Miami Marlins address long-term plan for Jazz Chisholm and immediate plan for first base
A six-pack of Miami Marlins notes on a Monday:
▪ Jazz Chisholm is competing with Isan Diaz and Jon Berti to start at second base, but manager Don Mattingly made something clear on Monday:
The team still views Chisholm as a future shortstop.
“We look at him as a shortstop long-term,” Mattingly said. “But right now our shortstop [Miguel Rojas] is pretty good and getting better, it seems, like every day. [Chisholm] will probably be getting more reps at second. He’s definitely capable of being a tremendous defensive shortstop. We’re not going to let him get away from that. But right now, he’s probably going to get more reps at second than he would at short.”
MLB.com rates Chisholm the 66th-best prospect in baseball.
MLB.com assessed him this way: “Stroke features explosive bat speed and natural loft. Yet rather than letting his home runs come naturally, he utilizes an aggressive, pull-happy approach that advanced pitchers have been able to exploit rather easily.
“His career-best 11 percent walk rate in 2019 offered some hope that he can develop some plate discipline, and he did a better job of using the entire field in his first brief exposure to the Majors.
“An efficient base stealer with solid speed, Chisholm is a potential 20-20 player if he can polish his offensive game. His actions, range, hands and arm are all solid or better at shortstop, and he looked smooth at second base with the Marlins despite having just one inning of Minor League experience at the position. While he still has a long way to go to reach his lofty ceiling, his tools and start of his pro career are similar to Javier Báez’s.”
Chisholm, 23, hit .161 (9 for 56) in 21 games for the Marlins last season.
How soon could Chisholm take over at shortstop? Depends on how he and the 31-year-old Rojas perform this season. Diaz’s play also could factor into that decision.
Rojas is making $5 million this season with a $5.5 million team option for 2022, with the Marlins required to buy him out for $500,000 if they don’t exercise the 2022 option.
But his 2022 contract becomes guaranteed if he has 500 plate appearances this season and enters 2022 healthy, according to spotrac.com.
Rojas, regarded as a respected team leader and excellent defender, has displayed considerable offensive growth in recent years. He hit .304 with four homers and 20 RBI in 143 plate appearances in 2020.
▪ Mattingly on Monday didn’t want to commit to a primary first baseman. He said Jesus Aguilar and Garrett Cooper will each get a lot of at-bats.
It’s also possible one could be traded, though Mattingly obviously didn’t say that. And Cooper also will get some at-bats in right field.
“In general, we feel like we are going to get both of those guys a lot of at-bats with a combination of first base and outfield,” Mattingly said. “Days off for different guys. We want both of these guys in the lineup as much as possible.”
Aguilar hit .277 with eight homers and 54 RBI in 216 plate appearances last season.
Cooper hit .283, with six homers and 20 RBI in 133 plate appearances.
▪ Right-hander Dylan Floro didn’t get many back-end bullpen opportunities with the Dodgers, but Mattingly believes he can handle it and has included him in the competition with Anthony Bass and Yimi Garcia for save opportunities.
Even if he’s the third closer option, he’s likely to get some late-inning chances.
“Anybody in the bullpen would want to have that chance,” Floro said of having closing opportunities. “I feel I can do it. I have not had a chance to get in the ninth inning and really prove myself.
“[Marlins general manager] Kim [Ng] is the first one who contacted me and is really excited to have me over here. We’ve got a lot of guys who can pitch late innings and get big outs. That’s what you need.”
Floro walked only four in 24 innings last year and has allowed batting averages of .182, .253 and .250 the past three years, with a career ERA of 3.33. He has 61 strikeouts in his 71 innings over the past two seasons.
“Floro — we love what he does,” Mattingly said. “He was not used in as much leverage [situations] in L.A. Obviously, they were stacked in a World Series-winning team. But we think he’s capable of being that kind of guy.”
▪ One thing to like about the Marlins bullpen additions: They generally threw strikes last year.
Floro walked only four, as noted above. John Curtiss, acquired in the past week, walked just three in 25 innings for Tampa last season and had 25 strikeouts.
But mlbtraderumors.com cautioned that Curtiss has “never displayed that level of command before last year’s shortened season and walks have often been his undoing when he’s struggled.”
Curtiss still has multiple minor-league options and is under team control through 2025.
“Curtiss is a very good arm, had some nice success last year,” Ng said. “Just brought him in to compete for a place in our pen.”
▪ Prospect chatter: MLB.com lists left-hander Trevor Rogers as one of 10 players set to break out this season. Here’s what Matt Kelly wrote: “Set aside that 6.11 ERA for a moment [and, really, 2020 ERA means even less than usual]. Rogers pumped up his fastball velocity for his MLB debut, touching 96 mph from the left side, and that heater popped from his easy, breezy delivery. Rogers’ slider and changeup missed bats, too, helping him finish his first campaign with a 30% strikeout rate.
“That’s a great number, but what’s more impressive is he paired it with a near-50% ground-ball rate; very few starters can be elite in both categories at once. In fact, Rogers is one of only eight rookie starters to pair a 10.0 K/9 rate with a 45% grounder rate dating back to 2010, and he’s in great company alongside names like Stephen Strasburg, Yu Darvish, Max Fried and Ian Anderson.”
Rogers is a contender for the fifth spot in the rotation...
MLB.co’s Jim Callis rates Peyton Burdick as one of the three most underrated outfield prospects in baseball. The Marlins know their 2019 third-round pick out of Wright State definitely can hit.
▪ The National League East is so strong that the Marlins could end up being the fifth-best team in the division but still a top-20 team overall in baseball.
Atlanta and Washington are loaded with talent, the Mets are much improved after a strong offseason and the Phillies bolstered a roster that underachieved.
“This is a black-and-blue division,” Mattingly said. “This is going to be grind. Every team in this division will give everybody trouble. It’s going to be a dogfight, and that benefits us. Let this division beat each other up.”
This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 3:05 PM.
