Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill spoke with reporters on a conference call today, providing updates on multiple injured players and addressing the status of the wave of veterans who’d been in camp on non-roster deals this spring (all Twitter links via the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson and SportsGrid’s Craig Mish).
Catcher Jorge Alfaro, who had been questionable for Opening Day due to a strained left oblique, now seemingly has put that injury behind him. Had Alfaro required an IL stint to open the season, Miami would’ve begun the year trotting out Chad Wallach and offseason signee Francisco Cervelli as the top two catching options, as there are no other backstops on the 40-man roster. (Alternatively, the club could’ve selected non-roster invitee Ryan Lavarnway.) If play does resume in 2020 now, they’ll instead take a continued look at the 26-year-old Alfaro, who came over from the Phillies in the J.T. Realmuto swap and slashed .262/.312/.425 with a career-high 18 home runs in 465 plate appearances for the Fish.
Updates on a pair of relievers were a bit less concrete. Flamethrowing righty Ryne Stanek, whom the Marlins acquired in the deal that sent unexpected breakout reliever Nick Anderson to the Rays last July, has been receiving some treatment for back discomfort and is now doing well. Fellow right-hander Jeff Brigham was slowed by a biceps injury in Spring Training and is still working his way back from that issue. A timetable for him wasn’t provided.
Stanek, 28, was impressive for the Rays in ’19 but saw his control completely disappear upon being traded to Miami. While he upped his strikeout rate with the Marlins, he also went from respectable walk rates with the Rays (3.2 BB/9, 8.8% overall) to astonishingly high levels with the Marlins (8.0 BB/9, 19.2%). At the time of the trade, Stanek seemed like a potential closing option for Miami — although so did Anderson — but his late struggles might’ve contributed to the Marlins’ offseason desire to add a veteran ninth-inning option (which they did in Brandon Kintzler).
Like most other clubs, the Marlins had a slew of big league veterans in camp on non-roster deals hoping to secure a spot on the club. The aforementioned Lavarnway, Matt Kemp, Sean Rodriguez, Brad Boxberger, Ryan Cook, Pat Venditte and Josh A. Smith were among the names hoping to secure a job. Everyone from that group is still with the organization, per Hill, despite any spring opt-out dates they might’ve had worked into their deals. However, until another iteration of training camp resume and teams know how many players they’ll be carrying on their rosters, Hill indicated that the club can’t make determinations or even indicate who is likely to be on the roster.
Mish and MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro had both previously reported that Boxberger seemed very likely to break camp with the team. Kemp, Mish noted again today, appeared unlikely to make the club prior to the leaguewide shutdown — and Hill himself acknowledged that the former All-Star had gotten out to a poor start (4-for-28, no extra-base hits, 11 strikeouts in 30 plate appearances). With Corey Dickerson, Matt Joyce, Garrett Cooper, Lewis Brinson, Magneuris Sierra, Harold Ramirez, Monte Harrison and Jesus Sanchez all on the roster as potential corner candidates — Jonathan Villar is expected to play center field — Miami isn’t exactly hurting for options.
I see another failed rebuild coming
Coming from a fan of a team that dumps its farm system into the Astros’ trash cans for post-roids Robinson Cano.
Talking abut dumping??? Marlins literally dump everyone who ever becomes good.. should we talk about the yelich deal???
The conversation here is about the rebuild for the future, not Lewis Brinson forgetting how to hit and Christian Yelich turning into the best hitter in the National League.
The prospects the marlins have don’t really scare me as a Mets fan.
Bleday and sixto are the only ones I see being studs
The prospects the Mets have should scare you as a Mets fan 🙂
Not really. I like where the Mets are. Their good prospects are a little further alway so that means when are good young players hit FA than we will have a good top heavy farm
Allen
Mauricio
Alvarez
Peterson
Baty
Gimenez
Wolf
Ik Bleday and sixto are better prospects than the ones I just named. But the other prospects the marlins have don’t scare me as much as the Mets prospects I just named except Peterson and wolf.
Peterson screams 4-5 pitcher and wolf screams good reliever
I would be scared if I was a Mets fan. You’re a huge Mets homer and an even bigger Marlins hater…
The marlins have a really deep farm system now. Some rankings have them as good as 4th in the lg. You’re forgetting a lot of prospects in the Marlins system outside of Bleday and Sixto. They have a ton of pitching not only in the rotation rn, but in the farm that’s coming this year and in 2021: Cabrera, Neidert, Guzman, Garrett, Rogers, Vesia. The OF prospects are legit, with Bleday, Monte Harrison, Jesus Sanchez. Victor Victor maybe, along with guys already in the big leagues like Brinson, Sierra, and Harold Ramirez. In the infield, Jazz looks really good, and even Jose Devers for his age.
I’m not trying to argue or call you out, but don’t be so ignorant. Read a little bit, watch some games, look at scouting reports, because right now you sound very ignorant of the Marlins farm system, it’s one of the best in the league.
I get that the marlins have a good system… Padres have had a good farm system for ages and I don’t see them competing soon either. Some organizations just don’t get it. I’m not saying Mets are one of them. For obvious reasons. But at least they have a good team rn with young controllable players who are under contract for a while. Something the marlins don’t have rn. I’m not scared of Jazz, Diaz or any other guy they have not named anderson Bleday Alcantara or sixto
Mets fans and homers should always be afraid of their own prospects after the epic fails of the following Mets All Bust Team (A Team since they can fill about 3 rosters of prospect busts).
C – Steve Chilcott
1B – Ike Davis
2B – Reese Havens
SS – Tim Foli
3B – Gregg Jefferies
OF – Shawn Abner, Lastings Milledge, Fernando Martinez (HM: Billy Beane)
SPs – Matt Harvey, David West, Bill Pulsipher, Paul Wilson, Mike Pelfrey
RPs – Doug Sisk, Aaron Heilman
QB – Tim Tebow (yeah, they even got a quarterback)
Yeah bc Harvey was a bust…. you are very ignorant.
Oh yeah, he’s had a stellar career. Best half seasons of sucess anyone has ever seen.
Mets fans have been looking forward to many failed rebuilds for the greater part of three decades
Both have been bad last few decades. Mets won’t be bad this decade. You could tell by the roster they have set up. Might not be the best team but the team should perform good for years to come
Did you copy and paste your comment from every Mets fan since 1962?
All I can say…1986!
Have fun in the basement lol
We’ll see.
Brinson, eh maybe he can bounce back. Marlins are cool team I’d always liked growing up because they’ve always got young good players.im excited to see if Harrison can be big
A Mets fan seeing another failed rebuild coming. Of course he does. It’s what the Mets do.
Guys, he never mentioned which team in his comment. I think it’s safe to say that he meant the Mets because of their history and the fact that they’ve had many since 1986 (longest championship drought in the NL East), so he’s seen it firsthand to expect another after deGrom declines. I doubt a fan of a team with a 33 year championship drought would be talking about failed rebuilds for a team that had one bad rebuild in their history (this last 2013-16 one that produced no winning seasons despite studs on the roster) with 3 producing different winning squads (from the 1993-1996 five-year plan; 1998-2002 fire sale rebuild; 2006-07 rebuild) that had 2 championship teams (1997 and 2003).
I think you all may have misunderstood. Someone would have to be a complete mowon to crack on a team when his team has done worse.
What rebuild lol. We are set up to win not rebuild…
You guys never really rebuild, which is the biggest problem since Frank Cashen left. Everything with the Mets is a half ash effort – “going for it” is half ash and the so-called “rebuilds” are half ash. Hence, the longest championship drought by an NL East team…while the Marlins have had time to come into existence, build a champion from a 5-year plan; then build another champion; then build another team that had a couple of winning seasons and playoff hope; then build a team that didn’t win, but was filled with studs to where they were ready to start winning until the death of one of their franchise players; and now are building again. Nats finally built a champion. The Braves built a long-time winner that won a championship, then have rebuilt again into a winner. The Phillies built a winner and champion, and have rebuilt again. All this while the Mets have rebuilt or “gone for it” how many times with always falling short.
Enjoy the continued Metsdom with the Mets Way.
And to close again…1986!
I think Alfaro is a really underrated player. I know he’s yet to really “breakout” and maybe I’m wrong and It won’t really happen. But I think he has the potential to be almost as good as Realmuto (offensively) if he can just make a few adjustments. He’s still relatively young and clearly has decent pop and solid enough contact skills. If he can just put it together a little bit more I could definitely see him becoming a .275-.280 hitter with 25 HRs
Not sure about being as good as Realmuto offensively, but yeah I think Alfaro will have a breakout year. I think in his prime years, he could be what you said, and hover around 3.0-4.0WAR. The dude has wheels for being a catcher too.
I chuckled at the article’s line that the Marlins would “take a continued look at” Alfaro. The guy is great. Once he gets past his all or nothing approach at the plate the guy will be a complete offensive weapon. He’s got a little work to do on framing and blocking but he has an absolute cannon on the defensive side. Not sure how pitchers feel about him but I love watching him play. Cervelli’s presence should make him even better.