Marlins’ JJ Bleday dominated the Arizona Fall League. A look at his six weeks out west
The last month and a half have been a needed opportunity for JJ Bleday. He knows his performance this season wasn’t up to his standards or the expectations placed on him when the Miami Marlins selected him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft.
After showing signs of life toward the end of the season with the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos, the hope was that it would continue when Bleday went out west as one of the Marlins’ prospects to take part in the Arizona Fall League.
Did it ever.
Bleday finished as the Arizona Fall League’s Co-Hitter of the Year along with St. Louis Cardinals first baseman prospect Juan Yepez after a dominant six weeks at the plate.
Bleday, the fifth-ranked prospect in Miami’s system and the No 71 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, finished in the top 10 among 70 qualified hitters in total extra-base hits (second, 15), doubles (T-second, eight), RBI (T-third, 24), triples (T-fourth, two), OPS (fifth, 1.035), runs scored (T-fifth, 20), slugging (eighth, .600) and home runs (T-eighth, five).
He was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle on two different occasions.
That doesn’t include the home run he hit in the league’s Fall Stars Game or his 1-for-3 effort with two RBI and a run scored in the championship game, a 6-0 win Saturday for the Mesa Solar Sox (which included prospects from the Marlins as well as the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays).
“It’s very encouraging,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said Friday. “I think it’s nice to see him turn the corner. When you’re in this type of situation with other prospects who are at your level, I think it helps to bring out the best in you. This is the JJ Bleday that we drafted.”
It’s the JJ Bleday that started to show up over the final month or so in Pensacola. Bleday hit .263 with 13 extra-base hits (seven doubles, one triple and three home runs), 19 RBI, 11 runs scored and 16 walks against 25 strikeouts in his final 27 games with the Blue Wahoos. This came after he hit just .195 with a .657 on-base-plus slugging mark and a 21.6 percent strikeout rate through his first 83 games.
Bleday admitted in August that he felt like he was trying to “over-do it” and “be someone who I’m not” as a hitter early in the season, his first full season of professional baseball after the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been tinkering all year long,” Bleday said. “It’s been a comfort thing mainly. Mentally trying to feel comfortable. As hitters, we know when we’re going good and when we’re going bad. I’ve been able to make some adjustments, tinker a little bit, see what I like and see what I don’t like. When it comes down to it, I just have to go back to what’s natural to me as a player. That’s been the main point. Doing my natural swing, my natural set-up.”
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