The Marlins are planning a position shift for one of their most promising young talents. Infielder Xavier Edwards, currently on the injured list due to back strain, will move from shortstop to second base once he returns from the 10-day IL, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Otto Lopez, who’s been filling in at short in Edwards’ absence, will continue to be Miami’s primary shortstop. Edwards begins a rehab assignment today and will play second base for Triple-A Jacksonville.
It’s a sensible change for the Marlins to make. Edwards was the brightest spot in last year’s lineup, hitting .328/.397/.423 in 303 plate appearances as a rookie, but defensive metrics have panned his glovework at short since he first logged an inning at the position last year. Edwards has tallied 949 2/3 innings at shortstop in his young career and been dinged for minus-12 Defensive Runs Saved, minus-17 Outs Above Average and a minus-5.8 Ultimate Zone Rating. Statcast has him at the very bottom of the barrel in terms of infield range, and his arm strength ranks in the 11th percentile of MLB infielders.
The 26-year-old Lopez has seen the lion’s share of playing time at second base dating back to 2024, and he’s ranked as one of the best defensive players not just at second base but in the entire sport during that time. He grades out right alongside second basemen like Andres Gimenez, Brice Turang and Marcus Semien in the eyes of Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average. Lopez is tied for the 22nd-best DRS total at any position in MLB since 2024, while Statcast is even more bullish and credits his second base wizardry as a top-three performance in all of baseball, by measure of OAA.
Lopez’s numbers at shortstop haven’t been so gaudy in a tiny sample, but he’s looked comfortable enough and been so good at second base that the Fish understandably are seeing how a flip of their two middle infielders would look. If they can go from the combination of one elite defender and one liability to one good defender and one even average defender up the middle, that might be a preferable arrangement.
A position switch for Edwards shouldn’t come as a major shock when looking at his minor league track record. Originally drafted by the Padres with the No. 38 overall pick in 2018, he played more shortstop than second base in ’18 following that draft but has been used far more frequently at second base in every season since. The Rays, who acquired Edwards and Hunter Renfroe in the 2019 trade sending Jake Cronenworth and Tommy Pham to San Diego, didn’t play Edwards at shortstop at all in 2021 and only gave him 178 innings there in 2022. The Marlins played him at short for all of 34 innings in the minors in 2023, his first full season after being traded over from Tampa Bay.
In many ways, this is a move back to a more natural position for Edwards. He’s always going to be more of a hit-first player anyhow, so his future hinges far more on his offensive output than whatever he’s doing with the glove. Last year’s terrific output never looked fully sustainable, as that batting line was propped up by a .398 average on balls in play despite very poor batted-ball data; Edwards was tied for 352nd among 405 hitters (min. 100 batted ball events) with an 86.1 mph average exit velocity. His EV50 (the average exit velo on the top half of his hardest-hit balls) clocked in at just 95.1 mph — 393rd in that same subset.
Even still, Edwards’ bat has slipped more in 2025 than would have been reasonably expected. He’s batting .263/.337/.292 and has just four extra-base hits in 194 plate appearances. No one should’ve forecast a prospect who hit one home run in the majors last year to clear the fences much, but Edwards ripped a dozen doubles and hustled out five triples in last year’s 303 plate appearances. This type of power outage is still a surprise. He’s maintained a nice walk rate (9.8%) and a 17.5% strikeout rate that’s right in line with last year’s 17.2% mark, but Edwards hasn’t found the gaps in the outfield often enough to eke extra bags out of his elite speed.
There’s still plenty of time to right the ship. Edwards reached one full year of service time in 2024. The Marlins control him for four additional years beyond the current season, and he’ll reach arbitration for the first time in the 2026-27 offseason. He still has a minor league option remaining, if Miami eventually decides that further Triple-A seasoning is required. Lopez is on the same trajectory with regard to arbitration and free agency, but he’s out of minor league options.
You left out the utter disaster by rookie 2B Ronny Simon on Tuesday which probably prompted this whole thing.
The writers y don’t watch games.
In this case the Defensive Runs Saved stat explains everything.
They always find a stat or two (out of how many dozens) to
explain whatever they’re writing about.
Everything is cut-and-dried.
Listen to: ‘Feel Like A Number’ by Bob Segar.
Seger.
I can see Samuel is putting his mental fortitude in caring too much about thinking for GMs on which stats and metrics are important instead of using it to correctly spell out names.
If you think that this is just stat related and not based on performance, you haven’t actually seen Lopez or Edwards play at all.
I can confirm that I have not, in fact, watched every game of Xavier Edwards’ career. I hope you can forgive this egregious shortcoming.
I can also confirm that even if I had watched all 949 innings of Edwards’ shortstop experience, most people would probably still prefer to trust DRS and OAA over my opinion.
I can further confirm that I do watch quite a bit of baseball. An unhealthy amount, in the opinion of my wife. Sorry to rain on your parade.
Enjoy your weekend, Samuel.
Still just a slapdick prospect!
I hope someday this guy hits a homer off Snell
The bigger the stakes, the funner the story! I like it Baby Ray!
Padres moved him to 2B in 2019 while he was still in A ball. What took the Marlins so long to realize that he didn’t have the arm or range to play SS?
Lack of options.
For those that continually look at exit velocity, please note that some of the best hitters for average are at the low end. Some of those with hard hit rates are termed “unlucky”.
*laughs in Luis Arraez*
It’s his natural positon. Love the dual eligibility from this. Now he can hit instead of concentrating on defensive miscues vs flaws.
You just gotta motivate him man. Thankfully stowers is playing elite and Sanchez is finally healthy batting him in
Edwards has a decent glove, his throw is too weak, which makes too many bad things happen.
It’s too soon for numbers to show anything, but to my biased eye, Lopez should come out at least a tick or two above average at shortstop.
I’d put my money on the middle infield getting better.