, he was the worst hitter in the Southern League. Early in the 2025 season, he was the worst hitter in the International League. Not only worst on his team, but yes, worst in his\u00a0league\u00a0(among players who avoided demotion to a lower minor league level). On this date last year, for example, his batting average was .097.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tTo put this baffling trend in its proper context, I’ll use wRC+. With ballpark and league factors taken into account, 100 represents average offensive production. During the past three seasons, here is how long it took for Berry to permanently surpass a 50 wRC+ (production at least half as good as league average):\n<\/p>\n

\t\tJune 13 in 2023<\/p>\n

\t\tJune 23 in 2024<\/p>\n

\t\tMay 18 in 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tThis spring, when Berry squandered an extended opportunity in big league camp\u2014he went 1-for-25 in Grapefruit League games\u2014it felt like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut to his credit, Berry is off to an uncharacteristically hot start to the 2026 regular season. The best all-around performer in the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp lineup thus far, the switch-hitter enters Saturday with a .333\/.405\/.472 slash line, one home run, a 137 wRC+ and nearly as many walks (five) as strikeouts (six). He also tops the Marlins MiLB leaderboard with six stolen bases.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Marlins have been\u00a0very\u00a0patient with Berry, playing him in an organization-high 369 minor league games since 2023, his first full professional season. Part of that is giving him every chance to make good on their $6 million investment in him, but his ability to hit hard line drives from both sides of the plate is legitimately enticing.\u00a0Per Prospect Savant<\/a>, he ranks in the 87th percentile among all Triple-A hitters in whiff rate this season (making contact on five out of every six swings). Berry’s batted ball profile is downright sexy right now,\u00a0with a higher percentage of liners (37.0%) than grounders (29.6%). Under the hood, his expected stats are fully aligned with his real-life production.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThis comes with a big caveat. Berry is repeating the Triple-A level, where he spent the final month of the 2024 season and all of 2025. It’s common for minor leaguers to experience dramatic year-to-year improvement based on familiarity with their environment.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Berry floundered during the first quarter of last season, he hit well throughout the rest of the campaign. And yet, the Marlins never called up the 24-year-old, nor did they protect him in advance of the 2025 Rule 5 draft. He went unselected.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFriday’s shutout loss notwithstanding, the Marlins offense has been good in 2026 (ranking top 10 in MLB in most categories). Though they’re vulnerable against left-handed pitching, Berry is significantly better against righties, so there isn’t a clear fit for him on the roster quite yet. Needless to say, if his current rate stats sustain deep into the summer, he will eventually get a taste of the majors.\n<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

View Marlins Top Prospects<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have never seen anything like it. Miami Marlins prospect\u00a0Jacob Berry, whose value on the field depends entirely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,40187,1816,778,58,4171,4,709],"class_list":{"0":"post-673204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jacob-berry","10":"tag-marlins","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-marlins","13":"tag-miamimarlins","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-prospects"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116385707598007554","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673204","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=673204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}