Miami Marlins takeaways and observations on the horizon of the 2022 season
Spring training has come and gone. The shortened, three-plus-week ramp up period is over.
The Major League Baseball season is on the horizon.
For the Miami Marlins, it all begins at 4:35 p.m. Friday when they face the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park.
“The book starts,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “What you do down here [in spring training] doesn’t really mean anything at this point. We feel like we put the work in and are ready to go as best we can.”
While individual statistics and performance might not carry over, there are some observations that can be extracted from what the Marlins did during their time in Jupiter and their 14-game exhibition slate and applied, at least loosely, to what might be seen as the season begins.
Here are three takeaways.
How the lineup might look
The Marlins will do their share of mixing and matching with their lineups on a daily basis, especially with the incorporation of the designated hitter, but a couple trends became noticeable as spring training progressed.
First: The top of the lineup leaned more toward power than speed, with Mattingly trying to get his bigger hitters more at-bats.
Second: When all three of the team’s main left-handed hitters — outfielder Jesus Sanchez as well as infielders Joey Wendle and Jazz Chisholm Jr. — are in the lineup, Mattingly has spaced them out.
So when the Marlins face a right-handed starting pitcher (like they will Friday against the Giants’ Logan Webb), a lineup like the one below is very plausible:
1: Jorge Soler in left field
2: Garrett Cooper at first base or designated hitter
3: Jesus Sanchez in center field
4: Jesus Aguilar at first base or designated hitter
5: Avisail Garcia in right field
6: Joey Wendle at third base
7: Miguel Rojas at shortstop
8: Jacob Stallings at catcher
9: Jazz Chisholm Jr. at shortstop
Brian Anderson will also factor into the lineup during the season. He will be more of a roving player this season. That means occasional starts at third base when Wendle needs a day off or spelling Chisholm or Rojas in the middle infield. It also means spot starts in the outfield when Mattingly wants to give any of his starting outfielders a day off from the field, whether that means a complete day out of the lineup or a day as designated hitter.
“It’s just a difference of mind-set,” Mattingly said. “When we started looking at Soler and Avi, we’re not going to be like a true base stealing-type club. We’re going to hopefully do some banging. We’ll mess around.”
Another tidbit to note: No Marlins player went a full nine innings in a spring training game, so possibly expect more rest days early as players continue to fully get their legs under them.
Did Jacob Stallings get enough time to build a rapport with his pitchers?
The Marlins’ acquisition of Stallings on paper should be an immediate boost for the pitching staff. He’s a Gold Glove catcher with experience helping younger pitchers.
However, the adjustment and catcher-pitcher relationship-building period could very well extend into the start of the season.
The shortened spring limited the amount of time Stallings had to catch Marlins pitchers in live settings. There was work in bullpen sessions, in going over video and in general communication, but how all that applies into a live setting when the tension gets raised is difficult to prepare for until it’s actually done.
Of those expected to be in Miami’s rotation, Stallings caught Elieser Hernandez and Trevor Rogers three times in Grapefruit League games, Sandy Alcantara twice and Pablo Lopez once. He did not work with Jesus Luzardo in a live game.
“They already had a lot of stuff in place here to kind of help ease that transition,” Stallings said. “I watch a lot of video, look at a lot of the analytics side of things, talk with [pitching coach] Mel [Stottlemyre Jr.] and [catching coach] Eddy [Rodriguez] a lot. They’ve made it a lot easier on me just the transition part.”
Miami leaves camp relatively healthy
All of the Marlins’ main position players are ready for Friday. The rotation is fine too, although Hernandez had a scare when he took a line drive off his forearm in Miami’s spring training finale on Tuesday.
The only significant player who won’t be starting the season on the active roster is reliever and projected closer Dylan Floro, who has dealt with soreness throughout camp and will start the season on the injured list. In Floro’s absence, a combination of Anthony Bender, Anthony Bass, Richard Bleier and newly acquired Cole Sulser will handle the bulk of the Marlins’ high-leverage situations early in the season.
Triple A season begins
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Miami’s Triple A affiliate, began its 2022 season with a 6-5 loss to the Worcester Red Sox (Boston’s Triple A club) on Tuesday. Max Meyer, the third-ranked prospect in Miami’s system and No. 35 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, gave up two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out five in four innings of work. First baseman Lewin Diaz went 2 for 4 with a two-run double.
This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
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