Who is Sterling Sharp, the Miami Marlins’ Rule 5 draft selection?
The Miami Marlins once again used the Rule 5 Draft in an attempt to add pitching depth.
The Marlins’ selection this year, with the third overall pick: Sterling Sharp, a right-handed pitcher who ranked as the No. 13 overall prospect in the Washington Nationals’ minor-league system.
The Marlins have to pay the Nationals $100,000 for making the selection, and Sharp must remain on Miami’s 26-man active roster for the entirety of the 2020 season.
Sharp, 24, is a 6-3, 170-pound right-hander hitter who the Nationals selected in the 22nd round of the 2016 MLB draft.
He spent most of last season with the Double A Harrisburg Senators, going 5-3 with a 3.99 ERA over nine starts. He struck out 45 while walking 14 in 49 2/3 innings and gave up just one home run last season.
He missed about three months in the middle of the season with an oblique injury.
His scouting report, according to Baseball America: “One of the more athletic pitchers in the minors, nothing about Sharp’s arsenal is spectacular, but he’s a sinkerballer who keeps the ball in the park [one home run last year] and his fastball and changeup are hard to lift. He used his fringe-average slider more often in 2019. ... He’s an upside play, albeit one with modest [89-92] velocity.”
The Marlins had a chance to scout Sharp during the Arizona Fall League, where he went 2-1 with a 1.50 ERA over six starts for the Surprise Saguaros. He gave up just four earned runs over 24 innings, striking out 24 batters while walking 11.
The Marlins will use him out of the bullpen next season.
“We got a lot of good feedback from him,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “This is not a high-velo guy. This is a different skill set and tool package than other guys in our pen. This is a guy who can put the ball on the ground, has a solid average to above-average change-up and can command his fastball. We’ve gone the route of the power arms and 100 mph fastballs that couldn’t throw strikes. We’re about trying to be efficient, pound the strike zone and get outs.”
“We felt like it was a great opportunity to add an element to our bullpen that we think will help us.”
The Marlins also selected selected catcher Julian Leon from the Los Angeles Angels in the Triple A phase of the Rule 5 Draft.
Leon, 23, has a .237 career average with 50 home runs and has made just 43 errors in 2,889 career innings. He has thrown out 29.8 percent of runners attempting to steal against him.
The other news from Thursday: The Marlins did not lose any of their main prospects eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.
The most important of those: left-handed pitcher Will Stewart, the club’s No. 26 overall prospect and Miami’s only top-30 prospect eligible for the Rule 5 draft that the club didn’t protect by adding to the 40-man roster.
Stewart, acquired along with Jorge Alfaro and Sixto Sanchez from the Philadelphia Phillies in the J.T. Realmuto trade in February, finished his first season in the Marlins’ organization with a 6-12 record in 23 games (21 starts) with Class A Advanced Jupiter, giving up 78 earned runs in 129 1/3 innings with 96 strikeouts and 42 walks. Opponents hit .275 against him. He had four quality starts — defined as giving up no more than three earned runs while throwing at least six innings — in his final eight games.
He carried a perfect game into the eighth inning of his second start with Jupiter on April 12 and again when he was one out from a no-hitter on July 20 but his production was overall erratic.
Jhonny Santos, a Marlins outfielder prospect who primarily played with Jupiter, was selected in the Triple A phase of the Rule 5 draft by the Seattle Mariners.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 12:55 PM.
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