The Opener: World Baseball Classic, Marlins, MLBTR Chat
Here are three things for MLBTR readers to keep an eye out for throughout the day today:
1. WBC scrimmages begin:
The World Baseball Classic is about the begin, but before it does the teams in US-based pools will be facing off against MLB clubs in exhibition games. Team USA’s game against the Giants (scheduled for 1:08pm local time in Arizona) will be broadcast on ESPN, where fans will get to see reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes take on 24-year-old righty Blade Tidwell. Meanwhile, fans in Canada can watch their national team face off against the Blue Jays (scheduled for 1:07pm local time in Florida) on either Sportsnet or MLB Network. MLB Network will also broadcast the first game of the Tigers’ exhibition series against the Dominican Republic’s team in Santo Domingo. That game is scheduled to begin at 6:05pm local time. A full list of WBC exhibitions can be found here courtesy of MLB.com.
2. Marlins legend enters his final season:
Longtime Marlins analyst Tommy Hutton is saying goodbye this year, as the Associated Press reports that he will retire after the 2026 season. Hutton played in the majors for parts of 12 MLB seasons between 1966 and 1981. It wasn’t long after that he began his career in broadcasting, and he covered the Expos (for whom he played in four of his MLB seasons), Yankees, and Blue Jays before eventually settling in with Miami back in 1997. Hutton briefly left the Marlins in 2015 before returning to the organization during the 2018 season, where he’s remained ever since. MLBTR congratulates Hutton on a storied career in baseball that’s spanned more than 60 years and wishes him all the best ahead of his final season before retirement.
3. MLBTR Chat today:
Spring Training is well underway, and the World Baseball Classic is just around the corner. A handful of interesting free agents such as Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell remain available, but most of the heavy lifting for clubs is complete. If you’re wondering where your club stands, how their offseason went, or if there might be any other moves for your club to make before the season begins, you can get MLBTR’s Steve Adams thoughts in a chat that’s scheduled for 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, follow along once it goes live, and read the transcript after it’s complete.
Padres’ Blake Hunt Shut Down Due To Oblique Injury
The Padres recently shut down catcher Blake Hunt due to an oblique injury, as reported by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Hunt’s exact timeline for return to action isn’t currently known, but he figures to be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
The 27-year-old was a second-round pick by the Padres back in 2017 but was traded to the Rays as part of the Blake Snell deal while he was still in A-ball. In the years since then, Hunt has bounced between the Rays, Orioles, and Mariners organizations. He was called up to the majors for the first time in July of 2024 but has never made an appearance in the big leagues. In 2025, he performed quite well for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma, slashing .272/.368/.452 (108 wRC+) with eight homers and 15 doubles in just 68 games. Following the 2025 season, Hunt elected minor league free agency and returned to the organization that drafted him on a minor league pact.
Entering Spring Training, Hunt was a non-roster invitee who appeared likely to serve as Luis Campusano‘s primary competition in camp this year. Hunt has long been on the periphery of the majors at this point and is perhaps overdue for a shot at the highest level, and while the out-of-options Campusano entered Spring Training with the advantage of having a 40-man roster spot already, it would’ve been understandable for him to face some pressure head of Opening Day. The 27-year-old appeared in just ten games at the big league level last year and went hitless in those 27 plate appearances. While he did manage to hit an extremely impressive .336/.451/.595 (149 wRC+) at Triple-A last year, he’s a career 88 wRC+ hitter in the majors with lackluster defensive marks behind the plate and has slashed just .211/.276/.336 (75 wRC+) with -0.8 fWAR and -1.1 bWAR when looking at just the last two years.
That lack of production makes it hard to trust Campusano headed into 2026, and his 2-for-12 showing during camp so far hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. Freddy Fermin figures to serve as San Diego’s primary catcher entering the year, but Hunt’s injury could wind up giving Campusano more of a leash as the team’s primary backup. Ethan Salas doesn’t figure to be ready for the majors anytime soon, and the only other catcher in camp at the moment with experience even at Triple-A is 28-year-old Rodolfo Duran. If Hunt’s injury is severe enough to sideline him long-term, it’s plausible that the Padres could look to add some external catching depth to provide further insurance behind their current tandem. Veterans Tom Murphy and Christian Vazquez are still available in free agency, but it’s also possible that veterans on minor league deals in other camps could opt out as Opening Day approaches or that catching depth on the fringes of another organization’s roster could be made available in a minor trade if the Padres were sufficiently motivated to get a deal done.
The Opener: Valdez, Extensions, Free Agents
Here are three things we’re keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Valdez to make Tigers debut:
Tigers fans will get their first glimpse of newly-signed southpaw Framber Valdez on the mound for Detroit, as he’s set to start the club’s Spring Training game against the Braves later today. At 1:05pm local time in at the Tigers’ spring complex in Lakeland, Valdez will face off against Atlanta righty Bryce Elder. The soon-to-be 27-year-old Elder is a one-time All-Star but has struggled badly over the past few years, and is coming off a 2025 campaign where he posted a 5.30 ERA in 28 starts. Valdez, of course, has been one of the top starters in the AL for several years now. Last season was one of his weaker campaigns, but he still posted a solid 3.66 ERA with a 3.37 FIP.
2. More extensions on the way?
Over the weekend, the Cardinals extended manager Oli Marmol on a two-year deal that includes a club option for the 2029 season. There will surely be additional extensions over the coming weeks, both for players and personnel. MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk took a look at the managers and top front office executives on expiring contracts back in January, and while a few (including AJ Preller of the Padres and Pat Murphy of the Brewers) have already reached new deals since then, many are still on lame duck contracts. As for players, extension rumors have been fairly quiet to this point in the winter but, as Chris Sale‘s recent extension with the Braves showed just last week, these sorts of deals can come together very quickly.
3. Big league deals still on the table for free agents?
We’re now into the month of March, and Opening Day is just a few weeks away. By this point in the calendar, most veterans lingering on the free agent market are likely to wind up signing minor league contracts. That won’t be the case for all of them, of course; both Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell have the track record and platform season necessary to earn a meaningful big league deal even this late in the year. There’s less certainty on that front for the rest of the remaining free agents, but over the weekend veteran outfielder Starling Marte landed a big league deal with the Royals. That Marte, who is 37 years old and has been more of a part-time player in recent years, was able to get a big league deal could offer reason for optimism for other players still on the market. Who will be the next to sign?
Cardinals Extend Oli Marmol
The Cardinals and manager Oli Marmol have agreed to a two-year contract extension, according to a report from Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Marmol was entering the final year of his contract but is now set to remain in St. Louis for the 2027 and ’28 seasons, with a club option for 2029. The Cardinals have subsequently announced Marmol’s new deal.
It’s the second extension Marmol has signed with the Cardinals. The 39-year-old initially took over as manager in St. Louis following Mike Shildt’s dismissal in October of 2021. Marmol’s first season as manager saw the Cardinals romp to a division title with a 93-win season thanks primarily to MVP-caliber performances from both Paul Goldschmidt (who won the award in the NL) and Nolan Arenado (who finished third). Unfortunately, the Cardinals were delivered a quick exit by the Phillies in the Wild Card round that year and went home that October without winning a single playoff game.
The end of the 2022 campaign also marked the end of longtime franchise face Yadier Molina‘s playing career, and Molina’s departure ushered in a transitory period in Cardinals baseball. While the club added an impactful bat behind the plate in Willson Contreras, pitchers in St. Louis struggled to adapt to life after getting so used to working with the nine-time Gold Glover. Meanwhile, both Goldschmidt and Arenado regressed in a big way, and injuries to key players like Brendan Donovan and Tyler O’Neill left the Cardinals tumbling from the top of the NL Central all the way to the bottom with a 91-loss campaign. 2024 saw the franchise get just barely back over .500 with an 83-79 record that left them tied for second place in the NL Central standings, but the team fell right back below .500 in 2025.
Difficult as Marmol’s tenure in St. Louis has been, management and ownership clearly do not lay the organization’s struggles at his feet. They signed him to a two-year extension prior to the 2024 campaign, and even after John Mozeliak retired and new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom took over, both Bloom and team ownership have expressed confidence in Marmol in the run-up to today’s extension.
It’s understandable why the team would choose to stick with Marmol despite a lack of on-field success. The Cardinals have saddled Marmol with a stagnant and aging roster for the majority of his time with the organization. Outside of deals for Contreras and Sonny Gray (both traded to the Red Sox this offseason), St. Louis has made relatively minimal efforts to improve the roster via trades and free agency in recent years, instead banking on internal developments that haven’t come to fruition. That lack of internal development has been attributed to the organization by the team’s decision to reallocate funds that once were used for player development into fortifying the big league payroll, and over the past two years the team has started to move towards a rebuilding phase where they plan to scale back spending and return their focus to building from within.
Given the current state of the organization, it’s understandable that the Cardinals would look to keep someone they had enough confidence in to install as MLB’s youngest manager at the time of his hire. Now headed into his fifth season as a big league manager (with a decade of coaching experience prior to that), Marmol has plenty of experience handling young players and veterans alike. His work with last year’s Cardinals team, which lacked the win-now expectations of most seasons in St. Louis, will surely prove informative for the difficult task of rebuilding into a contender that the organization now faces.
Padres Shut Bryan Hoeing Down With Elbow Discomfort
Padres right-hander Bryan Hoeing is likely to miss the start of the season, according to a report from Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Per Acee, Hoeing is dealing with some discomfort in his throwing elbow and has been shut down by San Diego as a result. Acee added that pitching coach Ruben Niebla expressed some early optimism about the severity of the injury.
“We don’t think it’s as serious (as it could be), but we have to be conscious and take a look at it and be able to make the right assessments,” Niebla told reporters, as relayed by Acee.
More details on Hoeing’s status and timeline for return will surely be available in the coming days, once the team has had the opportunity to get Hoeing’s elbow looked at. In any case, it makes sense for the Padres to be extremely cautious with Hoeing at this point given how damaging a severe elbow injury can be to a player’s career. That’s especially true for the 29-year-old Hoeing, who pitched just eight innings in 2025 due to shoulder issues that left him sidelined for much of the 2025 season.
Despite that injury-plagued campaign last year, Hoeing figures to be firmly in the Padres’ bullpen mix if healthy. He enjoyed a breakout campaign with the Marlins in 2024 that got even better after being traded (alongside Tanner Scott) to San Diego at that year’s trade deadline. The righty sports a 2.34 ERA in 61 2/3 innings of work since the start of the 2024 season, and has posted a sterling 1.99 ERA in 25 appearances as a member of the Padres. While he’s not much of a strikeout pitcher, with a measly 19.5%, a 50.3% ground ball rate more than makes up for the lack of whiffs. That in combination with a manageable walk rate has led even more advanced metrics like SIERA (3.77) to be generally impressed with his work over the past two years in spite of their general favor for pitchers with high strikeout rates.
Of course, in a stacked Padres bullpen that likely left Hoeing in position to receive only middle relief work, as the late innings are set to be handled by a combination of Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, and David Morgan. Hoeing could theoretically work his way into that mix with another big year like 2024, but for now seems more likely to handle the middle innings alongside Yuki Matsui when the pair are healthy. Matsui has also been sidelined of late due to an adductor strain, but Acee suggests the 30-year-old southpaw is more likely to be ready for the start of the season than Hoeing. Comments from Niebla seem to corroborate that, as the team’s pitching coach actually suggested Matsui could start throwing off the mound later this week.
Cubs Notes: Steele, Busch, Long
Cubs fans got some exciting news today about the status of left-hander Justin Steele. Steele himself told reporters (including Mark Gonzales) earlier today that he has reached the point in his rehab where he no longer needs to visit with Dr. Keith Meister, who performed Steele’s UCL revision surgery last year. Gonzales adds that Steele is stretched out to between 35 and 40 pitches in his bullpen sessions, while Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports that Steele is on track for a return to the big leagues at some point in May or June.
It’s a major hurdle that Steele has now cleared, although his timeline is not significantly altered from where it’s been throughout Spring Training to this point. Even so, it’s an encouraging update for Cubs fans given Steele’s importance to the club’s rotation. An All-Star and fifth place finisher in NL Cy Young award voting back in 2023, Steele posted a 3.07 ERA and 3.11 FIP with a 24.5% strikeout rate in 54 starts across his last two healthy seasons. That’s the production of a front-of-the-rotation starter, which the Cubs sorely lacked during the playoffs last year. Both Steele and Cade Horton were on the injured list, while Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga had both worn down over the course of the season and struggled in their NLDS starts against the Brewers.
Perhaps in an effort to avoid a similar outcome late in the season this year, the Cubs have built a deep rotation by re-signing Imanaga and trading for right-hander Edward Cabrera. Imanaga, Cabrera, Horton, Boyd, and Jameson Taillon are all surefire locks for rotation roles this year, and that could leave the Cubs looking to expand to a six-man rotation when Steele returns if the rest of that group is healthy at that point in the season. Of course, with depth starters like Colin Rea, Javier Assad, Jordan Wicks, and Ben Brown also in the mix for starts, it’s possible the Cubs could opt for a six-man rotation even in the event of an injury or two.
Turning to the lineup, last week’s news of an injury to newly-signed slugger Tyler Austin that will sideline him for “months” created plenty of questions about the first base position. While Michael Busch has handled the position capably over the past two seasons and is currently healthy, he’s also been heavily platoon protected over the past two years. Whether due to Austin’s injury or his breakout campaign last year, Patrick Mooney of The Athletic writes that Busch is set to play on an everyday basis this year, including against southpaws. Manager Craig Counsell indicated (as relayed by Mooney) that Busch has “earned” the opportunity to be a full-time player at this point, though he added that the 28-year-old will now have to prove himself capable of handling those additional responsibilities.
Busch posted an 81 wRC+ against southpaws last year, and has a lifetime 87 wRC+ against lefties overall. Those aren’t particularly exciting numbers, but there are everyday players at first base with weaker numbers against lefties. Vinnie Pasquantino of the Royals, for example, had a 63 wRC+ against same-handed pitching and sports an 87 mark for his career that’s identical to Busch’s. Busch’s predecessor at first base for the Cubs, multi-time All-Star Anthony Rizzo, posted worse numbers against lefties than Busch has through the first three seasons of his career before growing into a full-time role and hitting well against both lefties and righties alike later on. With Austin unable to play at least the next couple of months anyway, it makes plenty of sense for the Cubs to give Busch the opportunity to prove himself.
That’s particularly true given the status of top first base prospect Jonathon Long. Long is one of the better prospects in the Cubs’ system, a ninth-round pick in the 2023 draft who slashed .305/.404/.479 in 140 games at Triple-A during his age-23 campaign last year. He’d be a logical replacement for Austin on the Cubs’ bench if the team was looking for a platoon partner for Busch, but he’s dealing with some injury woes himself at the moment. As noted by MLB.com, Long has been sidelined due to a sprained left elbow since February 21, and while he’s recently resumed light baseball activity Counsell indicated that the youngster has not recovered as quickly as the Cubs were hoping. It’s unclear what sort of timeline Long is facing for a return to action, but as a youngster who has not yet made his MLB debut it goes without saying that a notable Spring Training injury substantially lowers the odds of him being able to snag a spot on the team’s bench come Opening Day.
Grae Kessinger Sidelined By “Significant” Hamstring Injury
Mets infielder Grae Kessinger is dealing with what manager Carlos Mendoza described as “a pretty significant injury” to his hamstring, as relayed by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Feinsand adds that Mendoza indicated surgery is “on the table” for Kessinger and that his recovery timeline will be at least eight to twelve weeks.
The news is a tough blow for Kessinger, who previously missed nearly all of the 2025 season due to injury. He made his big league debut with the Astros back in 2023 but was designated for assignment by the club shortly after the 2024 campaign. He was plucked off waivers by the Diamondbacks but appeared in just 11 games at Triple-A for the club due to his injury before eventually being released. He did not sign with a new club as he rehabbed that undisclosed injury, but he caught on with the Mets on a minor league deal back in January.
Kessinger was firmly in the mix to be the Mets’ utility infielder off the bench headed into the 2026 campaign. Unfortunately, that won’t be in the cards for him due to this latest injury. The 28-year-old has just 48 games at the big league level under his belt to this point in his career, all of which came as a member of the Astros. It’s difficult to draw conclusions regarding his overall ability from his lifetime .131/.243/.213 slash line at the major league level given that he’s gotten all of 70 plate appearances in the majors spread across two seasons, but a lifetime .268/.370/.400 slash line at Triple-A would certainly indicate that he has a chance to be a passable utility player in the majors.
More details on the specifics of Kessinger’s timeline figure to become available once it’s known whether or not he’ll need to go under the knife or if he can rehab the injury. If he does avoid surgery, the timeline Mendoza mentioned indicates that he could be back in play as a depth option around Memorial Day. In the meantime, other players in the organization will get a shot at backing up the team’s incumbent infielders. With Francisco Lindor, Jorge Polanco, Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette, and Brett Baty all set to start regularly between the four infield spots and DH, the utility infield job on the Mets’ bench could wind up coming with a fairly small amount of playing time available.
Still, a big league gig is coveted for any young player or minor league veteran, and the players who figure to battle for the position this spring now that Kessinger is out of commission include other non-roster invitees like Vidal Brujan, Jackson Cluff, and Christian Arroyo. Youngster Ronny Mauricio arguably has a leg up on all of those names given the fact that he’s already on the 40-man roster, but it should be considered that the aforementioned lack of playing time available in the role might make the Mets prefer to play Mauricio regularly at Triple-A. In that case, one of the aforementioned bench pieces seems likely to land the job, with Brujan perhaps being the favorite given his versatility and experience in the outfield.
Thomas White Suffers Oblique Strain
Left-handed pitching prospect Thomas White is dealing with a grade one strain of his right oblique that will preclude him from appearing in further Spring Training games, according to a report from Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Louis Addeo-Weiss of Fish On First added that, according to manager Clayton McCullough, White felt some discomfort during his spring debut and is facing a three to four week timeline before he can return to the mound.
It’s a disappointing setback for the 21-year-old, who was a first-round pick by the Marlins in the 2023 draft and in the years since then has risen to become one of the very best pitching prospects in the entire sport. After a strong season in the lower minors in 2024, White impressed in a big way across 21 starts during the 2025 campaign. He pitched well at High-A to open the season and quickly earned a promotion to Double-A, where he was utterly dominant with a 1.59 ERA in 45 1/3 innings of work across ten starts. He struck out a sensational 39.3% of his opponents against a 12.6% walk rate, leaving him with elite peripherals (2.24 FIP, 2.54 xFIP) to go with his impressive run prevention numbers.
That performance at Double-A earned White a brief look at Triple-A near the end of the season as well as an invite to big league camp this spring. White struggled in his spring debut, as he surrendered two runs on two hits and a walk while striking out just one in his lone inning of work. That performance was surely hampered by the oblique strain he’s now known to have been dealing with during that outing, and he’ll spend the rest of Spring Training focused on rehabbing that issue in hopes of being healthy not long after minor league games begin. While White was in camp with the Marlins, he never had an especially strong chance of cracking the Opening Day roster given that Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Max Meyer, Braxton Garrett, Chris Paddack, and Janson Junk at minimum are each ahead of him on the depth chart on the moment.
That will surely change at some point this season, provided White can stay healthy and build on last season. His two starts at Triple-A last year were a mixed bag; while he struck out an absurd 42.5% of his opponents at the level, he also walked an untenable 25%. Significant conclusions can’t be drawn from a sample size of less than two innings, of course, but White walked 13.6% of his opponents overall in the minors last year and will surely need to tighten up his control at least somewhat before he can break into the majors and fulfill his promise as a potential future front-of-the-rotation arm for the Marlins.
Throughout the season, White figures to be joined in the Triple-A rotation by fellow top prospect Robby Snelling, who split last year between Double- and Triple-A and also figures to be on the big league radar at some point this year. White and Snelling currently looked blocked in Miami at least on paper, but offseason trades of Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers helped to clear the deck for them somewhat, and the checkered injury histories of Garrett, Perez, and even Alcantara suggest that innings should be available for them once they’re ready to take the next step into the majors.
Latest On The Phillies’ Pitching Pursuits
The Phillies have long been known to be keeping an eye out for starting pitching depth in order to fortify their rotation, particularly given that Zack Wheeler is expected to open the year on the injured list. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke to reporters (including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com) earlier today about the team’s pursuits, and Zolecki reports that despite the team’s desire for pitching help, they were not involved in the market for future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer before he returned to the Blue Jays on a one-year, $3MM guarantee. Dombrowski went on to indicate that the remaining top starts available, Lucas Giolito and Zack Littell, are “not a fit” for what the Phillies are looking for either.
That might seem like a surprise on the surface, but it’s fairly understandable. All three hurlers are major league quality starters who figure to have the expectation of getting the opportunity to make a full slate of starts, health permitting. That’s not something the Phillies can offer, given that any addition would come in behind at minimum Wheeler, Jesus Luzardo, Cristopher Sanchez, and Aaron Nola on the team’s depth chart. That theoretically leaves one spot open at the back of the rotation even when Wheeler is healthy, but the team has not made it a secret that they hope to give Andrew Painter a significant opportunity in the rotation this year, perhaps as soon as Opening Day. If the rest of the rotation is healthy and another regular was added to the mix, pushing Painter in would either force the club to go to a six-man rotation or demote someone to the bullpen.
Given that, it’s perhaps not too surprising that Dombrowski indicated players like Giolito, Littell, and Scherzer aren’t fits for what they’re looking for. There’s a number of veterans left who seem likely to have to settle for minor league deals such as Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson, and Marcus Stroman, but outside of that group the pickings are rather slim. Even if one of those players were open to joining Philadelphia, it might not be an ideal fit. Dombrowski highlighted in his comments to Zolecki that the club’s preference is to add arms that can be optioned to the minors, given that Wheeler could return from the injured list as soon as early April.
It’s not impossible to find optionable starters on the free agent market, as shown by the teams recent minor league deal with right-hander Connor Gillispie. Dombrowski’s comments about their continued search for pitching came after the Gillispie deal, however, suggesting the team is still on the hunt for more talent. That’s not exactly a shock, given that Gillispie has just 34 big league innings under his belt and struggled badly in six starts with the Marlins last year. Fringe big leaguers like Gillispie are par for the course when it comes to free agents available who can still be optioned to the minors, however, and that makes it easy to understand why Dombrowski has indicated in his previous comments that he’s interested in swinging a trade for rotation depth.
Looking around the league, there’s certainly a handful of teams with an excess of optionable starters who could fit the Phillies needs. The Cubs (Javier Assad), Dodgers (Landon Knack), Tigers (Keider Montero) and Giants (Hayden Birdsong) are among the teams with optionable starters who have notable big league experience but are likely to be squeezed out of the club’s rotation entering the year. It’s not easy to get clubs to part with optionable rotation depth given the value of that resource, but if the Phillies are sufficiently motivated those teams could be better equipped to part with the sort of arm Dombrowski seems to be looking for than most. Failing that sort of trade, a non-roster invitee to Spring Training like Bryse Wilson, Tucker Davidson, or perhaps Gillispie (if he received a big league camp invite as part of his deal) seems likely to be where the Phillies turn as they look to give Painter competition for the vacant Opening Day rotation job.
Marlins Notes: Stowers, Arquette, Pauley
The Marlins had a bit of an injury scare regarding star outfielder Kyle Stowers today, as he was scratched from his scheduled appearance in the Miami lineup today due to hamstring tightness. As noted by Christina De Nicola of MLB.com, manager Clayton McCullough told reporters this afternoon that imaging on Stowers had revealed a “very minor” strain in his right hamstring.
While hamstring strains can often be serious issues, with even relatively minor strains costing players upwards of a month, it seems Stowers’s strain was caught early enough that it shouldn’t be a major problem for him. McCullough indicated that Stowers will be sidelined for just a week or two before returning to game action, and that he could resume taking at-bats outside of games within the next few days. That’s great news for the Marlins given that Stowers is their best and most established hitter on the roster at the moment. The 2025 All Star is coming off a rookie campaign where he slashed an excellent .288/.368/.544 with 25 homers and 21 doubles in 117 games.
If the Marlins are going to build on their third-place finish in the NL East last year and push back over .500 for the first time since their surprise postseason appearance back in 2023, they’ll need Stowers to be healthy and firing on all cylinders. With Opening Day now just a month away, it would be understandable for Miami to be cautious with Stowers as they bring him back into game action over the coming weeks. If Stowers suffers a setback or his hamstring is re-aggravated once he begins ramping back up, that could put his availability for the start of the season in danger. Youngsters Jakob Marsee and Owen Caissie currently figure to handle center field and right field for the Marlins, respectively, but a more serious injury to Stowers could open the door for some combination of Griffin Conine, Javier Sanoja, Christopher Morel, and Esteury Ruiz to get looks in his absence.
Looking elsewhere on the Marlins’ roster, De Nicola also reports that top Marlins prospect Aiva Arquette underwent core muscle surgery recently and is facing a four to six week recovery period before he can resume baseball activities. Arquette reportedly suffered a left groin strain during his offseason workouts, and while he stopped activities and focused on recovery from there his arrival in camp came with renewed discomfort and prompted the procedure. A consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, Arquette was Miami’s first-round pick (seventh overall) in the 2025 draft. He scuffled a bit in his first 27 games as a professional last year at the High-A level, but the 22-year-old figures to spend much of the year at Double-A once he’s ready to return to action and could be on the radar for a big league debut sometime next year.
Elsewhere on the infield, MLB.com notes that Graham Pauley has begun working his way back after being shut down due to forearm tightness earlier this week. Pauley is slated to throw to 90 feet and take live at-bats today, and is slated to serve as the team’s DH in tomorrow’s Spring Training game against the Nationals. Assuming those first steps go well, it stands to reason that Pauley could be back to regular work at some point next week. Pauley hit just .224/.311/.366 in 64 games for the Marlins last year, but his left-handed bat and solid defense at third base could still earn him some work around the infield against tough right-handed pitchers throughout the year given that switch hitter Xavier Edwards is the only other infielder on the projected roster that doesn’t bat right handed.