Marlins move on from Chris Paddack. And more on the Mack and Ramirez moves
Chris Paddack’s Marlins reunion is over after six starts. Two days after manager Clayton McCullough said Paddack would make his next start Friday against Washington, the organization changed its mind and designated him for assignment on Tuesday morning.
Reliever Will Kempner will join the team for the next couple of games to help out the bullpen, but Braxton Garrett or Robby Snelling are the top options to be promoted to start Friday’s game against Washington. [Update: Things are lining up for Snelling to pitch Friday’s game for Miami. Garrett is making his scheduled Wednesday night start for Jacksonville, according to the Jumbo Shrimp media relations director.]
After Paddack allowed seven runs in 2 2/3 innings against Philadelphia on Sunday, McCullough — asked if the organization had a decision to make — said he had pitched well overall and would remain in the rotation. But the two-to-three mph drop in his velocity caused the organization to consider an IL stint, which was tabled after Paddack insisted he felt fine.
Management then decided early Tuesday to move on from him. Paddack ended up pocketing $4 million for six starts (all of which the Marlins lost) and one relief appearance. He finished 0-5 with a 7.63 ERA. The Marlins have five days to trade or release Paddack, who was drafted by the team in the eighth round in 2015.
Mack debuts
The Marlins’ top position player prospects have all faced their share of angst and adversity this season, running the gamut from sophomore slumps for Ramirez and Jakob Marsee, to strikeout travails with Owen Caissie, to spring training injuries for Kyle Stowers and 2025 first-round pick Aiva Arquette.
So the organization is seemingly due for good fortune, and the Marlins hope catcher Joe Mack’s integration to the big leagues goes seamlessly. McCullough said Mack is going to catch a “lot,” with Liam Hicks getting regular playing time at designated hitter, first base and some at catcher.
Making the majors is “everything I worked for my whole life, my whole career,” Mack said after arriving in the clubhouse on Monday, hours before he went 0 for 3 in his big-league debut in Monday’s 1-0 loss to the Phillies. “I was dreaming of this as a kid. Finally being able to be here is truly amazing. I thank God every day for it.”
After, he said the feeling of playing in the big leagues was “incredible.”
There’s no concern about how he will adjust behind the plate; he’s regarded as a plus defender, having thrown out 30% of basestealers in five-plus minor league seasons.
“We’ve all been incredibly high on the defensive ability and what he brings back there — certainly the receiving and the throwing,” McCullough said. “We feel incredibly confident what he’s going to be able to bring here and raise the floor of our defense behind the plate.”
As with many of these Marlins prospects, the question is whether he will hit enough. His bat improved enough during the past two years for Baseball America to rank him 50th among all big-league prospects and fifth among catchers.
He has smacked 24 home runs and driven in 57 runs in 137 games since the start of last season, including 124 games at Triple A Jacksonville. He has a .334 on-base average (and .249 batting average) in 515 plate appearances overall at Jacksonville.
In 103 plate appearances this season, Mack has improved his walk rate from 8.5% in Triple A last year to 19.4%. His strikeout rate has dropped from 27.9% to 21.4%.
“Offensively, probably the high school catcher is one of the most difficult positions to develop, and he’s done it at a very quick rate,” McCullough said. “It just speaks to the talent. I think this year in Triple A… His at-bat quality has been better. There’s power in his bat.”
By every measurable metric, the Marlins have been among the worst teams defensively at catcher since the start of last season. In 2026, Ramirez has thrown out only two of 20 attempted basestealers (he was 8 for 91 last season), and Hicks has thrown out 1 of 25.
Ramirez had four errors in 139 innings behind the plate, which puts him on a worse pace than last year, when he had an NL-leading 10 errors in 605 innings at catcher.
McCullough said Ramirez will remain a catcher at Triple A; the Marlins, at least at this point, do not want to move him to first base or use him exclusively at designated hitter.
“I have a lot of affinity for Gus,” McCullough said, noting that Ramirez was “disappointed” and “sad” about the demotion. “He’s a tough kid, and certainly has had his struggles at times here. On the defensive side, while he put in a lot of good work this offseason — and we had seen some glimpse of things getting better — that part of his game needs to continue to improve to be able to catch up here for us.”
But Ramirez, who was the key prospect acquired in the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade with the Yankees, also was doomed by a dramatic decline in his power numbers.
Even though his on-base percentage has jumped from .287 last season to .318 this season, his doubles plunged from 33 last year — which was 10th in the NL — to five this year. So has his power; he had two home runs in 129 plate appearances compared to 21 in 585 last season.
“We just didn’t see this year offensively, some of the impact, especially the extra-base power that we believe he has,” McCullough said. “Still a ton of confidence in him offensively. He wasn’t chasing as much out of the zone. He just wasn’t doing as much with balls in the zone. Gus historically has had a lower trajectory launch angle. It’s been hard ground balls, but… this year, he fouled off a lot more pitches, especially in the top of the zone that… he was able to do damage with” last year.
Teams threw more two-seam fastballs and “more sinking action” against Ramirez this season, and that mitigated his slugging numbers to an extent, McCullough said. There was also an “inability…to do damage with the pitches that he’d had success on in the past.”
But with Mack seemingly the catcher of the future, what’s the best case scenario with Ramirez?
“The best case is that Gus goes down there and shows improvement behind the plate and gets his offense going,” McCullough said. “And to have him back here, we just would figure that out, what the dominoes would be after that. I’m not going to speculate on that now.”
As for Mack, he becomes the first player from the Marlins’ 2021 draft class to make the big leagues. Kahlil Watson, selected 16th overall in that draft, is playing at Triple A in the Cleveland Guardians system.
Drafted 35th overall out of East Amherst (New York) High in 2021, Mack progressed from a decent prospect to a very good one when his bat improved appreciably after the 2023 season.
“After ‘23, when I didn’t have the season I wanted, I did a lot of digging and… changed the way [I] trained and the way we went about business,” Mack said. “Had a good year in 2024 and carried it on to 2025.”
He said he improved at “recognizing pitch shapes and taking that to the game and trusting it.”
Defensively, “what makes him great overall is something about his presence back there, how he reacts to balls,” Marlins pitcher Janson Junk said. “His quick twitch is elite level. Blocking a ball, bouncing up – everything is very clean. He’s got a good energy back there. His natural baseball instincts are top tier.”
On Sunday, the Marlins’ Triple A team had just won a game in Durham, North Carolina, and the players were on the bus when manager David Carpenter summoned them back to the clubhouse.
“He was yelling at us and then dropped the bomb on me: ‘You’re in the show!’” Mack said. “I was shocked. I didn’t expect that at all.”
Mack then hopped a flight from Durham to Miami, sitting in first class for the first time, an experience he found delightful because the flight attendants gave him Oreos, popcorn and Sprite.
After his promotion, Mack’s first call was to his parents, and “they were shocked as well.” His parents, brother, sister, girlfriend and his longtime hitting coach and his family were all in attendance for his debut Monday.
The Marlins’ catching combo of Mack and Hicks will be unique in that both are left-handed hitters.
“Liam is going to play versus right-handed pitching for the most part almost every day,” McCullough said, with at-bats available for him at first base and designated hitter, as well as some at catcher.
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 10:00 AM.
