Three Miami Marlins trade acquisitions make updated MLB.com top 30 organization prospects

The Miami Marlins organization made a number of trades in the past few weeks as part of this season's trade deadline. The Fish were clear sellers and abandoned their plans of contention this year by sending off rental pieces in Mat Latos and Dan Haren as well as sending off relievers Steve Cishek and Sam Dyson away. In return, the team got a number of middling prospect players, mostly pitchers, who figured to add depth but not necessarily talented depth to the club's barren minor league system.

MLB.com has made its update to the team's top 30 organizational prospects, and three players acquired in these midseason deals made the top 30 for the team. The club's top return according to MLB.com was former Texas Rangers catching prospect Tomas Telis, who ranks 11th on the updated list after starting the season unranked on Texas's list. Telis is a 24 year-old catcher who has been working at the Triple-A level all throughout the season. In Round Rock for the Pacific Coast League, he had been hitting .291/.327/.404, which translates to a batting line seven percent worse than league average for the high-offense PCL. He was moved over to Triple-A New Orleans briefly before the getting the call up to the big league level with the Fish thanks to a minor hand injury to J.T. Realmuto.

Telis's book is that he displays good contact rates, with low strikeout and walk numbers throughout his minor league career. The Marlins usually like their scrappy backups to display this sort of skillset, and that is what MLB.com thinks Telis is going to end up being: just a backup in the big leagues. He is a decent defensive catcher with an average arm, but he gives you doubles contact at best at the plate and does not get on base without hits. He posted good numbers last year in between Double- and Triple-A, but the downturn this year is a little disappointing in his repeat effort at the highest level. He could probably serve as Realmuto's backup next year provided Miami does not bring back Jeff Mathis.

Right-hander Jeff Brigham was acquired by the Marlins in the Mat Latos deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is the best player who came over from that trade. He landed as the 23rd-ranked prospect in the Marlins organization right now. Brigham is a hard-throwing righty with a good sinking, hard-running fastball that sits 90-94 mph but has been touching 97 mph as of late. He also has a fringe-average low-80's slider that he uses as his primary complimentary pitch. The problem is that Brigham has no changeup whatsoever and has had control issues since recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2012 in college. Without a third pitch and with middling stuff outside of the fastball, he may end up working solely out of the bullpen. The 23 year-old is working out of Miami's High-A Jupiter affiliate.

Ivan Pineyro is the best offering from the Dan Haren deal with the Chicago Cubs, and he ranks 27th on the Marlins' latest list. Pineyro is a 23 year-old working primarily out of the Cubs' Double-A affiiliate, where he was putting up reasonable numbers. After failing an initial shot at that level last season, his repeat performance has been better, as he is posting a 3.69 ERA and 3.23 FIP with a 20.5 percent strikeout rate and 6.7 percent walk rate on the year. He gets by mostly with throwing strikes and throwing low in the zone it sounds like, which fits the profile for most Marlins starters. His secondary offerings are not impressive, but he has enough of them that he could top out as a back-end starter.

None of these players are impressive in the least, but it tells you just how weak the Marlins' system was at the start of the year that these players could crack the top 30 prospects despite having been completely anonymous in their own organizations. The Fish need higher-profile trades or better drafts to really replenish the depth that they had in the early 2010's.