Some Marlins players want extra reps before 2021. Winter ball is helping close the gap
Each time Jose Salas steps onto the field for the Aguilas de Zulia in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League this winter, he is a boy among men.
Salas, the No. 19-ranked prospect in the Miami Marlins’ system according to MLB Pipeline and their top international free agent signee a year ago, is just 17 years old. Only two of his 33 teammates are teenagers. Nine are 30 years old or older. with decades of professional baseball experience.
Salas wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s a needed opportunity to hone his craft and log the live at-bats that his missed this season after the minor-league season, slated to be his first, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since Salas wasn’t part of the Marlins’ 60-man roster pool, the only organized activities he had with the Marlins was a month-long instructional camp at the team’s spring training complex in Jupiter in October.
Playing these next two months in Venezuela, Salas hopes, will give him that needed push to start his career in the Marlins organization on a high note in 2021.
“We have a lot of guys with experience, big-league experience,” said Salas, who recorded two hits in his professional debut on Nov. 27 against Cardenales de Lara. “This league is very on-point with pitching and winning. It’s all about winning. That’s one of the reasons I like it over here. ... The experience has been amazing. There’s a lot of guys that I can learn from being down here.”
Salas isn’t alone. Five members of the Marlins organization are taking part in winter ball leagues overseas. Prospects Jesus Sanchez, Lewin Diaz and Joe Dunand are in the Dominican Republic. Sanchez and Diaz, respectively the Marlins’ Nos. 5 and 8 prospects, made their MLB debuts last season but had limited success.
Dunand, the Marlins’ second-round pick in 2017 and nephew of Alex Rodriguez, is hitting .297 (11 for 37) with four doubles and four RBI for the Leones del Escogido. Diaz is hitting .231 (3 for 11) through four games with the Estrellas de Oriente. Sanchez is hitting .211 (4 for 19) with a triple, two RBI and two runs scored through six games with the Toros del Este.
Outfielder Harold Ramirez, who only played in three games in 2020’s shortened MLB season due to a combination of COVID-19 and a hamstring strain after hitting .276 over 119 games in 2019, is playing in his native Colombia to make up for the at-bats he missed. As of Thursday, Ramirez has played in four games for the Caimanes de Barranquilla, going 2 for 12 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. He has been hit by three pitches.
“Winter ball has had a tremendous effect for many players,” said Marlins general Manager Kim Ng, who played a role in negotiating agreements with international winter leagues during her tenure in MLB’s central office. “It’s a great opportunity for a lot of these players to just get reps and to see in to see live pitching and to face live batters in a very, very competitive environment. The atmosphere there is just tremendous and you know the passion. I think it’s really just for them to get to be in competition, competing at this point in time right now considering what’s happened, and for them to get the reps.”
Ng and the Marlins hope the competition will carry over into spring training as the Marlins try to build on their 2020 playoff run.
Building up the organization’s minor-league system was a focal point of the club’s rebuild orchestrated by CEO Derek Jeter. Twenty-five of the team’s top-30 prospects were brought in since the new ownership took over prior to the 2018 season. Eight of the top 11 made their MLB debuts in 2020, although the club will admit some came up sooner than anticipated out of necessity after 19 players were simultaneous sidelined due to a COVID-19 outbreak early in the season.
“Whenever we can give a prospect a chance to play, we really would like to do that,” Ng said. “The quicker they come along and develop, the better off we’re going to be as a club for the long-term. We do think that we have some very good veteran presence on the team, very good veteran players. It is very difficult to strike that balance, but given what I just said about the the farm system whenever they play, it’s information. You’re always gaining information on what situations they can handle at this point, what situations they might not be ready to handle. But it’s all information so the more that they play, the better off our decisions will be, because we will have as much information as we can get.
The Marlins saw glimpses of the talent. Diaz, Sanchez, Monte Harrison and Jazz Chisholm had moments of success, as did pitchers Sixto Sanchez, Trevor Rogers, Braxton Garrett and Nick Neidert.
But they still have to prove they can show sustained success through a 162-game season.
“If just one of those guys lives up to their potential that we haven’t seen yet,” Ng said, “that would be a huge impact on our club.”
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