How Marlins’ first base/third base plans are playing out, and where things stand
The Marlins entered spring training hoping that spirited competition among eight players would deliver a workable plan at their corner infield spots.
The results have been somewhere between underwhelming and decent, but well short of excellent. The positives: Javier Sanoja’s good work and Connor Norby’s improvement. But Graham Pauley and Chris Morel have clear offensive limitations, and the Marlins are seemingly still searching for longterm starters at both positions.
Norby -- who entered Sunday afternoon’s game against the Phillies hitting .247 (.351 on base) with three homers and 11 RBI -- has made 23 starts at first base, and manager Clayton McCullough said Norby and Morel will continue getting most of the playing time there. Neither ever played a game at first base in the majors before this season.
“Norby has earned the right to get plate appearances,” McCullough said Friday. “He’s had a very solid month. He has shown improvement in at-bat quality [compared with] last year. He deserves to get opportunities.”
Defensively, Norby has made a solid transition to first, committing two errors and showing nimbleness at the position.
“I’ve played pretty well over there,” Norby said. “There’s a throw I want back, but overall it’s been good. I treat it like second base. I treat it like we have two second basemen on the right side, that being the position I’m most familiar with. That’s how me and X [Xavier Edwards] treat it. I’ve enjoyed it.”
Edwards smiled when that comment from Norby was relayed. “He was feeling [leery]” about playing first base, “and I told him to treat it like you’re playing second... Very impressed” how he has done. The bat, meanwhile, has come around.
The Marlins hoped Morel would be their starting first baseman, but he sustained a left oblique strain during batting practice just before the season opener and has started two games since returning. He’s 1 for 7 with one error.
Even before the injury, it was dubious whether Morel would give the Marlins an injection of offense. He struggled this spring, and hadn’t hit at anything close to acceptable levels since 2023, when he hit .247, with 26 homers and 70 RBI for the Cubs.
Morel hit .208 in 154 games for Tampa in 2024 and 2025, but the Marlins believe he had higher upside than Troy Johnston, who was designated for assignment last winter and is hitting .320 (.376 on base) with two homers and 16 RBI in 29 games for the Colorado Rockies.
According to a source, two Marlins regimes -- this one and the previous one -- weren’t particularly high on Johnston, whose attitude rubbed some the wrong way.
Morel is “someone... we think has a lot of upside,” McCullough said. “We hope we can capture a more consistent version of Chris.”
What else could the team have done at first base last winter? The Marlins never would have considered paying the type of money the Orioles did (five years, $155 million) to sign offseason free agent Pete Alonso, who has struggled for Baltimore (.203, five homers, 14 RBI).
But the Marlins perhaps erred by not pursuing Ryan O’Hearn, who signed for two years and $29 million with Pittsburgh last winter and is hitting .310 (.394 on base), with five homers and 29 RBI. The free agent first base class was generally weak, which is why the Marlins spent most of their free agent money on pitching (Peter Fairbanks and Chris Paddack primarily.)
The Marlins have given four starts at first base to Liam Hicks (who is playing mostly catcher and designated hitter), one to outfielder Kyle Stowers and three to Deyvison De Los Santos, who is unlikely to become a factor for the Marlins’ permanent first base job unless he starts hitting better at Jacksonville, where he’s at .215 (.321 on base) with four homers and 12 RBI in 17 games.
If neither Norby nor Morel hits well in the weeks ahead, the Marlins could opt to go with Hicks at first base, top Triple A catching prospect Joe Mack at catcher and Agustin Ramirez at designated hitter, among many possible permutations.
Third base situation
At third base, the Marlins have given 19 starts to Graham Pauley and 13 to Sanoja, whose bat has been a wonderful surprise (.303, .370 on base). But the Marlins are invested in giving Pauley an extended look this season, against right-handers in particular, and want to be able to use Sanoja at other positions as well.
Pauley had a three-run homer in San Francisco on the last road trip but is hitting just .188 this season (.233 on base) and is batting .204 in 288 plate appearances in his career, with seven homers and 25 RBI.
During Saturday’s 4-0 win against the Phillies, Pauley popped up with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning and lined out with the bases loaded in the third.
“When we saw Graham at his best [during a stretch last August], he controls the strike zone,” McCullough said. “He was walking at a really solid clip. He cut down on his swing and miss. His swinging path was in a place to allow him to get the ball off the ground on the pull side.
“People will attack him with a lot of action moving in. To be able to stay through those pitches and get them off the ground and add that with the defensive acumen he has, it’s a good player.”
While Pauley’s offense remains delinquent, his defense remains dynamic.
“Graham and Javy are terrific defenders at third; they were ahead of Connor [during the spring],” McCullough said. “The way we were constructed, it was our best configuration of the defense and the offense” to put those two at third base and Norby at first.
The Marlins are keeping an eye on Triple A third baseman Max Acosta, but he’s hitting just .238 (.304 on base) in 11 games at Jacksonville.
This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 8:53 AM.
