Don Mattingly sees more comfortable Peter O’Brien in Hialeah native’s return from minors

Peter O’Brien’s first crack at MLB in 2019 never stood a chance. The slugger, who attended G. Holmes Braddock High School in Miami and played at Miami, earned the call to the Miami Marlins in the first week of the season when Garrett Cooper went down with an injury, but he couldn’t take advantage of an everyday opportunity in right field. After nine games with a .111 batting average and 14 strikeouts, O’Brien went back down to Triple A New Orleans.

A second chance arrived Saturday. Another injury to Cooper placed the slugger on the 10-day injured list, which opened up a spot for O’Brien. The Marlins’ decision immediately paid off. They inserted O’Brien as their starting right fielder and the 28-year-old drove in the only two runs of Miami’s 9-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves with a two-run single in the bottom of the second inning.

“We just want to see him where he looks more comfortable up there,” manager Don Mattingly said, “and I think yesterday he looked better than probably we’ve seen all year.”

O’Brien went 1 for 3 with a strikeout in the loss, then slid to the bench for the Marlins (9-23) in their series finale against the Braves (17-16) on Sunday in Miami.

Although the Marlins don’t expect Cooper’s latest injury to be a long-term concern, O’Brien will get a chance to prove his latest trip to the minors helped. In 16 games with the New Orleans Baby Cakes, O’Brien went 15 for 54 with five home runs, 14 RBI and seven walks. His strikeout problem persisted — O’Brien whiffed 21 times with the Baby Cakes — but that’s part of the trade-off Miami knows exists in exchange for his raw power potential.

The Marlins need to see more than they did when he was in the Majors last month, though. For one day at least, there were signs of progress.

“Just good at-bats,” Mattingly said. “I think that’s what we were hearing before, that he was seeing the ball good, it looked like, making good contact, but obviously Pete’s going to swing and miss some.”

This and that

▪ Outfielder Isaac Galloway gets the start in center field after utility player Rosell Herrera manned the position for the previous three. Mattingly said Miami was just trying to build on a two-hit game by Herrera on Thursday. There’s no specific plan in place to split time in center. “Either one of those guys we feel pretty comfortable in center with,” Mattingly said.

▪ The roof at Marlins Park is closed for the 1:10 p.m. start. This is the first home Sunday game at the ballpark since two weeks ago, when the Washington Nationals complained of extreme shadows. Miami CEO Derek Jeter downplayed the Nationals’ concerns Friday, although he did say it was something the club would keep an eye on. Said Jeter: “Every park across the country has shadowws at some point in time.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2019 at 12:32 PM.