Marlins fall/winter update, Nov. 19-25

A regular Monday feature here at Fish Stripes over the next few months, we’ll do a roundup of storylines, stats and highlights from Marlins players who are staying active this offseason. Now that the Arizona Fall League has concluded, that means turning our attention internationally (the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, etc.).

All the weekly updates will be contained in this thread.

Stats updated through Sunday’s games.

The Mesas have landed!

On Saturday morning, the Cuban outfielders took a flight from the Dominican Republic to Miami, indicating that they’re here to stay for the rest of the offseason. Víctor Víctor Mesa ($5.25 million signing bonus) and Víctor Jr. ($1 million) were introduced by the Marlins last month. They had moved to the D.R. earlier in the year to establish residency during the MLB free agent process.

President of baseball operations Michael Hill has already indicated that Víctor Víctor will be invited to major league spring training. Most outlets—including us—consider him the No. 1 prospect in the farm system.

Dominican Winter League

Photo by @Marlins/Twitter

Jarlin García is easing into winter ball out of the bullpen. He debuted on Wednesday by facing two batters for Toros del Este (one out and one hit allowed). His next appearance on Friday was a carbon copy of that. García hasn’t recorded a strikeout in a game since Aug. 23.

Another Marlins player joins the Toros this coming week: Peter O’Brien! The Opening Day roster candidate slashed .273/.338/.530 as a September call-up. During the full 2018 calendar year, MiLB and MLB combined, O’Brien has launched 34 home runs, so here’s one last opportunity to pad that total.

Gabriel Guerrero (Estrellas Orientales) drew his first walk of the season and smacked two doubles. Pretty quiet otherwise. He’s at .272/.280/.424 through 23 games.

Venezuelan Winter League

Like Jarlin, Miguel Rojas dusted off his cleats on Wednesday. The everyday shortstop for Tiburones de La Guaira moving forward, he has posted a .563 OPS.

MILESTONE ALERT: Rojas recorded his 200th career hit in Venezuela (spread out across nine separate seasons).

Jorgan Cavanerio worked back-to-back games last weekend, lowering his earned run average to 4.80. The most interesting aspect of his winter ball performance? Zero walks (55 batters faced). I’ll admit to knowing nothing about Cavanerio until creating this tracker, but he fits the profile of somebody other teams might target in the Rule 5 Draft. The Marlins left him unprotected.

On the other hand, they made space on the 40-man roster for José Quijada (Caribes de Anzoategui). The left-hander has hit a rough patch, allowing earned runs in three straight appearances. It appears to be largely influence by BABIP luck—Quijada is generating twice as many ground outs as air outs overall, and has yet to serve up a homer.

Puerto Rican Winter League

Photo by gigantescarolinalbprc/Instagram

Isan Diaz continues to produce for Gigantes de Carolina. The 22-year-old has reached base safely in nine of 10 games played with a .294/.368/.382 slash line. This is Diaz’s first winter ball action since the 2014-15 season.

Yadiel Rivera (Indios de Mayagüez) continues to do...Yadiel Rivera things.

MLB season: .173/.269/.216

P.R. season: .185/.241/.222