The Miami Marlins’ season is over, but many of their top prospects are still playing
While the Miami Marlins were embarking on their first playoff run since 2003, one that saw them reach the National League Division Series before being eliminated by the Atlanta Braves, action was brewing at their spring training complex in Jupiter. Forty-five of the team’s top prospects, 18 of whom ranked among the top 30 in the organization according to MLB Pipeline, began workouts as part of a six-week instructional league at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium Complex.
The Marlins showed a glimpse of their future during this pandemic-shortened season with 18 players making their MLB debuts including top prospects such as Sixto Sanchez, Jazz Chisholm, Lewin Diaz, Jesus Sanchez, Monte Harrison, Trevor Rogers and Braxton Garrett with mixed results.
“All these guys have to get better,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “We’ve got a number of guys that will have to take steps forward and there are still guys coming. ... There’s going to be a lot of competition. You have to continue to improve to be able to make this club better.”
One look at what’s happening at the team’s instructional league in Jupiter shows there’s still so much talent that hasn’t reached the surface yet.
For many of the Marlins’ top prospects, the instructional league is their first live, on-field work since early March when the COVID-19 pandemic halted spring training two weeks before Opening Day and ultimately canceled the minor-league season. Players who were not part of a team’s 60-player roster pool were not allowed to be with the club, including at their alternate training site.
“We take a great deal of pride in our player-development system,” CEO Derek Jeter said. “We have a lot of players we consider being top-of-the-line prospects. For us to have the ability to have the instructional league, it gives our players an opportunity.”
Only prospects who are not on a team’s 40-man roster are allowed to participate in the instructional league.
Pitcher Max Meyer and outfielder JJ Bleday, the Marlins’ first-round picks in 2020 and 2019 respectively, as well as catcher Will Banfield are the only players ranked among Miami’s top-30 prospects to participate in the instructional league in addition to being part of the team’s alternate training site for the entirety of the two-month season.
Other notable names taking part in the camp, which includes practices and a dozen games against the Washington Nationals’ instructional league team: 2020 second-round pick pitcher Dax Fulton (No. 12), 2018 first-round pick outfielder Connor Scott (No. 15), 2019 third-round pick outfielder Peyton Burdick (No. 16), outfielder Griffin Conine (No. 18), 2019 international free agent signing shortstop Jose Salas (No. 19), 2019 second-round pick shortstop Nasim Nunez (No. 20) and 2020 draft picks Kyle Nicolas, Zach McCambley and Jake Eder (Nos. 21, 22 and 23). Both Mesa brothers, Victor Victor Mesa and Victor Mesa Jr., are also participating.
“We’re very excited to be able to get these guys back on the field at our player development and scouting complex in Jupiter,” Gary Denbo, the Marlins’ vice president of player development and scouting, said recently on a midgame interview with Fox Sports Florida. “It’s going to be fun to watch because for as many good players that we have here at the major-league level right now, we have just as many at the minor-league level. We feel our future really, really is going to be something special with these young players. We feel like we’ve developed layers of talent throughout the organization that is going to allow us to keep this thing going and continue our winning ways for years to come.”
The excitement about the future also wasn’t lost on the current Marlins group as they made their playoff push.
Take shortstop Miguel Rojas, for example. During their three-day break between sweeping the Cubs in the wild card series and playing the Braves in the NLDS, Rojas was adamantly asking for updates on how the group in Jupiter was performing. Why?
“I really care about the players coming up because I know they’re gonna be my teammates at some point,” Rojas said.
He continued: “The excitement of the scouts and the people in the organization for the guys that we’ve got down there is as big as the excitement that we have right now [on this playoff run].”
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