The backstory on three Marlins pitching standouts: Trevor Rogers, Anthony Bender, Cody Poteet
Trevor Rogers, Anthony Bender and Cody Poteet have been nothing short of revelations for this Marlins pitching staff — Bender and Poteet rising from obscurity to near perfection in their brief time in the majors, and Rogers surpassing the lofty expectations already in place for the former New Mexico prep left-hander.
Some background on how the Marlins landed each of them:
ROGERS
We’re told Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria needed to be convinced to draft Rogers 13th overall in 2017.
Mike Berger, the Marlins’ assistant general manager at the time, had Loria’s ear and was pushing for Miami to select Evan White, the University of Kentucky first baseman who went 17th to Seattle. Then-Marlins vice president Jeff McAvoy also advocated taking White.
But most of the other key people in the Marlins front office preferred Rogers, and Loria went along with the majority opinion.
On the second day of the draft, Berger and McAvoy sat in the back of the draft room sulking, unhappy the Marlins had passed on White, according to a source.
As for White, he made his big-league debut for Seattle on opening day last season and won a Gold Glove in 2020 but finished the season with a .176 batting average, the lowest among all qualifying hitters in the shortened 60-game season, and a .252 on base percentage, also the lowest, along with eight home runs and 26 RBI in 54 games. This season, he’s hitting .144 in his first 97 at-bats.
Meanwhile, Rogers (6-2) not only is tied for third in the National League with a 1.75 ERA, but he had 104 strikeouts in his first 16 MLB starts. (His 17th start was Monday.) In the live ball era, only Francisco Liriano (111), Al Downing (113), Fernando Valenzuela (115) and Herb Score (123) have more strikeouts by a lefty in their first 16 starts.
Among all National League starting pitchers, four Marlins rank in the top 24 in batting average against: Rogers is 10th at .195, Sandy Alcantara 19th at .217 and Pablo Lopez 23rd at .234. Poteet would be sixth at .167 if he had enough innings to qualify.
Rogers “is a special arm,” Phillies pitcher Zach Eflin said Thursday after pitching against him. “Really young kid, keeps his composure out on the mound. He’s one of those guys that’s fun to watch, you know? We’ll see how it all pans out, but he’s got some good stuff.”
BENDER
When the Marlins were making their offseason plans, they circled the name of one minor-league free agent they thought was a hidden gem: right-hander Anthony Bender.
Bender wasn’t invited to the Brewers alternate site in 2020, and Marlins brass believed perhaps he would be interested in a change of scenery. Adrian Lorenzo, the Marlins’ director of baseball operations, made a favorable impression on Bender and his representatives by remaining in frequent contact.
Several teams pursued Bender, and we’re told just before he ended up signing with the Marlins, the Brewers learned of his interest in Miami and pushed hard to keep him in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee’s Devin Williams was coming off a Rookie of the Year season, and Josh Hader is widely regarded as one of the top closers in the game. Knowing the Marlins’ bullpen situation was a bit more fluid, Bender chose Miami knowing he would get a chance to make the club in the spring.
It also didn’t hurt the Marlins in their pursuit that the Brewers didn’t invite Bender to that alternate site camp in 2020. We’re told that also played a part in his decision.
Bender, 26, was very good in spring training (8 1/3 scoreless innings in eight appearances, four hits allowed and 10 strikeouts) but didn’t make the 26-man roster.
Since his May 5 promotion to the Marlins, Bender has allowed no runs and four hits and a walk in 8 2/3 innings, with 11 strikeouts. Batters are hitting .138 off him.
So in his first 17 innings as a Marlin between spring training and the regular season, Bender hasn’t relinquished a run and has 21 strikeouts. If this dominance continues, Bender could be in the mix for some late-inning assignments later in the season.
POTEET
After he went 7-1 with a 2.45 ERA as a junior at UCLA, the Marlins selected him in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
A Marlins executive from the Loria regime said the consensus in the draft room was that he could be a back-end starter because of his feel to pitch (and decent stuff).
He signed for $448,700 and development came slowly. He bottomed out in 2018, going 4-15 with a 4.98 ERA in 26 starts in Jupiter and Jacksonville. But he blossomed in 2019, becoming a Double A Southern League All-Star, then took another step this year after a year of not playing.
We’re told Poteet’s emergence has been due to an uptick in velocity and improvement in his mental approach. Scott Aldred, the Marlins’ well-regarded pitching coordinator, and Triple A pitching coach Jeremy Powell were instrumental in his growth.
“The stuff appears to have ticked up this year,” one veteran MLB front office official said.
The results have been exceptional: Two runs allowed in 17 innings in his first three major-league starts.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Poteet has “got good stuff, continues to be able to change speeds, get the breaking ball over. There’s no reason he can’t continue. “
Poteet generally topped out at 94 mph in the past but is now averaging 95, topping out at 97 in his first start and hitting 98 in his first start in Triple A this season. He uses his fastball to set up his two secondary pitches.
SANCHEZ UPDATE
There’s light at the end of the tunnel for right-hander Sixto Sanchez, who will throw a bullpen session in the coming days as he works his way back from arm discomfort.
How has Sanchez gone from what was portrayed as a minor injury setback in March to missing more than a quarter of a season and likely far longer?
When the COVID-19 protocols delayed Sanchez’s spring training game debut until March 15, the Marlins figured they would allow him to build up his arm strength at the alternate site in Jupiter or Jacksonville and then re-insert him into the rotation by mid-April.
But then Sanchez felt shoulder discomfort during a simulated game on April 1. An MRI showed mild inflammation in the back of his right shoulder, and the Marlins decided to shut him down indefinitely.
He has been long tossing from 120 feet, but the bullpen session will be his first mound work in weeks.
The Marlins at this point are treating Sanchez as something of a trade deadline acquisition, someone who can come back in late June or early July and provide an immediate boost to a starting rotation that has held up well without him.
Mattingly admitted last week that he thought Sanchez would be further along.
“You never know how long or how a guy progresses,” Mattingly said. “Shoulder tendinitis is how they framed it [for Sanchez in early April]. Elieser [Hernandez] basically had that also and we see him a long way down the path. I would have said I would have thought [Sanchez] would be further down the road than he is right now.”
Asked to address the approach with Sanchez, Marlins general manager Kim Ng said over the weekend:
“We’re in this for the long haul. I mean, it’s not just about sort of getting him back as quick as we can. Obviously we all want that, but this is really about what he means to this organization and what this means to his career so we have been cautious with him.
“We have to treat these guys with great care. We’re early in the season, and the way we look at some of this is if we get Sixto back, he’s a great acquisition during a time when other clubs are trading three and four prospects to get that type of guy.... To add that type of pitcher during that time is going to be a huge add.”
The Marlins, once everyone is healthy, will be in an enviable position, with a logjam of top pitchers or high-end prospects.
Beyond Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Rogers, Sanchez (and perhaps Poteet if he keeps pitching like this), that group also includes Edward Cabrera — who has missed all season with an inflamed nerve in his right bicep but threw batting practice on Saturday — Braxton Garrett (a top trade candidate), and five prospects from the Marlins’ impressive all-pitcher haul in the five-round 2020 draft.
Four of those five pitchers have impressed in their pro debuts this month:
▪ Third overall pick Max Meyer is 1-1 at Double A Pensacola with a 3.07 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 14 ⅔ innings
▪ Competitive balance and 61st overall pick Kyle Nicolas, the former Ball State standout, is 2-0 with a 2.40 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 15 innings at High A ball Beloit.
▪ Third-rounder and 75th overall pick Zach McCambley, the ex-Coastal Carolina star, is 1-2 with a 3.18 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 innings at Beloit (Wisconsin).
▪ Fourth-rounder and 104th overall pick Jake Eder, the former Vanderbilt left-hander, has been brilliant at Pensacola, allowing one run and seven hits in 15 innings (0.60 ERA) with 26 strikeouts.
Fifth-rounder and 134th overall pick Kyle Hurt was included in a trade that brought the Marlins reliever Dylan Floro.
The one 2020 draft pick who has struggled:
Second-rounder (and 40th overall pick) Dax Fulton has allowed 10 runs in nine innings at low-level Class A Jupiter, along with 10 strikeouts. But the Marlins will be very patient with Fulton, who was considered the top lefty prep prospect in the 2020 draft.
Fulton had Tommy John surgery in September 2019 and is pitching his first competitive games since. The Marlins signed Fulton for $2.4 million, a record bonus for a pitcher who missed his senior season due to injury.
Follow Barry Jackson on Twitter at @flasportsbuzz. Follow Craig Mish at @CraigMish.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 3:37 PM.
