Why Miami Marlins veterans and coaches are so impressed with top-five pick JJ Bleday
The list of attributes which impressed Juan Pierre about JJ Bleday when he first met the outfielder last year are just about what is expected from a first-round pick. The minor-league outfield coordinator loved Bleday’s swing and loved his physical gifts. He loved how Bleday seemed ready to work hard and seemed to know where he needed to improve.
Pierre also loved that he was nervous.
“We talked today,” Pierre said as he walked off the field following the Marlins’ morning workout in Jupiter. “He was like, ‘Man, I was in the outfield and [Wilson] Ramos was up’ — the catcher for the Mets — ‘and I was just super nervous.’ He’s like, ‘I’m more nervous out in the outfield than hitting.’
“That’s real emotions, bro. That’s what it’s about, but he’ll talk about that where most people wouldn’t admit to it. That’s good.”
There are a few other things which make Bleday unusual for a top-five pick. Coaches and teammates say he has been mostly just a quiet observer throughout his first trip to spring training. They also rave about how polished he is at just 22. When he was drafted No. 4 overall by Miami in the 2019 MLB Draft, the Marlins immediately sent him to play for Class A Advanced Jupiter rather than a short-season league, where most players go when they are taken out of college.
The top-100 prospect also hasn’t had much trouble in his Grapefruit League at-bats so far. Bleday didn’t get an at-bat Tuesday in Miami’s 7-4 win against the Houston Astros, but he’s still 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI this spring.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas happened to head up to Jupiter less than two months after Miami drafted Bleday and just about a month after the prospect began playing for the Jupiter Hammerheads. Rojas strained his right hamstring and landed on the injured list in the final months of the season. His rehabilitation took him to Roger Dean Stadium, where he spent about a week with the Hammerheads. The shortstop was excited to see a handful of prospects and Bleday, who hit 29 home runs as a junior for the Vanderbilt Commodores and was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, was right at the top of his list.
Rojas knew Bleday’s talent would be apparent. He wanted to see how the 6-foot-2, 205-pound lefty handled his day-to-day routine. He left Palm Beach County even more impressed by the first-round pick.
“Just the type of at-bats that he had, the type of at-bats that a High A guy you don’t often see,” Rojas said. “He’s like working the counts, selecting his pitches to hit. He knew he that he wasn’t going to get really, really good pitches to hit because he was hitting in the middle of the lineup and that’s what I’m always looking for.”
Bleday’s rapid ascent from relatively unheralded out of high school — at least for a future top-five pick — to stardom is encouraging for the Marlins. Bleday was only the No. 151 prospect in PerfectGame.org rankings for the Class of 2016 and wasn’t taken until the 39th round of the 2016 MLB Draft. He batted just .256 as a freshman for Vanderbilt, then spiked to .368, but only with four home runs. As a junior in 2019, Bleday hit .347 with a 1.166 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and 27 home runs.
Bleday said his turnaround started with developing a consistent routine. That routine impressed Rojas — and is impressing everyone else — this preseason.
This spring, Bleday has typically arrived at the Marlins’ facility between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. to hit in the cage before full workouts begin around 9 a.m. He said the hardest part of playing in the Florida State League last year was “obviously” the rain delays because they can disrupt the timing of his routine.
It’s all an extension of what he developed with the Commodores, which involved daily cage work and constant self-evaluation. Before last season, he focused primarily on developing his lower-body mechanics because he used to always rely on his quick hands. The result was a more consistent approach against breaking balls and a massive uptick in power.
“You can’t really control your numbers or anything like that,” Bleday said, “but you can control the preparation and being able to get comfortable in that box.”
As soon as his first professional season wrapped up, Bleday took about two weeks off, then headed back to Tennessee to train with some old teammates at Vanderbilt. He was lifting weights about four times per week, doing yoga about three times a week and boxing twice a week to cut down some weight and reshape his body. This was all after he played 109 games last year across the college and professional ranks.
The word players and coaches keep using to describe Bleday is “mature.”
“I think that’s a good word to use,” third baseman Brian Anderson said. “That’s not saying that any of the other guys are immature at any level, but you definitely get a sense that it seems like you wouldn’t even guess that this is his first camp.”
Said manager Don Mattingly: “You see a guy who’s mature in his understanding of how to play, how to take an at-bat — all of that — so now it’s just a matter of just getting him reps, and getting him used to it as the levels changed and making adjustments.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 4:36 PM.
