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Marlins Option Max Meyer

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The Marlins announced Monday that they’ve optioned right-hander Max Meyer to Triple-A Jacksonville. He’ll be the corresponding move for the previously reported activation of fellow righty Edward Cabrera, who’s been on the injured list with a right shoulder impingement. MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola first reported that Meyer would be optioned to open a roster spot for Cabrera.

It’s a surprising move, given the Marlins’ struggles and Meyer’s excellence through his first three turns. The former University of Minnesota standout, No. 3 overall draft pick and top prospect has been outstanding in his first big league action since returning from 2022’s Tommy John surgery. In 17 innings, Meyer touts a 2.12 ERA; he’s surrendered just four runs on 11 hits and three walks with 14 punchouts and a 48.9% ground-ball rate.

Heading into the season, Meyer wasn’t expected to break camp with a rotation spot. Spring injuries to Cabrera, Braxton Garrett and Eury Perez changed that calculus and put the 25-year-old Meyer back onto the rotation radar. Nothing he’s done this season takes away from his promising long-term outlook, but the Fish also plan to be mindful of his workload and limit his innings in his first year back from that UCL reconstruction procedure.

Be that as it may, the optics of the move aren’t great. The Marlins have only won three games this season, and Meyer has started two of them. He’s been both excellent and highly efficient, topping out at 91 pitches in his most recent start, which included six innings of one-run ball against a juggernaut Braves lineup. It’s easier to manage his innings at the minor league level, but given the overarching struggles of the Marlins’ big league roster, optioning one of their lone bright spots is tougher to justify.

It should be noted that it’s unlikely the decision to option Meyer was overly motivated by service time. He entered the year at 1.082 years of service, meaning he needed just 90 days on the active roster or big league injured list in order to reach two years of service and remain on track for free agency following the 2028 season. He’s picked up 17 days of service already, so unless the Marlins are planning to keep him in Jacksonville for as many as 95 more days this season, his free agent timeline will be unchanged. One would imagine he’ll rejoin the big league rotation sooner than later.

Miami certainly had other paths to consider when opening a spot for Cabrera’s return. Struggling top starter Jesus Luzardo was never going to be sent down, but reliever-turned-starter A.J. Puk has struggled mightily in his first three trips to the mound. Even if they understandably didn’t want to give up on that experiment yet, lefties Trevor Rogers and Ryan Weathers have both demonstrated worrying command issues.

A six-man rotation would also make some sense, creating an organic means of limiting not only Meyer’s workload but also those of Rogers and Puk — both of whom have innings concerns as well. Rogers pitched just 27 innings last season due to injury. Puk tossed just 59 1/3 innings last year while working as a reliever; his 66 2/3 innings in 2022 were his most since the 2017 season when he was still working as a full-time starter in the A’s minor league ranks.

Marlins To Place Jake Burger On Injured List, Activate Edward Cabrera

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The Marlins are placing third baseman Jake Burger on the 10-day injured list due to a left oblique injury, tweets Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. She adds that Burger likened the discomfort he experienced to a 2023 oblique injury where he only missed the 10-day minimum. The team hasn’t provided a timetable for his return just yet. The Fish will recall utilityman Otto Lopez, whom they claimed off waivers from the Giants earlier this season, to take Burger’s spot on the roster.

Burger, 28, is tied for the Marlins’ team lead with three homers and is currently pacing the club with 15 runs knocked in. His overall .228/.281/.421 batting line is still well shy of league-average production (86 wRC+), but he’s been one of the better hitters in a dismal Marlins lineup — particularly with runners on base. Even a short-term absence figures to be a notable hit to a Marlins lineup that has mustered a collective .209/.273/.316 slash to begin the season.

The injury to Burger is exacerbated by the fact that utilityman Vidal Brujan is also banged up at the moment. Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald tweets that Brujan is dealing with a right knee injury and is currently considered day-to-day. The Marlins are still in the process of evaluating that injury, and it’s possible he’ll wind up missing some time as well.

As such, the Marlins’ top options at third base right now are Emmanuel Rivera — acquired from the D-backs for cash following his DFA earlier this month — and Lopez. Rivera hit .261/.314/.358 in 283 plate appearances with Arizona last season but is out to a 3-for-17 start (all singles) in his time with the Marlins. Lopez is hitting .485/.528/.788 in a tiny sample of 36 Triple-A plate appearances this season and carries a career .288/.354/.401 slash in parts of four Triple-A campaigns overall. He’s spent far more time at both middle infield slots than at the hot corner, but he does have 205 career innings at third base.

It’s not all bad news for the Marlins. They’re expected to reinstate right-hander Edward Cabrera from the injured list to make his season debut tonight, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. De Nicola tweets that left-hander A.J. Puk had been slated to take the ball, but he’ll be pushed back a couple days due to an illness that’s been making the rounds in the Miami clubhouse and is currently impacting him. The Marlins will need to make a second roster move to open space for Cabrera’s return.

Cabrera, 26, has spent the first two-plus weeks of the season on the injured list due to a shoulder impingement. However, he’s made three Triple-A rehab starts now, allowing just one run in 12 2/3 innings. He walked seven batters over seven innings in his first two appearances, showing a bit of rust, but Cabrera punched out nine batters and walked just one over 5 2/3 frames in his most recent outing — yielding only an unearned run along the way. He’s pitched 171 1/3 innings over the past two seasons for the Marlins, working to a 3.73 ERA with a strong 26.6% strikeout rate but a dismal 13.7% walk rate that’s in need of further refinement.

Marlins Designate Matt Andriese For Assignment

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The Marlins announced that right-hander Matt Andriese has been designated for assignment.  Calvin Faucher has been called up from Triple-A Jacksonville to take his fellow right’s spot on the 26-man roster.

Signed to a minor league deal during the offseason, Andriese had that contract selected on April 4, resulting in his first taste of Major League action since the 2021 campaign.  Andriese had a 5.40 ERA over five innings and three appearances with Miami, eating some innings in a mop-up capacity while also allowing two homers in this brief sample size.

The home run ball was often an issue for Andriese during his seven-year run in the bigs from 2015-21, as he had a 14.5% homer rate over 509 innings with five different clubs.  Andriese’s 2022 campaign was spent in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants, and he returned to North America last season on a minor league deal with the Dodgers, posting a 6.05 ERA across 93 2/3 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City without ever getting a call-up.

Should Andriese clear waivers, Miami could opt to keep him around at Triple-A as bullpen depth, even if his lack of minor league options makes him an imperfect candidate to be shuffled back and forth between the majors and minors.  Andriese can also refuse an outright assignment to Triple-A in order to become a free agent, as he has previously been outrighted off a 40-man roster earlier in his career.  Given his rather long path back to the Show, it seems possible that Andriese might prefer the relative stability of remaining in the Marlins organization rather than again testing the open market.

Marlins Void 2025 Club Option On Manager Skip Schumaker

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April 9: Barry Jackson, Jordan McPherson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald add some additional context to Schumaker’s contract status. Schumaker, according to the report, was frustrated by the departure of Ng, who’d hired him less than a year prior.

The Herald trio writes that owner Bruce Sherman agreed to remove the club option on the contract “as a show of good faith” after Schumaker voiced his concerns. In essence, voiding the club option gives Schumaker control over his own future if he and Bendix clash over the course of the season. Per the Herald report, there have been no issues between Bendix and Schumaker even in spite of the team’s terrible (1-10) start to the season, but the in-house expectation is that Schumaker will explore other options following the season.

April 7: Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is set to become a free agent following the 2024 season, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Schumaker was hired by the club in October 2022 to serve under then-GM Kim Ng and agreed to a two-year deal with a club option for 2025, but Nightengale reports that Miami agreed to void the option this past winter.

Schumaker, 44, is a former big league outfielder and second baseman who played for the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Reds from 2005 to 2015 with a roughly league average .278/.337/.364 slash line in 1,149 career games. Just a few short years after retiring as a player in 2016, Schumaker began his coaching career as the first base coach in San Diego for the 2018 season. He was promoted to associate manager prior to the 2020 season but departed the club prior to the 2022 campaign to rejoin the Cardinals as Oli Marmol’s bench coach.

After a year working under Marmol in St. Louis, Schumaker quickly emerged as a finalist to replace outgoing manager Don Mattingly in Miami, and eventually reached a deal with the Marlins shortly thereafter. His debut season as manager scarcely could’ve gone better, as Schumaker led a surprisingly competitive Marlins club to an 84-win season in 2023, securing the club’s first full-season playoff appearance since 2003. Miami’s surprising performance was enough to earn Schumaker NL Manager of the Year honors over fellow finalists Craig Counsell and Brian Snitker.

Since then, however, there’s been plenty of upheaval in the Marlins organization. Ng parted ways with the organization after ownership refused to offer her an extension and indicated they planned to reduce her role by installing a president of baseball operations above her. Her departure last fall reportedly upset Schumaker. The club subsequently hired former Rays GM Peter Bendix to run the club’s baseball operations department.

The club went on to make minimal additions to its roster this winter, only adding shortstop Tim Anderson on a major league deal. Slugger Jorge Soler departed for San Francisco via free agency, and the Marlins at least entertained the idea of trading Jesus Luzardo and other young starters this winter. While it’s still early in the 2024 season, the returns on the club’s inaction this winter are nothing short of awful; the club has lost each of its first nine games this season while suffering injuries to key pieces such as Eury Perez and Braxton Garrett — both of whom opened the season on the injured list. Perez will miss the entire 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery.

Given the recent changes in club leadership and the team’s struggles, it’s possible Bendix hopes to choose his own manager following the 2024 season, resulting in the team being willing to forfeit their ability to unilaterally retain Schumaker. If Schumaker doesn’t remain in Miami beyond the current season, Nightengale suggests that he could join Red Sox manager Alex Cora as one of the most attractive managerial candidates available to clubs this winter.

Marlins Outright Kent Emanuel

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The Marlins have assigned left-hander Kent Emanuel outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to the transactions log on Emanuel’s MLB.com player profile. Emanuel was designated for assignment last week in order to make room for right-hander Matt Andriese on the club’s 40-man roster. Emanuel has the right to reject the assignment after being outrighted to the minors previously in his career by the Phillies back in November of 2022, though it’s unclear if he intends to exercise that right and test free agency or remain with the Marlins.

Emanuel, 32 in June, was a third-round pick by the Astros in the 2013 draft who made his big league debut with Houston back in 2021. Emanuel pitched decently across ten appearances in the majors, posting a strong 2.55 ERA in 17 2/3 innings of work despite a lackluster 19.1% strikeout rate and a whopping four home runs allowed leaving him with a much higher 5.49 FIP. That cup of coffee with the Astros would be the southpaw’s only big league experience until last week, when he pitched three innings for the Marlins against the Angels. The appearance didn’t go well as Emanuel was lit up for four runs on three walks and four hits, including a homer, while striking out just two of the 15 batters he faced.

Between his two stints in the majors, Emanuel spent the 2022 season with the Phillies and 2023 with the Pirates. He pitched primarily as a starter in the minors for both Pennsylvania clubs, impressing with a 2.37 ERA in ten starts at the Triple-A level with the Phillies but struggling badly across 84 1/3 innings of work in a swing role with Pittsburgh’s affiliate at the level. Over 20 appearances (13 starts) in Triple-A last year, Emanuel struggled to a 6.12 ERA while striking out just 20.1% of batters faced.

Despite those lackluster numbers last year, it’s easy to imagine a team in need of starting pitching depth having interest in Emanuel as an optionable, left-handed depth option on a non-roster deal. That could make free agency a tempting possibility for the southpaw, though it’s worth noting that few teams need pitching depth more than the Marlins themselves at this point in the season. With Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez set to miss the 2024 campaign while Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera both began on the injured list themselves, the club’s entire projected starting five outside of Jesus Luzardo is on the shelf as things stand, leaving the club to rely on the likes of Ryan Weathers and prospect Max Meyer.

Astros Acquire Jacob Amaya From Marlins

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The Astros have acquired infielder Jacob Amaya from the Marlins, per The Athletic’s Chandler Rome. In return, Rome adds that the Marlins will receive cash considerations and minor league right-hander Valente Bellozo. Amaya had been designated for assignment by the Marlins earlier this week. Per Rome, Houston has optioned Amaya to Triple-A and placed left-hander Bennett Sousa on the 60-day injured list to make room for the infielder on their 40-man roster.

Amaya, 25, was an eleventh-round pick by the Dodgers in the 2017 draft but made his big league debut with Miami last year after L.A. shipped him to the Marlins in exchange for veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas prior to the 2023 campaign. Amaya’s final season with the Dodgers saw him slash a respectable .261/.369/.427 in 133 games split between the Double- and Triple-A levels, but he took a bit of a step back upon joining the Marlins last year.

In 128 games with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville, Amaya hit just .252/.345/.407 (89 wRC+) during his age-24 season while primarily playing shortstop. Meanwhile, his four-game cup of coffee in the majors left something to be desired as he went 2-for-9 with no walks or extra base hits. On the other hand, his struggles in the majors came in an extremely small sample while his solid glove at shortstop helped to carry his subpar slash line in the minors.

Amaya entered the offseason looking like he could contribute in the big leagues for the Marlins at some point this year, though the additions of Tim Anderson and Vidal Brujan this winter left him largely blocked entering the season. After the youngster struggled at the plate both in camp this spring and in the first games of his return to Jacksonville, the club decided to move on by designating Amaya for assignment to make room for infielder Emmanuel Rivera on the 40-man roster.

Now, Amaya will get a chance to re-establish himself in an Astros organization with minimal infield depth in the upper levels of the minor leagues. Houston has Jose Altuve and Jeremy Pena locked into regular roles up the middle with Mauricio Dubon as their top option off the bench, though Amaya could compete with the likes of Grae Kessinger and David Hensley for a role on the club’s bench as a reserve infielder at some point this season.

To land Amaya, the Astros are giving up Bellozo, who made his pro debut with the club out of Mexico back in 2018. The right-hander split the 2023 campaign between the High-A and Double-A levels, struggling to a 5.55 ERA in 110 1/3 innings despite a solid 22.4% strikeout rate against a strong 6.8% walk rate. Bellozo’s results took a turn for the better late in the season, as he pitched to a 1.72 ERA in his final four appearances last season. He’ll look to build on that late-season hot stretch this season in what figures to be a return to the Double-A level.

Brewers Claim Vladimir Gutierrez

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The Brewers have claimed right-hander Vladimir Gutierrez off waivers from the Marlins, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Nashville. Miami designated Gutierrez for assignment earlier in the week.

Gutierrez, 28, was a high-profile prospect out of Cuba who signed for a $4.75MM bonus (plus a 100% tax on that sum) with the Reds back in 2016. He wound up pitching just 150 2/3 innings between 2021-22 in Cincinnati, logging a 5.44 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates of 17.3% and 10.4%, respectively. As a prospect, he was touted as having a solid heater with a potentially plus slate of secondary offerings (curve, slider, changeup) — but he’s yet to find much consistency in the majors.

Were it not for a ligament tear that necessitated Tommy John surgery, Gutierrez might’ve gotten more of a look in Cincinnati. He briefly returned to throw a few minor league frames late last year but became a minor league free agent after the season and signed a minors contract in Miami. The Marlins selected him to the roster to add some length to an overworked bullpen but designated Gutierrez for assignment after he tossed three innings of long relief. The Fish needed to clear roster space for another fresh arm, lefty Kent Emanuel, who followed nearly the same track: three innings of long relief in his first appearance followed by an immediate DFA to bring in yet another fresh arm (Matt Andriese).

Francys Romero tweets that the Brewers plan to get Gutierrez two or three starts down in Nashville to further stretch him out. At that point, they’ll consider him for starts at the big league level. Milwaukee’s rotation is more unsettled than at any point in recent memory, as Brandon Woodruff required September shoulder surgery that’ll cost him most of the 2024 season and Corbin Burnes was traded to the Orioles in a late-offseason blockbuster. Veteran Wade Miley, who returned on a one-year deal, has been slowed by a shoulder impingement. Prospect Robert Gasser, arguably the top minor league arm in the system, is currently on the injured list due to a bone spur in his elbow.

At the moment, the Brewers are going with Freddy Peralta, Jakob Junis, Colin Rea, DL Hall (acquired in the Burnes trade) and Joe Ross in a patchwork rotation. The return of Miley will help solidify things for the Brew Crew, but Gutierrez will give them another option with some MLB experience who could potentially work his way into the rotation mix.

Cabrera, Garrett Progressing In Rehab Starts

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  • X-rays were negative on Willson Contreras’ left hand, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol told Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat and other reporters.  Contreras was hit by a pitch on Wednesday and didn’t play in today’s 8-5 win over the Marlins, but the hope is that he can play in the Cards’ next game on Saturday, either as a DH or as a catcher.  Contreras already has two homers and a .979 OPS over his first 25 plate appearances of the young season, as he enters the second year of his five-year, $87.5MM pact with St. Louis.
  • Eury Perez’s Tommy John surgery has dealt another blow to the Marlins’ injury-riddled rotation, but some help might be on the way.  Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett are each scheduled to make two Triple-A rehab starts before being activated from the 15-day injured list, as per the Marlins’ updates to MLB.com and other media today.  Cabrera already made one 43-pitch rehab start on March 31, and his next outing is planned for Friday.  Garrett’s slated outing on April 7 will be the first of two starts, and his most recent work took place in an extended Spring Training game back on Tuesday.  Both starters are recovering from impingements in their throwing shoulders.

Marlins Claim Otto López From Giants

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The Marlins have claimed infielder/outfielder Otto López off waivers from the Giants, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Giants had designated him for assignment earlier this week when they selected Nick Avila. The Marlins announced the claim and that they have transferred righty Eury Pérez to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. It was reported earlier that Pérez will require Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the season.

López, 25, provides some speed and a great deal of defensive versatility but it’s unknown how much he will hit. In each of the past five years, he has been able to get his stolen base total in the minors into double digits. He’s also bounced around the field to play the three infield spots to the left of first base and each of the three outfield slots.

On offense, he definitely puts the bat on the ball but the power is very limited. From the start of 2021 to the present, he’s had 1,273 minor league plate appearances and hit just 10 home runs but his 16.4% strikeout rate is quite low. He’s slashed .288/.355/.396 in that time for a wRC+ of 101.

López came up as a Blue Jays prospect but was designated for assignment when that club signed Yariel Rodríguez a couple of months ago. He was traded to the Giants for cash but got bumped off that club’s roster this week.

The Marlins effectively had a roster spot to burn with the news of Pérez requiring surgery and they will now use it to fill in some of the utility depth they sacrificed when they traded Jon Berti to the Yankees last week. López still has an option remaining so the Marlins could send him to Triple-A for regular at-bats or bring him to the big league squad to give them some cover at multiple positions around the diamond.

Eury Perez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Touted young Marlins righty Eury Perez will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the 2024 season, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix announced to reporters this morning (X link via Christina De Nicola of MLB.com). He’ll have the surgery on Monday.

Perez made his big league debut last season at just 20 years of age. He didn’t show his youth, bursting onto the MLB scene with 91 1/3 innings of 3.15 ERA ball. The towering 6’8″, 220-pound righty fanned a hearty 28.9% of his opponents against a solid 8.3% walk rate. Opponents batted under .200 on each of Perez’s slider, curveball and changeup. He averaged 97.4 mph on his heater and turned in a gaudy 15.7% swinging-strike rate that checked in third among all big league pitchers (min. 90 innings) — trailing only Spencer Strider and Tyler Glasnow.

Everything looked to be falling into place for Perez to emerge into stardom. That may still be the case, but he’ll now have a 14- to 16-month recovery period — and given his importance to the franchise’s long-term outlook, it stands to reason that the Marlins will err on the side of caution.

Perez was initially diagnosed with elbow inflammation during spring training. Surgery was not recommended following his original MRI in mid-March. But inflammation and swelling can at times be significant enough to mask underlying structural damage. Whether that’s the case here or whether Perez suffered the ligament damage in a subsequent bullpen session isn’t clear and might ultimately never be known.

Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald tweets that Perez threw a scheduled bullpen session on Tuesday and felt tightness in his elbow while also experiencing a drop in velocity. That led to a follow-up wave of imaging which revealed the ligament tear and prompted the surgery recommendation. Perez will now spend the 2024 season on the major league 60-day IL, accruing big league pay and big league service time. He’s under club control through the 2029 season.

The Marlins’ once-vaunted collection of young starting pitching has seen its share of setbacks, and that enviable stock is now running thin. Sandy Alcantara, the 2022 National League Cy Young winner, underwent Tommy John surgery last October and will miss the 2024 season. Pablo Lopez was traded to the Twins in the Jan. 2023 Luis Arraez swap. Lefty Jake Eder was traded to the White Sox last summer in a deal bringing slugger Jake Burger back to Miami. Max Meyer (Tommy John surgery), Sixto Sanchez (shoulder surgery), Dax Fulton (internal brace surgery) have all had major injury setbacks. Left-hander Braxton Garrett and righty Edward Cabrera, both expected to open the 2024 season in the rotation, instead landed on the 15-day IL due to shoulder impingements.

Given that gobsmacking slate of injuries, the Marlins have opened the season with a patchwork group of starters. Hometown kid Jesus Luzardo has stepped up as the staff ace, and he’s been followed by Trevor Rogers, Ryan Weathers and reliever-turned-starter A.J. Puk. Meyer is recovered from his 2022 Tommy John procedure and has stepped into the rotation early on. He’ll presumably be on an innings limit, but the former No. 3 overall pick has long been a highly touted prospect himself.

Between the current starting five, Garrett and Cabrera, the Marlins still have enough talent to piece together a strong rotation. The depth has been severely compromised, however, and it’s arguable that Perez was their most talented healthy arm heading into the season — or at least the second-most talented, behind Luzardo. For a Marlins team that has begun the season in a catastrophic 0-7 slump, word of Perez’s injury only furthers the sense of dread surrounding the club at the moment.

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