Miami Marlins open draft with pitching and select Minnesota’s Max Meyer at No. 3
Miami Marlins director of amateur scouting DJ Svihlik needed little time to explain what he thinks the organization is getting in Minnesota right-handed pitcher Max Meyer.
“That’s the most athletic college pitcher in this draft with the most electric stuff,” Svihlik said. “And he’s just about major-league ready. That’s it.”
After focusing on position players at the top of the draft each of the past two years, the Marlins went back to the mound with their first pick of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft.
Just not the pitcher most were probably expecting.
While most pundits pegged Texas A&M lefty Asa Lacy to the Marlins, Miami saw Meyer as the top pitcher in a pitcher-heavy draft. That’s why they took him third overall on Wednesday.
The Detroit Tigers selected Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson with the first overall pick. The Baltimore Orioles took Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad No. 2. Lacy went one pick after the Marlins, No. 4, to the Kansas City Royals. The Toronto Blue Jays took Vanderbilt’s Austin Martin to round out the top-five selections.
The Marlins already have a deal in place with Meyer, although the exact terms have not been disclosed. The slot value for the No. 3 overall pick this year was $7,221,200.
“When my head hits the pillow tonight, that’s when it’s going to sink in,” Meyer said. “I’ve been playing this game my whole life and this has been my dream ever since I’ve been a little kid. It just came true today.”
Meyer, who both pitched and played in the outfield for the Golden Gophers over the past three seasons, had a career 2.07 ERA with 187 strikeouts against 41 walks over 148 career innings. In four starts over the shortened 2020 season, Meyer went 3-1, had a 1.95 ERA, held opponents to a .155 batting average and struck out 46 batters in 27 1/3 innings. He tied the school record as a freshman with 16 saves before being moved into the starting rotation.
He solidified himself as the Marlins’ top choice with his complete-game effort against North Carolina on Feb. 28. He struck out 14 batters against one walk while holding the Tar Heels to one run on five hits.
“When you watch a player do something like that,” Svihlik said, “you find yourself thinking, ‘Is this the best performance I’ve ever seen?’ It was that dominant. The track record started a long time ago, but he just absolutely stamped it with this year.”
Meyer is the first college pitcher the Marlins took in the first round since taking Andrew Heany ninth overall in 2012.
And he becomes the latest top-end pitching prospect to join Miami’s system. Five of the Marlins’ top-10 prospects according to MLBPipeline heading into the draft were pitchers: Righties Sixto Sanchez (No. 1), Edward Cabrera (No. 5) and Nick Neidert (No. 10) as well as lefties Braxton Garrett (No. 6) and Trevor Rogers (No. 8). All five were pegged as being MLB ready either this year or in 2021.
“You take what the draft is offering you,” Svihlik said. “And this year, the first question was about trying to understand how do you draft in a five-round situation? Pitching is one of those things that you can kind of get your hands around. We get a lot of awesome data, and we’ve had a chance to see the players. And in this particular draft, there’s a lot of it. So when you do that, you put all those pieces together, we thought it was an awesome opportunity to attack. So that’s what we did, starting with Max.”
Meyer’s scouting reports
MLBPipeline, which ranked Meyer as the ninth-best prospect in this year’s draft, said Meyer “owns the best slider in the 2020 Draft, a wipeout 87-91 mph offering with which he can add and subtract depth.” He also has a plus-fastball, one that sits between 93 and 97 mph and at one point touched 102, and an improving changeup.
The Marlins feel the same way. While he’s lanky at 6-0 and 200 pounds and could profile as a high-end reliever, the Marlins see Meyer as a potential front-line starter. Svilhik compared Meyer to the likes of Tim Lincecum and Sonny Gray.
“We know that you’re winning with pitching,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “That’s always been a philosophy here that you win with pitching, and with Max Meyer we feel like we got the best college pitcher in the draft. Two plus-pitches. One of the best sliders in the draft. Some of our scouts say it’s the best slider they’ve ever seen.”
Other scouting reports on Meyer:
▪ From ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel: “The righty exploded this spring after a strong summer with Team USA, with some scouts comparing him to Walker Buehler. Meyer hit 100 mph this spring and some scouts grade his spiked slider as an 80 pitch on the 20-80 scale, but he’s a slightly built 6-footer.”
▪ From The Athletic’s Keith Law: “His arm is really quick, but the delivery works well and he’s on time. He’s a very good athlete and has no trouble repeating the delivery or throwing strikes. There is reliever risk here, but I don’t think it’s from his height — it’s from how hard he throws, and how often the Gophers have asked him to throw his slider, so that we don’t really know how he’ll fare when he tries to pitch more off his fastball (or whether he can hold up throwing that many sliders). I’d take the bet, especially since there’s 2-3 WAR reliever potential here if he can’t handle starting.”
▪ From Baseball America: “If you’re looking for the best pure stuff in the 2020 draft class, Max Meyer might be your guy. … While Meyer is undersized, there’s not a disconcerting amount of effort in his delivery and he also has a strong history of throwing quality strikes. He’s one of the more athletic pitchers in recent years and went from a late-first round arm to a potential top-10 pick thanks to his early-season performance.”
What’s next
The MLB Draft concludes with Rounds 2-5 on Thursday, starting at 5 p.m. The Marlins have five picks: Nos. 40, 61, 75, 104 and 134.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 7:26 PM.
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