Marlins Designate Jonah Bride For Assignment

The Marlins announced that outfielder Jesús Sánchez has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. He had suffered a left oblique strain during spring training. In a corresponding move, infielder Jonah Bride has been designated for assignment.

It’s a somewhat surprising decision. Bride seemed to have a decent breakout with the Fish last year. Acquired from the A’s in February of 2024, he spent much of the first half getting shuttled to Triple-A and back but was in the majors for most of the second half of the season. He eventually got into 71 big league games and stepped to the plate 272 times. He hit 11 home runs and drew walks at a solid 11% clip, while keeping his strikeouts down to a 20.2% level.

That wasn’t a massive sample size but Bride also had a decent minor league numbers. From 2021 to 2024, he hit .289/.421/.489 on the farm for a 137 wRC+. His 17.1% walk rate was better than his 16% strikeout rate. He didn’t perform well when he first got to the majors with Oakland in 2022 and 2023 but seemed to turn a bit of a corner with Miami last year. He also provided a bit of defensive versatility, playing all three non-shortstop infield positions last year.

There’s no denying that he’s out to an awful start this year. Through 12 games, he has been punched out in 15 of his 45 plate appearances and has a line of .100/.200/.100. That’s obviously not great but it’s a tiny sample and the Fish didn’t need to open up a 40-man roster spot today. They could have simply optioned a player to the minor leagues to make room for Sánchez, while keeping Bride around to see if he could get back on track.

But Bride is now out of options and he was getting squeezed off the roster. Matt Mervis and Otto López are playing well so far this season at first and second base, respectively. At third base, Graham Pauley isn’t playing especially well but Connor Norby is nearing a return from the IL. Kyle Stowers and Griffin Conine are hitting well from the corner outfield spots. With Sánchez now coming back, the designated hitter spot might be needed to get all of them in the lineup. Sánchez got some center field reps during the spring but it’s unclear if the Marlins want to continue that experiment after his injury hiatus.

The Marlins could have kept Bride on the bench but there are reasons they opted for other guys there. They need a backup catcher and shortstop, which works for Rob Brantly and Javier Sanoja. In center field, Dane Myers and Derek Hill have been splitting them there. Hill had some minor injury trouble a few weeks ago, getting Myers into the lineup, but they’ve switched more recently with Myers banged up and Hill in the lineup. The Marlins ultimately seemed to prefer Pauley and Eric Wagaman, as they opted to DFA Bride instead of optioning either of those guys. Pauley is hitting .195/.233/.293 while Wagaman is at .231/.318/.359 in the early going.

Bride will now head to DFA limbo but he’ll know his fate in a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, meaning the Marlins could spend the next five days exploring trade talks. If Bride were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Marlins as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of John Jones, Imagn Images