The Marlins are calling up infield/outfield prospect Connor Norby to make his team debut, as first reported by Isaac Azout of Fish On First. He’ll presumably receive regular playing time down the stretch.
Norby, 24, came to Miami alongside outfielder Kyle Stowers in the trade sending left-hander Trevor Rogers to Baltimore. While Stowers went right onto the big league roster (and has struggled considerably in his first 16 games), Norby was the more highly regarded young player of the two. He’s a bat-first second base/left field prospect who’s hit well at every minor league stop, including this year in Triple-A, where he’s batting .293/.382/.496 with 17 homers, 24 doubles, a triple, 13 steals (in 16 tries) and a 12% walk rate. His 28% strikeout rate in Triple-A this season is admittedly a red flag, but Norby hasn’t had major strikeout concerns in the past.
It’s worth pointing out that Norby’s production has dropped off sharply since the trade, though he’s generally still holding his own outside of a dip in power, hitting .271/.338/.373 in 67 plate appearances with the Marlins’ affiliate in Jacksonville. Even still, Norby’s aggregate production in Triple-A between the two organizations has been 28% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+, and the Marlins have little incentive not to see what they have in a player who could be a core piece moving forward.
Among the 30 big league teams, Miami ranks 27th in terms of production from its second basemen (again, per wRC+) — and that’s including the 144 plate appearances Luis Arraez received before being traded to San Diego (during which he batted .293/.343/.368). Otto Lopez has seen the bulk of the playing time at the keystone since that trade, but he’s batting just .236/.270/.316 on the season, making him one of the least-impactful hitters in the entire league.
Lopez has provided huge value with his glove, but he can still impact that game defensively in a utility role while Miami gives a legitimate audition to Norby — a former top-100 prospect who’s looked largely MLB-ready for some time but fell down the Orioles’ depth chart due to the glut of touted young infielders present in Baltimore (e.g. Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Jackson Holliday, Coby Mayo). There’s far less competition in this stripped-down version of the Marlins, which president of baseball operations Peter Bendix is rebuilding from the ground up. MLB.com currently ranks Norby third among Miami farmhands, while Baseball America pegs him sixth.
Norby’s pending promotion gives him nearly six weeks to make his case for a 2025 role. It’s a not a true sink-or-swim test, of course. Norby only turned 24 in June and is in the first of three minor league option years. Even with a poor showing down the stretch, he’d still be in the mix to earn a spot on the roster next spring. He won’t lose his place in the team’s future plans with a so-so team debut, but he can likely go out and cement himself in their ’25 plans with a productive run. Miami currently controls Norby all the way through the 2030 season, and he’s not currently scheduled to be arbitration-eligible until the 2027-28 offseason.
Not 1 single player from the 2003 World Series Champion Marlins is still playing for the team. Unbelievable.
Hard to believe nobody from the 1997 championship team is still on the roster.
DJ,
Actually most of them still are, under assumed names. We just don’t recognize them without all their early 00s-style soul patches and doughnut goatees. Unbelievable.
Not 1 single player from the 1907 World Series Champion Cubs is still playing for the team. I’ll even bet Three-Finger Brown doesn’t even have three fingers anymore.
Most boring troll on the site
Step up your game
The Marlins fleeced the Orioles on this one but fortunately, it is negated by the fact that the Orioles don’t have any room for these guys. It seems like the O’s could have got much better than Trevor Rogers for two major league ready prospects that both have been top 100 guys with full control left.
ehhh, i think stowers is a fourth outfielder rather than regular, and norby reminded me a lot of jonathan schoop as an o’s prospect, and much less of an albies-type-impact as a second baseman. norby in particular holds value around the league but rogers has lots of control left too, and actual good seasons of production in the majors to dream on. maybe in a larger sellers market, a more consistent pitcher is available, but the o’s did well to make that trade, and when they did.
Fleeced may be a slightly string term, considering Kyle Stowers’ awful showing in the bigs so far. Looks like another overrated Orioles prospect.
IMHO, neither of the guys that the Marlins got are real players. As it stands now, I think both project to 200 Ks in the pros, without the requisite power to make up for it.
That said, I don’t think much of Rogers, either. But he has enough history to turn it around.
Joe
I agree with you 50%. Norby is a real player. I doubt he will be a star, and the article describes him correctly as a bat-first infielder. My comp would be Enrique Hernandez during his better years. I think this was a fair deal to both sides. Rogers is a lottery ticket to regain his top form, but his upside way exceeds Norby.
Here’s what I took from that trade: Elias made the decision that Norby and Stowers were the prospects who the Orioles didn’t have in their long-term plans. And they’re a team that surely wanted to trade guys to clear up 40 man space to protect more of their prospects from the next rule 5 draft. So, they really had to trade some players, and decided to trade them for the best starting pitcher that those two players could net. That ended up being Rogers. It doesn’t really matter how the trade works out, because the Orioles couldn’t keep those guys on the roster. You can only have so many prospects, and other teams apparently didn’t see them as enough to part ways with better pitchers, especially as starting pitchers are not in abundance these days.
Rogers is terrible. Marlins got two major league ready prospects for a terrible pitcher
Yeah, like Jack Flaherty
Stowers never been a top 100 prospect. If he’s a real major league starter I will be shocked.
Rogers has given up 10 runs in last 10 IP at AAA. Meanwhile Norby has .933 OPS with Marlins. Seems its you that doesnt know what fleeced means
Send Stowers down while you’re at it. Can’t hit major league pitching whatsoever.
He has about 200 ABs spread out over three seasons. Maybe wait a little bit before completely writing him off. He’s raked in the minors. Marlins have plenty of time to let him develop.
Bad take, imo. Smoke didn’t write him off. He said to send him down. That is the correct move. Stowers has a 77/11 K/W in 209 career ABs, with 4 HRs. That’s awful. He also had a 66/26 K/W in 229 AAA ABs at age 26. Again, that’s pretty bad.
If you demote him, there is a chance he will learn how to fix the holes in his swing.
He said he “can’t hit major league pitching whatsoever”. How is that not writing him off? He’s also almost 27 years old and has over 1,000 PAs at AAA. And the Marlins are awful and not competing. Why would you send him down? Just let him find his stroke at the major league level.
Don’t put words into my mouth. He looks lost in the majors, so he doesn’t belong there. He needs to be sent down in order to fix whatever is fundamentally wrong with him. No prospect has ever developed by feeding him to the wolves until he “figures it out.” That’s what the minor leagues are for.
He said he “can’t hit major league pitching whatsoever”.
================================
Right now, he CANNOT hit major league pitching. So his statement is 100% accurate. Over parts of three seasons, his OPS+ is 56. He has -0- good numbers in the pros. He doesn’t hit for good power. He has a 36/3 K/W this year.
There is a reason why he didn’t get promoted until age 24.162 and why BA had only given him 157 ABs in parts of 3 seasons.
I don’t see it that way. A hitting coach at the major league level can help fix a swing just as a minor league hitting coach can. Stowers has been at AAA for multiple years now. The Marlins aren’t competing for the playoffs now. If it were the Orioles and he was sitting on the bench, it would be good to demote him to get more consistent at bats. But with the Marlins, he can get plenty of playing time, which is what he needs.
Orioles also had a consistent outfield for the past few years, so they didn’t have much room for him other than on the bench.
FanGraphs projects him for a 93 wRC+ and 1.3 WAR/600 PA
The Marlins almost signed pujols, and they even admitted he was 3 years older than his age
Um what
And the award for “Out of left field” comment of the day goes to…..
btw, so thankful Pujols decided to sign with the Angels.
It is true
Cool name.