Latest news with #MiamiMarlins'
Forbes
6 days ago
- Sport
- Forbes
The Miami Marlins Need To Be Buyers And Sellers Simultaneously
Miami Marlins' Agustin Ramirez, left, celebrates in the dugout with Eury Perez, right, after hitting ... More a two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Thursday, July 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Most MLB teams fall into one of two categories at the trade deadline—the good teams are buyers and the bad teams are sellers. For the Miami Marlins, the line is blurred. They aren't contenders this year, but their up-and-coming young talent could put them in that category in the near future. The Marlins are 48-53 this year, sitting in third place in the National League East. They're six games out of the final playoff spot and would need to leapfrog five teams to get there, so a big push down the stretch isn't likely. However, they've been red hot lately, winning 23 of their last 35 since June 13, so it's not impossible either. The average age of their hitters is 26.0, which is the youngest in MLB. Their pitchers have an average age of 27.5, which is the third-youngest. This is a club that appears to be on the verge of making noise as soon as next season, and the moves they make this week could be focused on propping open their window. Marlins Hitters Miami made a few trades at last year's deadline that netted them a pair of building blocks for their lineup. They dealt Trevor Rogers to the Baltimore Orioles for Kyle Stowers and Connor Norby, and they shipped Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the New York Yankees for Agustín Ramírez and two minor leaguers. While Rogers has pitched well for Baltimore this year after a disastrous second half last season, Stowers has blossomed into one of the best hitters in baseball. He made his first All-Star appearance this season, and he's hitting .295/.373/.566 with 22 home runs and a 156 OPS+, indicating his offense has been 56% above the league average. His 3.0 WAR (Baseball-Reference version) leads all Marlins players. Ramírez made his MLB debut earlier this season, and while he doesn't have Chisholm's track record of success, he's under club control for a lot longer. He can also absolutely smoke the ball, posting consistently excellent exit velocity metrics with a manageable 19.3% strikeout rate, and his average swing speed of 74.9 mph is in the 89th percentile. He's rough around the edges as a catcher, but his power bat will work at designated hitter if necessary. A handful of their existing players in their mid-20s look like everyday contributors too. Middle infielders Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez combine roughly average offense with exceptional defense. Liam Hicks is hitting .276/.367/.403 as a catcher and first baseman, and right fielder Jesús Sánchez has an .817 OPS against right-handed pitching. The Marlins picked seventh overall in the MLB draft this year, and they selected Oregon State infielder Aiva Arquette, making him the first collegiate hitter chosen. He's an athletic 6-foot-5 shortstop with power, who could fill an obvious hole for the club by moving to third base. That underscores their need for hitting, as well as the fact that they expect to compete in the near future. Miami's lineup is still incomplete. They could use another impact bat or two, especially at the corner infield spots, but they have several key players already in place. Marlins Pitchers Starting pitching has been a strength of the Marlins for the last several years, even when the overall ballclub wasn't performing well. They may even have the best young pitcher in baseball. Eury Pérez was on a rocket to stardom two years ago. Prior to the 2023 season, he was named one of the top pitching prospects in the game by every scout and prospect-ranking outlet—and he wouldn't even turn 20 until April of that year. He debuted in May and compiled a 3.15 ERA over 19 starts, but ruptured his elbow ligament in the spring of 2024 and underwent Tommy John surgery. He returned to Miami this past June, and was shaky in his first four starts back, as can often happen when coming off of that kind of injury. In his four starts in July, he has allowed just three runs on 11 hits in 23 innings. He has Cy Young-caliber stuff, and appears to have resumed his development where he left off—and he's still just 22 years old. Their best starter all year long has been Edward Cabrera, who has a 3.48 ERA in 17 starts. Even though he has appeared for the Marlins every year since 2021, he has three more seasons of arbitration eligibility remaining. Like Pérez, former Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara also returned to action after missing the entire 2024 campaign due to an elbow injury, but he has struggled mightily. He has a 6.66 ERA in 20 starts and his 77 earned runs allowed are the most in MLB. Still, he allowed just one unearned run over seven innings in his last start, and he's under contract for at least one more season with a club option for 2027. Max Meyer is a former top prospect who looked great early in the season, but is out for the rest of the year with a torn labrum. He had a 2.10 ERA after his April 21 outing in which he struck out 14 batters in six innings, but went downhill thereafter, likely due in some measure to his injury. With a normal recovery, he should be healthy at the beginning of next season. Marlins On The Move Miami should be dealing away players with limited team control remaining and acquiring talent that can help them next year. However, they're short on expendable guys who other clubs would want. The Marlins only have one player with an expiring contract. Cal Quantrill has been a below-average innings eater for them this season, posting a 5.24 ERA over 19 starts and 87 2/3 innings. He's on a reasonable one-year, $3.5 million deal, so a team that's hard-up for cheap starting pitching could take a shot on him. The fact that every other player on the Marlins roster is under club control next year speaks to the youth and future of the organization, but makes this trade deadline complicated. They need to thread the needle of trading away expendable resources while improving next year's club, setting themselves up for success in 2026.
Miami Herald
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Stowers named to the National League All-Star team as a reserve
Kyle Stowers is heading to the Midsummer Classic. The Miami Marlins' left fielder was named to his first MLB All-Star Game on Sunday and, barring any roster changes, will be the club's lone representative when the showcase is played July 15 in Atlanta. Stowers, 27, found out in a pregame meeting in the clubhouse. 'It's pretty surreal, to be honest,' Stowers said. 'It's something that certainly is on the career bucket list to experience. It's not my mountaintop, per se, but it's something that I definitely wanted to accomplish.' 'The reaction from his teammates said a lot,' said Marlins' manager Clayton McCullough. 'Everyone was ecstatic for Kyle, and he's earned that with his performance. But I think also he's earned a lot of respect from his teammates for the way in which he carries himself and how he handles the good and the bad.' Stowers' production made him the Marlins' likely All-Star choice. He entered Sunday's series finale against the Brewers batting .283 and leading the team's qualifiers in slugging (.519), OPS (.879), home runs (16), extra-base hits (32), RBI (46) and total bases (147). He had five homers in nine games since June 26, tied for second most in the majors during that span, while slashing 355/.429/.903 with a 1.332 OPS. And, of course, there were the two unforgettable walk-offs in the first half of this season — an RBI single to beat the Pirates on Opening Day and a walk-off grand slam against A's flamethrower Mason Miller on May 3, one of only six in franchise history, that snapped a six-game skid. But it hasn't all been smooth. Stowers weathered a 31-game homerless drought and endured a brutal 2-for-30 stretch at the plate from May 24 to June 1. 'He deserves the credit,' McCullough said. 'It's easy to say, 'Well, guys, go make adjustments, and the league will show you.' But it's another thing to be willing to be open to be like, 'OK, I've got to make some real wholesale changes and swing adjustments,' and take what slapped you in the face and push back on it. That shows a lot about Kyle's character. '[Dodgers manager] Dave Roberts has said this a lot: 'The game has a way of rewarding you.' Kyle is one of those, the way he's been rewarded for his stick-to-it-iveness and his openness to getting better. There was a little bit of a dip, and his resiliency shows that this [success] was not a fluky stretch of games.' Said Stowers: 'I'm so grateful to do what I do, but there's a lot of challenges, too, and I care a lot, and so when things weren't going well, it's really hard, and it just makes moments like this that much more special.' Stowers, acquired from the Orioles alongside third baseman Connor Norby in a trade last July 30, reflected Sunday on his early days in Miami. 'I obviously didn't play the baseball that I would have liked to last year,' he said. 'But that being said, within the struggles there's just so many learning opportunities. And honestly, playing so poorly for a stretch of time forced me to kind of lower my expectations, to lower the bar and take one step at a time.' Stowers shared a story from near the end of spring training, when he was 'playing pretty poorly, and I was actually kind of nervous about not making the team'— a notion that seems silly now considering Sunday's news. 'We hadn't booked our living [arrangements] for the season yet,' Stowers said of himself and his wife, Emma. [Assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon] called me before the off day and he goes, 'Are you panicking?' And I go, 'No, I'm not panicking.' Calls me on the off day, asks me the same question. I go, 'I wouldn't use that word.' But maybe what you think I'm feeling is what I'm feeling. He goes, 'Do you want to come in early tomorrow, hit on your own, so you don't have to rush and get your own time?' 'I walk in that morning into the cage, and I go, 'I'm panicking because I've been doing so much good in the cage, and it hasn't shown any results on the field yet.' And he goes, 'Great, we can work with that. You think you're the first guy that's ever struggled in spring and then had a good season?' So he, [hitting coach Pedro Guerrero], and I had a 30-minute conversation, just talking. 'And I think it was the time where they really got to see who I was as a person, what I cared about,' Stowers continued. 'And to be honest with you, if I had to, like, pinpoint one moment that has really shifted things for me here, it was that moment. 'And things didn't get better right after, but just the understanding that we had in that moment, to be able to communicate, for me to be vulnerable to those guys and them to still believe in me and tell me that they have high hopes for me, I genuinely think that's something that's worth noting as a pinpoint for me this year.'
Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Marlins' season-high winning streak snapped in controversial fashion vs. Twins
The Miami Marlins' winning streak ended at eight games Wednesday night, and it did so with some controversy. In the sixth inning of the 2-1 loss to the Twins at loanDepot park, Kyle Stowers appeared to have tied the score with a blistering single off reliever Brock Stewart that scored Jesús Sánchez from second base. However, the ball struck second base umpire Emil Jimenez on its way into the outfield. Rule 5.06(c)(6) of MLB's official rule book states, 'If a fair ball touches an umpire working in the infield after it has bounded past, or over, the pitcher, it is a dead ball.' That meant Sánchez was not allowed to advance a base and Stowers was awarded first with a two-out single. Eric Wagaman struck out swinging to end the inning. 'I haven't seen that kind of play in a long time — probably 15 years. The ball went right at [Jimenez's] feet,' home plate umpire/crew chief James Hoye told pool reporter Daniel Álvarez-Montes after the game. 'It was one of those 'Which way do you go?' moments. He tried to get out of the way, but it hit him on the side of the foot. 'By rule, if a ball hits an umpire before it passes any infielder, the ball is dead,' Hoye explained. 'Runners only advance if they're forced. So. in this case, Sánchez had to go back to second, and the batter-runner is awarded first base. There's no gray area—he has to call time immediately. It doesn't matter if the ball looked like it could have been a single or not; it's just a dead ball, by rule.' Hoye said, 'There's no room for interpretation,' and added, '[Marlins' manager Clayton McCullough] came out and said, 'It's kind of a crappy play.' and I said, 'I agree.' But that's the rule, and we have to enforce it.'' McCullough said of the call afterward: 'It's written that way to make things clean and once it happens, then that's the decision. It's just unfortunate [the ball] ended up clipping him. … A foot either way it probably gets through there. Emil did his best to try to get out of the way. Just a tough break.' Stowers said he was unaware of the rule. 'Probably would have scored. We all saw that,' he said. 'But the umpire wasn't trying to get hit. I hit it hard and he wasn't able to get out of the way. Bad break there for us, but it is what it is. We had some good at-bats after that, some opportunities to take the lead.' Stowers' team-leading 15th home run — a 357-foot shot off Twins starter Simeon Woods Richardson to right field in the second inning — accounted for the Marlins' only run Wednesday. The Twins scored the decisive run in the fourth with three consecutive hits to open the inning. Will Castro doubled, Brooks Lee singled to right, and Carlos Correa drove home Castro with an RBI single to left. Junk escaped without further damage, striking out Matt Wallner and inducing a 5-4-3 double play from Ryan Jeffers. After the controversy in the sixth, the Marlins missed a golden opportunity to even the score in the seventh. After back-to-back singles by Connor Norby and Dane Myers with one out, Xavier Edwards smacked a single to left field and Marlins' third base coach Blake Lalli signaled Norby home. It was a costly mistake. Despite Norby's elite speed, Harrison Bader's 94-mph missile beat him easily, and catcher Ryan Jeffers blocked the plate and applied the tag. 'Love the aggressiveness by Blake,' McCullough said. 'We've seen that all season long. Blake has been very aggressive, and it has led to a lot of runs on our end. Bader just made a good play.' Pinch-hitter Heriberto Hernández then walked to load the bases, but Otto Lopez's fly to left was caught at the warning track. Norby singled with one out in the ninth, but the game, and streak ended — one shy of tying the franchise record — when Dane Myers hit into a double play. 'Disappointing the way it finished, and to come up on the losing end,' McCullough said. 'We just came up short. It goes that way sometimes. Another really crisp ballgame by us. Hope we continue to play that way. We'll win more times than not.' THIS AND THAT ▪ Right-hander Max Meyer, who faces six to eight months of recovery after undergoing successful season-ending left hip labral repair surgery Friday, said Wednesday 'it's really frustrating' for injuries to impact four consecutive seasons. 'I've got to figure something out, whether it's my body or whatever I have to do,' Meyer said, standing in the clubhouse pregame on crutches. 'We'll try to gameplan something in the offseason, whether it's to take a deep dive into my mechanics or what not. I can do it. I just don't know how yet. I'm just excited to get back on the mound.' Meyer, who will remain on crutches for three more weeks, was initially able to play through the pain. 'I never thought it would get to this point, but once I felt the symptoms, I knew something was definitely not great in there, and I was starting to realize everything that could happen,' he said. ▪ With Derek Hill back from the injured list, Dane Myers will continue to get 'the bulk of the opportunities' in center field because 'he's played terrific,' McCullough said. 'He's earned that.' Hill will still see playing time, McCullough added, citing his defensive skills and base-running as assets. Myers started in center Wednesday for the 21st time in the past 24 games. ▪ Stowers extended his hitting streak to nine games and on-base streak to 11 games. He came in batting .393 (11-for-28) with 10 RBIs and four home runs over his previous eight games. ▪ Outfielder Heriberto Hernandez has been taking early work at first base. 'Anytime we have an opportunity to create more versatility within a player, within our roster, we'll look to try to take advantage of that,' McCullough said. 'Just taking a look at that to see what potential add that could have for him and us.'
Miami Herald
24-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Miami Marlins' shortstop Javier Sanoja continues to impress with versatility
Depending on the day, you'll find Javier Sanoja in the Miami Marlins' starting lineup at second base. Or shortstop. Or third base. Or left field. Or center field. During games, he's played first base. He's pitched. Pinch-hit. Pinch-run. From the infield to the outfield gaps, the 5-foot-7, 150-pound dynamo has been the Marlins' ultimate plug-and-play weapon. 'A guy like Javi can carve out a really nice career because it's a real luxury for myself to have someone that you feel confident to be able to plug in so many places,' Marlins' manager Clayton McCullough said. 'He takes pride in it,' said first base/infield defense/baserunning coach Tyler Smarslok. 'He knows he needs to be ready to jump at any position at any given time, and he's ready for it all. He knows that wherever you put him, he can do the job. And that's what sets him apart from a lot of utility guys in the league.' The only field positions the 22-year-old Sanoja hasn't played in his first full season in the majors are right field and catcher. 'As a kid in little league, I was a catcher. They later moved me to the infield because of my size,' Sanoja said via team interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. 'But if there's ever a situation in a game where I need to catch, I would put the gear on and go out there.' The Marlins are set behind the plate with Nick Fortes, Augustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks. But you get the point. 'I was always able to change positions since I was little, mostly for the goodness of the team, and to be able to be in the lineup as well,' Sanoja said. Growing up in Maracay, Venezuela, Sanoja admired another diminutive player, Jose Altuve. Standing just 5-foot-6 and weighing 166 pounds, the fellow Venezuelan has racked up nine All-Star selections, seven Silver Sluggers, and two World Series titles with the Astros. 'That motivates me to follow those footsteps. Even though I don't know him as much, he has guided me a lot during his career,' Sanoja said. 'I think his resiliency, the way he plays the game, the way he motivates others, I thank God for putting such a great example in front of me that I can use to guide myself.' Sanoja said he grew up doubted for his size. 'I think I'm an example that you don't have to listen to those people saying no, right?' he said. 'You've got to always try to follow the ones supporting you and my parents were the biggest support I had as a kid. They never pushed me to be a professional baseball player. They pushed me to do the things I loved the most and I wanted to do. You've got to continue believing in yourself. 'I've got to thank God for the strength he gave me because it was coming from within. Never was I doubting myself. I was always believing that I could make it. Even the tough moments when I was looking at some of my teammates were signing and I was not signing. It was difficult. But I just kept going, pushing forward, believing in myself. 'To those guys, the little kids that are a little smaller, what I can say is, 'Be different. Try to play more like Caribbean baseball. Try to do what the other guys cannot do. That's going to separate you from the bunch of players everybody's looking at. You will find a way.'' Sanoja had an RBI in his MLB debut with the Marlins last September, and his first start with them the following day was even more memorable. He had two hits, after which third baseman Connor Norby said of Sanoja, 'I was like, 'Who is this little guy? He mashes, he just rakes, he hits everybody and everything.' Sanoja is hitting .237 (37-of-156) with 15 RBI and 18 runs scored this season. He's pitched five innings across four relief appearances — all in blowout losses — and allowed 11 earned runs. Defensively, he's been nearly flawless: just one error in 59 games, with 65 putouts, 86 assists, and 18 double plays turned. 'He's done an incredible job. He's ultra prepared every day. He's incredibly consistent,' Smarslok said. 'It's a really tall order to play a lot of positions even good. And he does them extremely well. Not to mention they're all premium positions. His preparation, his ability to mentally lock into a position. What are the priorities? 'When he's playing short, he's got to attack a little bit more. He knows that. Second base, he can play deeper angles and really use his range to his disposal. When he's in center, he just goes ball-out athlete. He's going to catch the ball and make a lot of plays for us. 'I've said it before, I think this kid is going to win a utility gold glove at some point in his career if he continues to be a utility player. But he could be a regular at all these positions, as well.' For now, there's no everyday spot for Sanoja, who signed as a shortstop. He's started 16 games at second base, 11 in left field, seven at shortstop, and five each at third base and center field. 'If they put me in a specific position, I would still be working on the other ones because the season is so long, there are always injuries,' Sanoja said. 'Somebody will need support at different positions, so I will be ready for any position.' So how does his pregame routine work? If he's in the starting lineup, he focuses on that day's position. If he's not starting, he picks a spot he feels needs more attention — usually shortstop or third base, since those demand longer throws and sharper footwork. On non-start days, you'll typically find him working at one of those two spots. 'It's not easy at all,' Sanoja said. 'It's very difficult the amount of different routines I have to follow. And thank God I have a good chemistry with Coach Smarslok, that we have several different routines for each position. We keep working really hard to improve.' In the fifth inning Sunday, as the Marlins wrapped up a seven-game homestand with a 5-3 win over the Braves, Sanoja showed 'some of the swag' Smarslok raves about that looks like 'he's been doing this for 10 years.' The fielding chameleon charged a grounder off Ronald Acuña Jr.'s bat, barehanded it, and fired all the way across the diamond to first to beat his speedy countryman. Acuña nodded in approval and pointed toward Sanoja, saluting the defensive wizardry. 'Great play by Sanoja. He is a tremendous player. He can play all the positions. He just needs to catch one game to play the full positions,' pitcher Sandy Alcantara said, laughing, after the game. 'I love seeing him play out there.'
San Francisco Chronicle
14-06-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Marlins secure multiyear deal to again host Caribbean Series, AP source says
MIAMI (AP) — The Caribbean Series will return to the Miami Marlins' loanDepot park after the team reached a multiyear agreement with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The deal will allow the Marlins, who hosted the Caribbean Series in 2024, to host three more editions of the winter league champions tournament beginning in 2028, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team has not made a formal announcement. The Marlins had already secured the 2028 edition of the tournament after bringing record numbers to Miami in 2024 — the first time the Caribbean Series was held at a major league ballpark. The future years are not yet set. A crowd of 36,677 watched Venezuela beat the Dominican Republic in the championship at loanDepot park — the largest crowd ever for a Caribbean Series game and a higher attendance than the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship game (36,098) between the United States and Shohei Ohtani's Japan club held at the same venue.
