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Charles LeBlanc

Marlins Outright Charles Leblanc

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Infielder Charles Leblanc has been passed through waivers by the Marlins and outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Leblanc was designated for assignment last week when the club signed Jean Segura.

Leblanc, 27 in June, was drafted by the Rangers in 2016 but was never added to their roster. In November of 2021, he was selected by the Marlins in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft. He played well enough in Jacksonville to get selected to the big league roster in July. In 87 games for the Jumbo Shrimp, he hit .302/.381/.503 for a wRC+ of 134.

Once up in the big leagues, he got into 48 games and generally carried himself well. He hit .263/.320/.404 for a wRC+ of 107 while playing the three non-shortstop infield positions. Despite those strong points, there were also some concerning elements. His .374 batting average on balls in play was well beyond the .290 league average, suggesting there may have been some good fortune in his results. He also struck out in 31.4% of his trips to the plate, well beyond the 22.4% MLB mean.

It seems those latter points were strong enough to keep any of the 29 other teams from putting in a claim. That allows the Marlins to hang onto him as a depth piece who isn’t taking up a spot on the 40-man.

Marlins Designate Charles Leblanc For Assignment

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The Marlins announced Wednesday evening that infielder Charles Leblanc has been designated for assignment. The move creates a 40-man roster vacancy for Jean Segura, who has officially signed his two-year free agent deal.

Leblanc earned his first MLB call last July. Signed to a minor league contract last offseason after seven years in the Texas farm system, he earned a look with Miami by hitting .302/.381/.503 line Triple-A Jacksonville. Leblanc held his MLB roster spot the rest of the way and hit .263/.320/.404 with four home runs through his first 169 plate appearances. That production checked in seven percentage points above league average, by measure of wRC+.

Considering Leblanc’s solid bottom line numbers, it’s a moderate surprise he lost his 40-man roster spot this winter. It’s clear the Miami front office wasn’t bullish on his ability to continue to hit at an above-average level. Leblanc benefitted from an unsustainable .374 batting average on balls in play, masking an alarming 31.4% strikeout percentage. He’d also struck out at a notable 27.2% clip in Jacksonville.

That’s surely a concern, although Leblanc actually made contact at a decent clip on a per-pitch basis. He put the bat on the ball on 76.4% of his swings, a figure that’s almost exactly league average. Leblanc took plenty of called strikes and put himself in some unfavorable counts, but he fared reasonably well at making contact when deciding to swing.

The 26-year-old has some defensive flexibility. He suited up at each of first, second and third base in the majors and logged a decent amount of left field run in Triple-A. Leblanc had some early-career work at shortstop in the minors but isn’t more than an emergency stopgap there. Nevertheless, the ability to bounce around the diamond and his solid 2022 campaign at the upper levels seemingly give him a good shot at landing elsewhere in the coming days.

Miami will have a week to trade Leblanc or try to run him through waivers. He still has all three minor league option years remaining, meaning any team willing to carry him on the 40-man can freely move him between the majors and Triple-A for the extended future.

Marlins Place Trevor Rogers On Injured List, Designate Willians Astudillo

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The Marlins have made a handful of moves in advance of tonight’s series opener with the Mets (relayed by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). Starter Trevor Rogers has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 26, with lower back spasms. Miami also selected reliever Jake Fishman and infielder Charles Leblanc onto the big league roster, designating Willians Astudillo for assignment. To clear a second 40-man roster spot, the Marlins transferred Max Meyer from the 15-day to the 60-day IL. That was a formality, as the top prospect is set to undergo Tommy John surgery that’ll cost him the next year-plus.

Rogers had been slated to start tomorrow, but the Marlins will obviously have to find a replacement. The IL stint is the latest in what has been a frustrating season for the southpaw, who looked to have broken out as one of the game’s top young pitchers a year ago. Rogers pitched to a 2.64 ERA and earned an All-Star nod in 2021, but he’s gone in the opposite direction this season. He owns just a 5.85 ERA through 87 2/3 innings, watching his strikeout rate plummet from 28.5% to 20.8% in the process.

Astudillo has bounced on and off the roster a couple times this season. The former Twins utilityman signed a minor league deal with Miami over the winter, and he’s posted an excellent .321/.364/.557 showing through 33 Triple-A contests. Astudillo, owner of perhaps the sport’s best bat-to-ball skills, has only gone down on strikes in 4.3% of his minor league plate appearances, but he’s not made much of an impact in 21 MLB contests. Despite fanning in just three of his 55 trips to the dish, he owns a meager .241/.255/.296 showing with one homer and a 1.8% walk rate.

The Marlins will presumably again place Astudillo on waivers over the next few days. He’s already passed through the wire unclaimed this year and accepted an outright assignment to their top affiliate in Jacksonville. It’s possible he eventually winds up back with the Jumbo Shrimp, but he’d again have the right to elect minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Leblanc and the aptly-named Fishman are each joining the Marlins for what’ll be their major league debuts. The former is a 26-year-old infielder who was a fourth-round draftee of the Rangers out of the University of Pittsburgh back in 2016. Leblanc spent six years in the Texas system, mostly splitting his time between second and third base, before signing a minor league deal with Miami last offseason. The right-handed hitter has impressed over 360 plate appearances in Jacksonville, hitting .302/.381/.503 with 14 home runs. Leblanc’s 27.2% strikeout rate is higher than ideal, but he’s done enough from a power perspective to get an MLB call.

Fishman, 27, also entered pro ball in that 2016 draft. He fell to the 30th round, where the Blue Jays selected the Union College product. Fishman briefly reached Triple-A in the Toronto system before qualifying for minor league free agency during the 2020-21 offseason. He’s spent the past two years working as a multi-inning reliever in Jacksonville. This season, the southpaw has an excellent 1.87 ERA with a robust 54.3% ground-ball rate across 43 1/3 innings, posting roughly average strikeout and walk rates (24.4% and 9.1%, respectively).

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