Marlins’ Ng dishes on plans for 2 of Marlins’ best prospects and addresses Marte contract
A six-pack of Miami Marlins notes on a Wednesday:
▪ Former Vanderbilt left-hander Jake Eder has been thoroughly dominant at Double A in his first pro season, but don’t expect to see Eder or impressive former first-round pick Max Meyer in a Marlins uniform this season.
With the Marlins’ pitching staff depleted by injuries, I asked general manager Kim Ng if there has been any discussion of promoting Eder or Meyer — two 2020 draft picks — to the big leagues this summer from Double A Pensacola. She said no.
“We have talked about the two of these guys in terms of their own personal performances and how they’ve done and marveled in some ways, but we have not talked about them coming up to the big leagues,” Ng said. “I don’t anticipate that being a part of our conversation.”
Does she believe they could be promoted at any point this year or do the Marlins believe it’s best they get a full year of minor-league baseball under their belt?
“I would hope they stay in the minor leagues” all year, Ng said.
In six starts, Eder — who was drafted in the fourth round last year — has a 0.61 ERA with 50 strikeouts, two earned runs permitted, and 12 hits and 12 walks in 29 2/3 innings.
Meyer, the third overall pick in last June’s draft, has a 1.86 ERA in six starts with 31 strikeouts in 29 innings and 19 hits allowed and nine walks.
▪ If the Marlins are out of contention by August, the view here is that Miami needs to promote several of its top position players — including outfielders Jesus Sanchez, J.J. Bleday and possibly Peyton Burdick and Connor Scott and first baseman Lewin Diaz — to get an early (though hardly definitive) read on how they fare against major league pitching.
That read is important so that the Marlins can better decide offseason personnel moves at first base and in the outfield.
Does Ng agree that promoting the top prospects would have merit in August if the Marlins are out of contention?
“I think for a small number of them, yes,” Ng said.
Bleday struggled early at Pensacola but has hit better recently, as colleague Jordan McPherson detailed here.
“A hitter like J.J. I’m not really concerned about,” Ng said. “I’m happy he has it back on track.”
▪ Ng said the Marlins have not had contract extension talks with outfielder Starling Marte, who’s eligible for free agency this winter.
Marte told Herald senior baseball correspondent Craig Mish that he would like to sign an extension with the Marlins and finish his career here.
If the Marlins inexplicably decide not to re-sign him, it would be wise to consider dealing him before the July 30 trade deadline if the Marlins are still well below .500 at that point.
Marte is hitting .341 and is considered the Marlins’ best position player.
▪ Outfielder Victor Victor Mesa has been out a couple of weeks with an ankle injury sustained on a pickoff attempt. He opened 4 for 24 at Pensacola this season.
His brother, Victor Jr., continues to outperform him, albeit at a lower level (.262, two homers, 22 RBI at low-A Jupiter).
▪ Outfielder Griffin Conine, Jeff’s son, has displayed power at High A Beloit (8 homers, 23 RBI) and is hitting .259 with a .364 on- base average but is still striking out too much (49 K’s in 112 at bats)....
Outfield Kameron Misner, the former second-round pick, is hitting .206 with three homers and 10 RBI and 39 strikeouts in 102 at bats at Beloit. On the positive side, he has 10 stolen bases in 11 attempts.
▪ With Dave Van Horne and Glenn Geffner scheduled for a weekend off, Marlins radio host Kyle Sielaff did good work handling play-by-play for WINZ-940 during the recent Pittsburgh series, alongside promising analyst J.P. Arencibia.
Instead of having Van Horne and Geffner work all the games together, the Marlins decided this season to have a trained play-by-play voice alongside a natural analyst (Arencibia, Gaby Sanchez, Kelly Sacco and for a few games, Tommy Hutton).
That has led to a more conversational, analytic approach on the broadcasts.
If Van Horne, 81, retires or is not retained after this season, the recommendation here would be for Geffner to continue doing two thirds of the games and giving Sielaff one-third of the games, with the current group of radio analysts returning.
Bally Sports Florida should split the TV analyst package between Todd Hollandsworth and Hutton (the best TV analyst in Marlins history), but that’s wishful thinking. At least Bally Sports had the sense to bring back Hutton for a studio role and occasional game broadcast appearances when Hollandsworth is unavailable — an idea smartly suggested by the Marlins.
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 1:46 PM.
