10 Miami Marlins prospects who stood out in the first month of the minor-league season
.jpg "Miami Marlins first baseman prospect Troy Johnston hits a home run on Saturday, June 4, 2022, for the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos.")
The Miami Marlins have found themselves to be competitive through the first month of the MLB season.
That success has extended to a slew of prospects who are off to strong starts at the minor-league level.
Here are 10 Marlins prospects — five position players, five pitchers — who dominated in April.
Position players
▪ Peyton Burdick: The 26-year-old outfielder leads all Marlins prospects with 10 home runs, 24 RBI, 24 runs scored, .636 slugging mark and a 1.017 on-base-plus-slugging percentage through 25 games for Triple A Jacksonville. He needs to drastically cut down on his strikeouts (44 in 113 plate appearances this season), but his power has been on full display early this season.
▪ Xavier Edwards: The 23-year-old switch hitter, acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays in November, has done a little bit of everything with Triple A Jacksonville. He’s hitting .306 with a .427 on base percentage, has nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts (15 walks, eight strikeouts) along with 21 runs scored and 7 stolen bases. A natural infielder, Edwards has been splitting time between second base (10 starts) and center field (eight starts) so far this season.
▪ Troy Johnston: The 25-year-old first baseman had a .963 OPS in 19 games for Double A Pensacola. Of Johnston’s 17 hits, 13 have gone for extra bases (6 doubles, 3 triples, 4 home runs) and his 15 RBI are tied for team lead.
▪ Yiddi Cappe: The 20-year-old infielder has a .303 batting average/.353 on-base percentage/.526 slugging percentage slash line with 18 RBI, six doubles, one triple, three home, runs and 12 runs scored through 20 games played for High A Beloit.
▪ Jorge Caballero: You won’t find Caballero on any top-30 prospect lists, but the 23-year-old outfielder has an .881 OPS with nine RBI and 13 runs scored so far this year for Single A Jupiter. He has also drawn as many walks as he has strikeouts (12).
Pitchers
▪ Patrick Monteverde: The crafty left-handed pitcher has a sterling 0.35 ERA (one earned run in 26 innings) with 38 strikeouts against four walks and 10 hits through his first four starts.
▪ Evan Fitterer: The 22-year-old righty and former fifth-round pick is off to a strong start to the 2023 season. He was promoted to Double A Pensacola after allowing just five earned runs over 15 2/3 innings with 18 strikeouts over three starts for Beloit. His first start for the Blue Wahoos? Six shutout innings with eight strikeouts.
▪ Eury Perez: We couldn’t go too long before talking about the Marlins’ top prospect. After a pair of shaky starts to begin the season (eight runs — five earned runs — allowed over nine innings), Perez has held opponents to just one run on four hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts over 11 combined innings in his most recent two starts for Double A Pensacola.
▪ Jefry Yan: The 26-year-old left-handed relief pitcher has struck out half of the 46 batters he has faced this season and has a 0.83 ERA through 11 innings of work over eight appearances.
▪ Jared Poland: The 23-year-old right-handed pitcher and sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft posted a 1.69 ERA (three earned runs over 16 innings) with 17 strikeouts against just four walks in three starts for Jupiter before being promoted to Beloit late last week.
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