Marlins make moves, near final roster. And team’s biggest spring revelation gets chance
Right-hander Connor Gillispie, arguably the biggest surprise of Marlins’ spring training, is poised to open the season in the team’s starting rotation in the wake of an injury to Edward Cabrera.
Cabrera played catch in Jupiter on Monday but is dealing with a blister on his throwing hand, an issue that forced him to leave his most recent spring start without recording an out and watching his spring earned run average swell to 25.07 (13 runs in 4 ⅔ innings).
Gillispie will start in Cabrera’s spot in Tuesday’s spring training game against St. Louis at 1 p.m. and is positioned to open the season in the rotation with Sandy Alcantara and Ryan Weathers — who have both been very sharp this spring — as well as Max Meyer and Cal Quantrill.
Claimed by the Marlins off waivers from Atlanta in January, Gillespie has been a revelation this spring, allowing no runs and no hits in eight innings, with one walk and four strikeouts.
Gillispie’s emergence will allow the Marlins to have Valente Bellozo (3.67 ERA in 13 Marlins starts last season) and prospect Adam Mazur begin the season in Triple A Jacksonville’s rotation.
Gillisipie, drafted by Baltimore out of VCU in the ninth round in 2019, has a 24-24 record, 4.01 ERA and eight saves in six minor-league seasons. He made his big-league debut for Cleveland last year, allowing two earned runs with eight strikeouts in eight innings in three appearances out of the bullpen.
Cleveland designated him for assignment Nov. 19, and the Braves signed him five days later before designating him for assignment Jan. 23. The Marlins signed him five days after that.
Roster moves
With Jesus Sanchez set to begin the season on the injured list and Graham Pauley reassigned to Triple A, the Marlins’ position players to start the season appear set barring a trade: infielders Jonah Bride, Matt Mervis, Eric Wagaman, Otto Lopez, Connor Norby and Xavier Edwards; outfielders Dane Myers, Derek Hill, Griffin Conine and Kyle Stowers and catchers Nick Fortes and Liam Hicks. Javier Sonoja, hitting .296 this spring, also will be on the team and can play the outfield and shortstop, second and third base.
Sanchez, the starting right fielder, is expected to miss two to four weeks with a strained oblique.
In his absence, manager Clayton McCullough on Tuesday started Myers (.281 this spring) in left, Hill (.250) in center and Stowers (.148) in right in a 6-5 loss to the Mets that dropped Miami to 7-11 this spring.
The Marlins have 27 healthy players in camp from their 40-man roster and will need to get down to 26 before opening day March 27 at home against Pittsburgh at 4 p.m.
The three unhealthy players: Cabrera, Sanchez and left-handed reliever Andrew Nardi, who’s out indefinitely with a back issue.
Locks for the bullpen appear to be Jesús Tinoco and Calvin Faucher (who are expected to share the closer’s job), Anthony Bender, Seth Martinez and Declan Cronin.
Also on the 40-man roster and competing for three spots: lefty Anthony Veneziano (the only healthy lefty reliever on the 40-man roster) and right-handers Ronny Henriquez (2.90 ERA in 19 career appearances for the Twins; seems likely to stick), Lake Bachar (3.86 ERA in 10 games for the Marlins last year) and George Soriano (6.75 ERA in 22 appearances for the Marlins last season).
Martinez, claimed off waivers from Seattle last week after an earlier offseason stint with Miami, has a 3.93 ERA in 111 appearances for Houston over the past four seasons. He was bombed in his first Marlins spring appearance (54.00 ERA) but is out of minor league options.
This story was originally published March 17, 2025 at 4:58 PM.
