With GM Kim Ng on site this weekend, three top Marlins prospects at Double A impress
Kim Ng picked a good weekend to head to Pensacola and watch the Miami Marlins’ Double A affiliate.
The Marlins’ general manager on Saturday and Sunday got an up-close look as two of the club’s top pitching prospects in Max Meyer and Jake Eder impressed on the mound and was on site as top Marlins position player prospect JJ Bleday capped his best five-game stretch of the young minor-league season.
Let’s start with the pitchers.
Meyer, the third-ranked player in the Marlins’ system and the No. 22 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, threw a career-best six innings for Pensacola on Saturday, holding the Mississippi Braves to one run on three hits and a walk while striking out nine. After giving up a solo home run to lead off the third, Meyer retired 12 of the final 15 batters he faced. He struck out the side in the sixth to close his outing.
Through six starts at Double A, Meyer has a 1.86 ERA with 31 strikeouts against nine walks over 29 innings. Five of the six earned runs he allowed came in one outing.
“I’ve felt good on the mound,” said Meyer, the Marlins’ first-round pick in 2020. “I think the biggest thing is just being able to pound every pitch over the plate, especially my slider. Instead of just on an 0-2 pitch, I can get that thing over. My changeup has been in play a lot, getting swings and misses on that. And I feel a lot better with my fastball, too. I feel like I’m just growing out there every outing.”
As for Eder, the Marlins’ No. 24 overall prospect twirled another gem with eight strikeouts over five perfect innings on Sunday. It was his second start of the week after also allowing just one earned run on four hits and a walk while striking out eight more batters over 4 2/3 innings on Tuesday. This was his first time pitching twice in the same week this season.
Eder, a fourth-round pick out of Vanderbilt and a Boynton Beach native, has put up some incredible numbers through his first six starts: A 0.61 ERA, 50 strikeouts against just 12 walks, a .115 batting average against.
The main room for growth from the 22-year-old is to see if he can go deeper into games. He has yet to throw more than five innings in a given start but has thrown up to 89 pitches.
Eder, a 6-4 lefty, primarily relies on a fastball that sits between 92-95 mph and has touched 97 and an upper 70s curveball. He is continuing to develop a changeup as well.
“I evaluate right after I come out of the game every time, then take what I learn from it and put it backyard and move on to the next one pretty swiftly,” said Eder. “The only thing I am thinking about is inning 31 [his next start].”
And then there’s Bleday, the Marlins’ 2019 first-round pick and the No. 15 overall prospect in baseball. He struggled his first month in Double A, putting up just a .141 batting average with more strikeouts (30) than combined hits and walks (12 hits, 17 walks).
But this past week was a noticeable step in the right direction. Bleday went 7 for 22 in the six-game set against the Braves, getting at least one hit in each of the first five games before going 0 for 4 on Sunday. Of those seven hits, two were doubles and two were home runs, including a go-ahead two-run shot off the scoreboard in center field on Saturday. Bleday also drove in five runs, scored three times and drew a pair of walks while striking out just three times.
Bleday, known as a contact hitter first with the ability to hit for power, said his timing at the plate was a tick late over the first month of the season, resulting in weaker contact and swings and misses. Correcting that has been an emphasis recently.
And even during that early-season slump, his goal was the same as it has been since he joined the Marlins: Find a way to get hard contact. If he can do that consistently, Bleday said, the results will eventually come.
“I’m trusting my swing a little bit more,” Bleday said. “Just doing my best to attack the right pitches and stay in the zone.”
More Marlins minor-league notables
▪ The duo of outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. (No. 11) and shortstop Nasim Nunez (No. 13) continue to make strides offensively at Class A Jupiter. 19-year-old Mesa had a .391 batting average last week (9 for 23) with three doubles, six RBI and four runs scored along with four walks against just two strikeouts. 20-year-old Nunez hit .444 (12 for 27), stole four more bases, scored four runs and drove in another four.
▪ Catcher Will Banfield (No. 28) paced Class A Advanced Beloit offensively last week with a 1.233 OPS. He had seven hits, including a double and home run, five RBI, three runs scored and five walks versus just two strikeouts.
▪ Outfielders Kameron Misner (No. 15) and Griffin Conine (No. 18) each hit two home runs for Beloit last week.
▪ First baseman Lewin Diaz (No. 5) hit three home runs for Triple A Jacksonville while posting a .320 batting average (8 for 25) with five RBI and seven runs scored.
▪ A couple pitching notables: Braxton Garrett threw five shutout innings for Triple A Jacksonville. Also, Will Stewart in Double A threw six innings of one-run ball on Friday, striking out six.
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