Marlins’ Max Meyer, Jake Eder ‘making the most’ of first season and getting results, too
Trevor Rogers represented the Miami Marlins’ present at the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
But two days earlier, another pair of pitchers in the organization symbolized the club’s future.
Max Meyer and Jake Eder, a pair of 2020 draft picks, represented the Marlins in the All-Star Futures Game on Sunday at Denver’s Coors Field.
Their outings were short in the seven-inning showcase — they both faced two batters, with Meyer and Eder each throwing seven pitches — but their presence alone provided a statement about the state of the Marlins’ pitching depth. Only three clubs had multiple pitchers on the Futures Game rosters this year: the Marlins, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels.
“I would say we didn’t have any expectations coming in and got put in the position we were in,” Eder said, “but we’re just making the most of it and having fun playing every day.”
And they’re putting up some impressive results in their first season of professional baseball.
The Marlins sent both Meyer and Eder straight to Double A Pensacola for the 2021 season after their first opportunity to play in pro ball after the minor-league season in 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They have been nothing short of impressive.
Eder and Meyer rank first and second in the Double A South division in ERA, with Eder at 1.33 and Meyer at 1.67. Those marks rank second and fifth, respectively, across all four full-season levels of the minors.
Moreover, Eder, who was drafted in the fourth round in 2020 out of Vanderbilt and is ranked as the No. 22 prospect in the Marlins’ system according to MLB Pipeline, has 80 strikeouts against 20 walks over 54 1/3 innings while holding opponents to a .165 batting average. Meyer, Miami’s first-round pick in 2020 and the No. 20 prospect in all of baseball, has recorded 54 strikeouts against 27 walks over 54 innings while holding opponents to a .198 batting average.
The two are roommates in Pensacola, as well, and are building off the healthy competition.
“We’re just feeding off each other,” Meyer said, “learning from each other.”
When might they make their MLB debuts? It’s too early to think about that. Marlins general manager Kim Ng said earlier this season that the goal is for both Meyer and Eder to remain in the minor leagues for all of the 2021 season.
Edward Cabrera moving up
Meyer and Eder aren’t the only pitchers in the organization who are impressing.
The Marlins promoted Edward Cabrera, the No. 4 prospect in the organization and No. 51 prospect in baseball, to the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Tuesday, the next step toward the flame-throwing right-handed pitcher getting the call up to the big leagues.
With Sixto Sanchez sidelined for the season as he prepares to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, Cabrera is now the highest-ranked prospect most likely to make his MLB debut this year.
It’s just a matter of the Marlins feeling confident that he has thrown enough innings to be ready after he was sidelined from the start of spring training until early June with right biceps nerve inflammation.
“When we bring him up,” Ng said, “we’d like to make sure that he is ready to go and he stays up here.”
In seven starts this season (two with Class A Jupiter and five with Double A Pensacola), Cabrera has thrown 32 innings and has a 2.25 ERA with 44 strikeouts against six walks.
Cabrera has the pitching arsenal to become a high-end big-league starting pitcher if he can stay healthy. His fastball sits in the upper 90s and has touched 100 mph. His changeup has become a consistent pitch for him as well to go along with his slider.
This and that
▪ Outfielder Griffin Conine, son of former Marlin Jeff Conine, continues to hit home runs. He’s up to a minor-league-leading 21 in 61 games with Beloit.
▪ Outfielder J.D. Orr, the Marlins’ 10th-round pick in 2019 out of Wright State University, made his Double A debut on Tuesday with the Blue Wahoos and made an instant impact. He went 2 for 5 with a double and two runs scored while batting leadoff and playing in center field in Pensacola’s 11-3 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts. His first hit of the game, a first-pitch infield single, was part of a 15-batter, nine-run second inning.
▪ Also up in Double A now: right-handed pitcher Zach McCambley, who the Marlins picked in the third round of the 2020 draft. McCambley had a 3.79 ERA with 73 strikeouts against just six walks over 57 innings during his first 11 games of the season with Class A Advanced Beloit to earn the promotion.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 10:48 AM.
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