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Pirates Promote Oneil Cruz

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TODAY: Cruz’s promotion has been officially announced by the Pirates.  Right-hander Tanner Anderson has been placed on the 10-day IL due to a right foot contusion.

OCTOBER 1: The Pirates are planning to promote shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to make his major league debut, reports Héctor Gómez of Z101 (Twitter link). The 22-year-old checked in as the game’s #50 overall farmhand on Baseball America’s midseason update. Cruz is already on the 40-man roster.

Cruz signed with the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic over the 2015-16 international signing period. Los Angeles included Cruz, who was then in Low-A, as part of a package headed to Pittsburgh for Tony Watson at the 2017 trade deadline. The left-handed hitter has spent the past four years climbing the minor league ranks, moving fairly slowly but posting big numbers at every level.

In 2018, Cruz hit .286/.343/.488 while spending the entire season at Low-A. He split the 2019 campaign between High-A and Double-A and was added to the 40-man roster that offseason to keep him from selection in the Rule 5 draft. Last year’s canceled minor league season obviously cost Cruz the chance to play in games, although he was part of the Bucs’ alternate training site group.

As Cruz has aged, he’s continued to fill out one of the bigger frames in affiliated ball. The 22-year-old is now listed at 6’7″, 210 pounds, and he’ll soon become the tallest shortstop in major league history. That atypical profile has led to some concern among prospect evaluators he’d eventually have to move off the position, but he’s worked there exclusively in the minors this year and has continued to hold his own. In their midseason report, BA pegged Cruz as a capable defender, and evaluators credit him with one of the better arms in the minor leagues. There’s still some sentiment he could wind up moving into the outfield eventually, but it seems he’ll at least get an opportunity to first try and stick on the left side of the infield.

While there may be some questions about his long-term defensive home, there’s no debate concerning Cruz’s power potential. His exceptional size and athleticism leads to some of the game’s biggest power projection, with Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs grading his raw power as a future 80 on the 20-80 scouting scale. BA, meanwhile, pegs his power potential at a 70 on the same scale.

Cruz’s size has led to some trepidation about his ability to consistently make contact. Longer-levered players can sometimes have trouble synchronizing their swing mechanics, and Cruz indeed had some alarming strikeout numbers early in his minor league career. As he’s climbed the ladder, he’s ironed out those issues significantly. Cruz has taken 302 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season, hitting .310/.375/.594 with seventeen home runs and a 22.8% strikeout rate that’s right in line with this year’s major league average.

With Cruz performing at a high level on both sides of the ball, the Pirates will give him a two-game cameo to close out the season. He can still be optioned to the minors in one more season, and he’s only played in six career Triple-A games. It’s certainly possible he starts next season back in the upper minors, whether for developmental or service time reasons. (Barring a change to the current service time structure in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement, the Pirates would only have to keep Cruz in the minors for a couple weeks to delay his path to free agency by an additional season). But whatever long-term plans the organization has, they’ll reward his consistently strong performance with his first big league call to close out this season, giving fans a glimpse at one of the most exciting young players in the organization in the process.

Rays Promote Shane Baz

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Sept. 20: The Rays have formally selected Baz’s contract and created space on the 40-man roster by transferring Archer from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. That will formally end the season for Archer, who is battling renewed discomfort in his problematic hip. Tampa Bay opened a spot on the 28-man roster for Baz by placing righty Andrew Kittredge on the 10-day IL due to tightness in his neck.

Sept. 18: Top Rays prospect Shane Baz will make his Major League debut on Monday against the Blue Jays, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Baz was the third piece acquired along with Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow from the Pirates in the now infamous Chris Archer trade. The 22-year-old’s stock has risen since the trade, though the former first rounder has always shown tremendous promise.

In the Tampa development engine, he has become a refined starting prospect at the top of an impressive farm system. He was the Rays’ top prospect on Baseball America’s midseason report, and he’s the top prospect by MLB.com’s rendering as well. Baz won a silver medal alongside current Ray David Robertson while with Team USA at the Olympics in Japan.

He is not currently on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding roster move will be necessary. While Baz isn’t technically postseason-eligible right now, he could theoretically be added to the postseason roster through a petition to the Commissioner’s office as an injury replacement. That process has often been exploited in the past, and the Rays have shown a willingness to throw young hurlers into the postseason fire (see McClanahan, Shane).

Besides, while the Rays own the best record in the American League, they have the most dynamic (read: unpredictable) pitching staff. Practically speaking, it’s entirely unclear who might get the ball in a potential opening round playoff series, so there is at least a possibility that Baz could pitch his way onto the playoff roster. Because playoff roster changes cannot be made mid-series, the only opening he’d likely snag would be as a starter. Best case, he could make maybe three starts before the year is out — if the Rays view this promotion as an actual audition for playoff baseball.

The prospect of Baz as a playoff weapon isn’t all that far-fetched when you consider his dominance in the upper levels of the minors this season. He made seven starts in Double-A with a 2.84 ERA, striking out 49 in 32 2/3 innings. After earning a rapid promotion to Triple-A, Baz went back to work with a 1.76 ERA over 10 starts totaling 46 innings with a 64-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Those eye-popping numbers certainly must make the Rays consider giving him an opportunity to help the parent club right now.

The rookie southpaw McClanahan is the only sure thing to be in the playoff rotation right now, and he’s currently on the injured list. Drew Rasmussen is making a strong push to be a postseason starter as well, having not allowed more than one earned run in any of his past six starts since joining the rotation. Ryan Yarbrough, Michael Wacha, and Luis Patino round out the rotation for now, though the Rays are likely to use at least one rotation spot (and maybe more) for bullpen days come the postseason.

Rays To Promote Josh Lowe

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The Rays are calling up top outfield prospect Josh Lowe for his Major League debut, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter thread). Passan adds that it might not be a long-term stay for Lowe in his first big league call-up, Rays fans will apparently still get a look at yet another well-regarded farmhand late in the ’21 season. Lowe is already on the 40-man roster, so the Rays only need to make room on the active roster to accommodate him.

Josh Lowe | USA Today Sports

Lowe, 23, was the No. 13 overall pick in the 2016 draft and has ridden a breakout season in Triple-A to a widely regarded status as one of baseball’s 100 best prospects. He’s posted a .282/.369/.540 batting line (good for a 138 wRC+) while connecting on 21 home runs, 24 doubles and two triples. He’s also gone a perfect 24-for-24 in stolen-base attempts on the season. It’s been a strong follow-up to Lowe’s quality showing at the Double-A level in 2019, when he hit .252/.341/.443 (128 wRC+) in a very pitcher-friendly setting. He and his older brother, Nate, were both in the Rays’ system before the team traded the latter to the Rangers this past offseason.

Keith Law of The Athletic ranked the younger Lowe as baseball’s No. 31 overall prospect on his July 22nd list, calling him a “plus center fielder with patience and power.” Lowe lands No. 40 overall on Eric Longenhagen’s current rankings at FanGraphs, and he was named the No. 76 and No. 89 prospect in baseball on the respective midseason rankings at MLB.com and Baseball America. There are concerns about Lowe’s strikeout tendencies — he’s fanned at a 26.6 percent clip in his minor league career and has matched that level at Triple-A in 2021 — but he also draws walks at a strong clip (12.4 percent this year).

Tampa Bay’s outfield is largely set at the moment with Austin Meadows, Kevin Kiermaier and Randy Arozarena as the go-to options and both Manuel Margot and Jordan Luplow as right-handed options off the bench. Lowe would bring another left-handed-hitting option to the mix, joining Meadows and Kiermaier — the former coming off his worst month of the season at the plate and the latter coming off his best. Lowe seems likely to be just one of a couple moves, as the Rays could also use some additional infield depth on the bench at the moment.

There may not be a long-term opportunity for Lowe in the outfield at the moment, but it seems likely that he’ll have such an opportunity before too long. How they’ll go about facilitating that remains to be seen, but Kiermaier’s name has come up in trade rumblings for years. The 2022 season will be the final guaranteed season of his six-year, $53.5MM contract in Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, both Margot and Meadows will be up for arbitration raises this offseason. Meadows will enter his first of three arb seasons in 2022, while Margot will be owed a final raise on his current $3.4MM salary before reaching free agency in the 2022-23 offseason. A trade isn’t a foregone conclusion, of course. Designated hitter Nelson Cruz is a free agent at season’s end, and his departure could open the door for Meadows to slide back into a primary designated hitter role, further opening some outfield reps for Lowe (and others).

However it shakes out, the Rays are again on the cusp of bringing yet another high-end talent to the big leagues — one who’ll potentially give the team another cost-effective player to build around as some of the current mainstays on the roster inch closer to free agency or arbitration salaries that ownership deems untenable. There’s always some degree of year-to-year churn on the Rays’ roster, but the consistent development of quality young talent like Lowe has made it sustainable for years now.

From a service-time standpoint, Lowe is already controllable through at least the 2027 season. Depending on how much time he spends in the Majors this year and how the team handles him early in the 2022 season, that could be pushed back to 2028. Under the current system, Lowe would’ve needed to spend 15 days in the minors next year to push that free-agent trajectory back to 2028. That number would grow by one for every day Lowe spends on the MLB roster between now and season’s end. Of course, we don’t know for certain what the arbitration system and service will look like moving forward. Both are hot-button issues in ongoing collective bargaining talks between Major League Baseball and the Players Association, and it’d come as little surprise to see some notable overhaul the current service-time/arbitration structure.

Nationals Promote Keibert Ruiz

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Aug. 30: The Nationals have formally recalled Ruiz from Triple-A Rochester and optioned Barrera in a corresponding move.

Aug. 29: The Nationals are calling up catching prospect Keibert Ruiz to make his team debut tomorrow, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old is widely-considered one of the team’s best prospects, if not the best. MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have him as the club’s number one, while FanGraphs has him second, behind only Josiah Gray, both of whom just joined the organization as part of the trade that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers.

Ruiz has long been viewed as an impact prospect, having been on Baseball America’s Top 100 list for each of the past four years. However, as he reached the upper levels of the minor leagues, it was difficult for him to get playing time in Los Angeles because the Dodgers already had an excellent catcher in Will Smith. Ruiz played just eight games for the Dodgers between last season and this one, logging only 15 plate appearances. As such, it made sense for the club to use him as a trade chip and bolster other areas of the team. With the Nationals having traded away Yan Gomes, they should be able to give Ruiz the run of playing time he never got in Los Angeles.

In Triple-A this year, Ruiz has put up tremendous numbers to back up that prospect status. In 72 games between the two organizations, he has a line .310/.377/.616, producing a wRC+ of 141. If he can produce anything close to that at the big league level, that would make him one of the best offensive catchers in the game.

Since trading Gomes, the Nats have been splitting the catching duties between Riley Adams and Tres Barrera, both of whom have been playing well. In 18 games since coming to Washington from Toronto in the Brad Hand trade, Adams has put up a line of .349/.451/.581, wRC+ of 177. For Barrera, he has a line of .270/.369/.393, wRC+ of 106 in 29 games this year. Both players have options and could potentially be sent down as the corresponding move for Ruiz, but rosters are expanding from 26 to 28 on September 1st, which could allow the club to carry all three. Since the Nats are out of contention, they can use the final month of the season to evaluate their catching options and determine how to proceed for the future.

Marlins To Promote Edward Cabrera

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The Marlins are promoting top pitching prospect Edward Cabrera to make his Major League debut Wednesday against the Nationals, per a club announcement (Twitter link, with video of Cabrera being informed he’s being called up to the Majors). Cabrera is already on the 40-man roster, so Miami will only need to make a corresponding 26-man roster move.

It’s been a monster season between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A for the highly touted Cabrera, as evidenced by a combined 2.93 ERA and 36.9 percent strikeout rate in 61 1/3 innings. Cabrera was out earlier in the season due to an inflamed nerve in his right biceps — an injury that cost him the first two months of the season. He looks quite healthy now, having punched out 11 or more batters in three of his past four starts at the Triple-A level.

Cabrera, 23, is featured on virtually any ranking of the game’s top prospects one could find. He’s No. 30 on the midseason Top 100 over at MLB.com, No. 36 at The Athletic, No. 43 at FanGraphs and No. 74 at Baseball America. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel didn’t rank Cabrera in his Top 50 but listed him as one of “20 others who were considered.” Specific rankings aside, the broad-reaching consensus is that Cabrera is one of the most promising young arms in the sport.

Cabrera draws praise for a heater that sits in the 93-97 mph range but has scraped triple digits as well. He generates more grounders than whiffs with the fastball but complements it with a potentially plus slider and an improving changeup. Listed at 6’5″ and 217 pounds, he has the prototypical size and frame that many look for in ideal pitching prospects.

Based on the timing of his promotion, Cabrera will be controlled by the Marlins through at least the 2027 season. He’s being promoted late enough in the year that Super Two status is long since a consideration, although with any prospect promotion, it’s also key to note that future optional assignments could alter one or both of those trajectories. If Cabrera is in the Majors for the rest of the season, he’d accumulate 40 days of MLB service time, meaning he’d need just 132 days in the Majors in 2022 to reach a full year of service and remain on that post-2027 course for free agency.

Cabrera is the latest in a growing line of promising young Marlins starters to reach the Majors. While Miami is dealing with a handful of injuries at present, it’s hard for other clubs not to envy their collection of formidable arms. Cabrera joins Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, 2021 Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Rogers, deadline acquisition Jesus Luzardo, Elieser Hernandez and currently injured top prospect Sixto Sanchez among the team’s current core of rotation options, and there are several others behind them. Most notably, last year’s No. 3 overall pick, right-hander Max Meyer, has been nothing short of dominant in Double-A this season.

The Marlins’ system is deeper in arms than in high-end bats, so it remains possible that GM Kim Ng and her staff will look to capitalize on that group of arms and turn some of it into controllable young bats via the offseason trade market. Catcher and center field, in particular, are areas where the Marlins find themselves with a long-term need.

Yankees Promote Luis Gil

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The Yankees are promoting Luis Gil to start this evening’s game against the Orioles, the team told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News). He’ll be making his major league debut. Gerrit Cole had initially been lined up to take the ball, but he’s now out of action for at least ten days after testing positive for COVID-19. Gil was already on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move was necessary.

Acquired from the Twins for Jake Cave in March 2018, Gil has since developed into one of the more promising young arms in the organization. Baseball America placed him fourth among Yankees farmhands in their recent midseason update, while FanGraphs slots him twelfth in the system. Both outlets rave about his fastball, which gets into the high-90’s and has enough life to generate plenty of swinging strikes. There’s some debate about which of his secondary offerings — a mid-80’s slider or a low-90’s changeup — will become his most effective offspeed pitch, but the general expectation is that Gil’s fastball will play at the big league level.

While there’s not much doubt about the efficacy of his raw stuff, there are still questions about Gil’s strike-throwing consistency. The right-hander has walked more than 10% of batters faced at every level of his minor league career. That’s continued this season, as the 23-year-old has doled out free passes to a huge 13.5% of opponents over 15 starts split between Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

To his credit, Gil has managed a decent 4.13 ERA between the two levels. That’s largely thanks to the plus bat-missing ability he’s shown throughout his career. Gil has struck out a huge 33% of opposing hitters in his first crack at the high minors, actually a bit of a step up from his overall 30.1% mark as a professional. He has worked exclusively as a starting pitcher in recent years, although that combination of high-octane stuff and bouts of wildness might hint at a bullpen future down the line.

Angels Promote Jo Adell, Chris Rodriguez

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The Angels have recalled outfield prospect Jo Adell and right-hander Chris Rodriguez from Triple-A Salt Lake, per a club announcement. Rodriguez, who was in the team’s bullpen earlier this season, will make his first MLB start tonight against the Rangers.

This will be the second call to the Majors for Adell, 22, who struggle mightily in his first go-around last summer. At the time, Adell had just 27 Triple-A games under his belt when making the jump to the big leagues. He’d have garnered more experience there if possible, but the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season deprived him of that opportunity.

So far in 2021, Adell has certainly looked like a player who’s benefited from the extra developmental opportunity in Salt Lake. After hitting just .161/.212/.266 in 132 Major League plate appearances last summer, Adell has returned to Salt Lake and posted a hearty .289/.342/.592 slash with 23 home runs in 339 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, that’s “only” about 19 percent better than league-average in a supercharged Triple-A offensive environment, but Adell’s recent work has certainly been improving. Since the calendar flipped to July, Adell has absolutely mashed to the tune of a .339/.387/.615 line. He’s dropped his long-problematic strikeout rate to 24.4 percent in that time.

Adell entered the 2020 season as a consensus Top 10 prospect in all of baseball and still ranked No. 13 on Baseball America’s preseason list heading into the current campaign. He fell a bit shy of a full year of service time in 2020, so the timing of his 2021 promotion has no real impact on his path to free agency. Adell accrued 153 days of service in 2020, leaving him 19 days shy of a full year. He’d have finished the current season as a one-plus player whether he was called up on Opening Day or called up on Sept. 1. The later nature of his promotion does remove the possibility of him qualifying as a Super Two player — barring future demotions that further alter his service time — but he’d have been controllable through the 2026 season in virtually any scenario that saw him called to the Majors in 2021.

As for Rodriguez, the 23-year-old righty is a well-regarded farmhand himself. He hasn’t drawn Adell’s level of national fanfare, but he impressed with 19 2/3 frames of 3.66 ERA relief as a 22-year-old earlier this season and will now transition into the rotation — a role the Angels hope he can hold down over the long term.

A back injury that ultimately required surgery has limited Rodriguez’s innings count since he was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 draft. Accordingly, he’s pitched just 117 2/3 innings in total since that selection — including this year’s work both in the minors and in the big leagues. He’ll add a potential power arm to the team’s rotation mix, as he averaged just shy of 97 mph on his heater as a reliever earlier in the year. Given that lack of total innings, it’s not a surprise that the Angels started Rodriguez in the bullpen this year to limit his workload and build him up for future seasons.

Between Rodriguez and the recently promoted Reid Detmers, the Halos are hoping that some of their farm system’s most-promising arms can both help them claw back into the 2021 Wild Card hunt and also gain some vital experience for future seasons. Neither pitcher is guaranteed a spot in the 2022 rotation, but it stands to reason that the final two months could serve as an audition — as is the case with Adell in the corner outfield.

Angels Promote Reid Detmers

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TODAY: The Angels officially announced that Detmers’ contract has been selected.  Infielder Kean Wong was also recalled from Triple-A, while James Hoyt and Luis Rengifo were optioned to Triple-A yesterday to open up roster space.

JULY 30, 8:10PM: Cobb is indeed going on the IL, according to the team. But it’s because of “right wrist inflammation” and not a blister.

7:19 PM: The Angels are going to promote top pitching prospect Reid Detmers to make his major league debut, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Although Bollinger originally said the debut would be Saturday, the club later announced a change of plans, with Detmers starting on Sunday. Detmers is not on the 40-man roster but a corresponding move may not be necessary since the Angels subtracted from their roster with the earlier trades of Andrew Heaney and Tony Watson. Detmers, a 22-year-old lefty, is the Angels #2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, behind only Brandon Marsh, who was himself recently promoted.

This marks a fast jaunt through the minors for Detmers, having been drafted just over a year ago. He was the 10th overall selection in the 2020 draft and is widely-considered one of the top prospects in the game. He is currently ranked #24 at Baseball America, #57 at MLB Pipeline and #39 at FanGraphs. The Angels started Detmers in Double-A earlier this year and saw him flourish immediately. In 54 innings, he had a 3.50 ERA with an amazing strikeout rate of 43.1% and a stingy walk rate of just 3%. After being promoted to Triple-A, Detmers made one start, throwing six shutout innings with nine strikeouts and no walks. The Angels obviously felt they had seen enough to fast-track him to the majors.

Detmers will step into a six-man rotation that has struggled thus far this season. Despite some excellent contributions from Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval and Alex Cobb, the rotation ERA currently sits at 4.82 on the year, which puts them 21st in the league. That’s thanks to some woeful performances from Griffin Canning, Jose Quintana and Dylan Bundy.

Quintana and Bundy have also been making appearances out of the bullpen lately. But it’s unclear how the rotation will proceed in the short-term. Ohtani might have his start pushed back after recently getting hit on the thumb of his throwing hand by a foul ball, notes Bollinger. Additionally, Alex Cobb’s blister issue has persisted enough that he may hit the IL, according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.

Dodgers Promote Josiah Gray

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The Dodgers announced they’ve promoted top pitching prospect Josiah Gray. He’ll make his major league debut during tonight’s game with the rival Giants.

Selected by the Reds in the second round of the 2018 draft out of Division II Le Moyne College, Gray was traded to Los Angeles a few months later as part of the deal that sent Yasiel Puig to Cincinnati. The following season, he emerged as one of the game’s better pitching prospects. He dominated across three minor league levels in 2019, demonstrating a three-pitch mix and surprisingly advanced command for a player who didn’t convert to pitching full-time until his final season at Le Moyne.

Entering the year, Gray appeared on the top 100 prospect lists of each of Baseball America, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs and Keith Law of the Athletic. Longenhagen was the most bullish of that trio, slotting the 23-year-old as the #29 prospect leaguewide. In his scouting report, Longenhagen raved about Gray’s repertoire and strong fastball command, noting that he projects to be a “mid-rotation stalwart” at his peak. BA and Law echoed those sentiments, pointing to Gray’s continued development of his secondary pitches and strong understanding of pitching as reasons for optimism he’ll continue to improve.

Gray has reached Triple-A Oklahoma City for the first time this year, but a shoulder injury sidelined him for two months. He’s only made four appearances because of that, but Gray’s shown no difficulty adapting to the minors’ highest level. He’s allowed just five runs across 15 2/3 innings, striking out 22 while issuing a pair of walks.

Adding rotation help before the July 30 trade deadline figures to be a priority for the Dodgers. Los Angeles trails the Giants by one game in a tightly-contested NL West. Gray pitching well right out of the gate would go a long way towards stabilizing the starting staff, although that’ll likely be a target area for president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and his front office regardless of Gray’s early performance.

Even if Gray is in the majors for good, he won’t reach free agency until the conclusion of the 2027 season. He’s not slated for arbitration eligibility until the 2024-25 offseason. Future optional assignments could push back that service time projection.

Angels Promote Brandon Marsh

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The Angels announced they’re promoting top outfield prospect Brandon Marsh before today’s game against the Mariners. The 23-year-old will get the start in center field this afternoon, making his major league debut in the process. Infielder Kean Wong was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake to create active roster space. Marsh was already selected to the 40-man roster last winter to keep him from being taken in the Rule 5 draft.

Marsh is a consensus top prospect, checking in among the game’s top 50 farmhands in the estimation of each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic, and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs entering the season. Longenhagen was the most bullish, slotting him 15th overall (and ninth on FanGraphs’ updated board). He wrote preseason that Marsh possessed All-Star upside thanks to a combination of solid bat-to-ball skills, above-average raw power, and athleticism that enables him to play a quality center field. Those sentiments were echoed by BA and Law, with each outlet lauding his ceiling on both sides of the ball.

Selected by the Angels in the second round of the 2016 draft out of a Georgia high school, Marsh hit very well over his first few seasons in pro ball. He posted strong numbers from 2017-18 before a breakout 2019 campaign. Despite spending that year in a pitcher-friendly Double-A environment, Marsh hit a robust .300/.383/.428 over 412 plate appearances. That vaulted him near the top of prospect lists during the 2019-20 offseason, and he retained that status after spending all of last year at the alternate training site.

Marsh has spent this season with Salt Lake. A month-long injured list stint due to right shoulder inflammation has kept him to 110 plate appearances, over which he’s hit .255/.364/.468 with three homers. That’s less impressive than Marsh’s output at the lower levels — once one adjusts for the hitter-friendly Triple-A setting — but it’s still above-average production for a young player taking his first crack at the level.

The left-handed hitting Marsh has put up better than average numbers at every level of his minor league career, compiling an overall .288/.371/.440 slash line over four professional seasons. He’s demonstrated an advanced feel for the strike zone, walking at a lofty 11.2% clip against a slightly-elevated 24.3% strikeout rate.

Obviously, the center field job will go back to Mike Trout whenever the sport’s best player is ready to return from the injured list. Trout is still yet to embark upon a minor league rehab assignment, though, leaving room for Marsh to handle a regular workload for at least the next couple weeks. With Justin Upton also on the IL and recent free agent signee Adam Eaton in right field, there should be room for Marsh to stick around even after Trout’s return if his performance so merits.

Whether or not Marsh sticks with the big league club for good, his promotion comes late enough in the season to prevent him from accruing a full year of major league service. Marsh won’t reach free agency until after the 2027 season at the earliest. The window for Super Two eligibility has also passed, meaning he won’t be eligible for arbitration until at least 2025. Future optional assignments could push back that service timeline.

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