Top prospects, workhorse starting pitcher highlight second wave of Marlins NRI’s

Following December’s first wave of non-roster Spring Training invites, the Marlins announced 11 more on Tuesday afternoon. This wave includes three players who earned call-ups to the major league team last season (each of them struggled), plus a handful of notable prospects. The press release also explains how to watch/listen to 2019 Grapefruit League games.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Marlins extended invites to nine organizational players, as well as two Minor League free-agent signings. The organizational players are: RHP Robert Dugger, RHP Tommy Eveld, RHP Zac Gallen, RHP Brett Graves, LHP Dylan Lee, RHP Ben Meyer, RHP Nick Neidert, INF Yadiel Rivera, and OF Brian Miller. The free-agent signings are RHP Héctor Noesí and C Santiago Chavez.

With these additions the Marlins are now slated to have 25 NRI’s in Major League camp, which opens with pitchers and catchers reporting on February 13, followed by position players on Feb. 18. The roster currently features 35 pitchers (24 from 40-man roster, 11 NRIs), seven catchers (2/5), 12 infielders (7/5), and 11 outfielders (7/4). The full Spring Training roster is attached to this email.

Additionally, the Marlins also announced the club’s broadcast schedule for Spring Training.

FOX Sports Florida will broadcast seven games: Feb. 23 vs. St. Louis, Feb. 25 at Tampa Bay, March 2 at St. Louis, March 17 vs. St. Louis, March 19 vs. the Mets, March 20 vs. St. Louis, and March 24 vs. St. Louis.

The Marlins’ English flagship station, 940 AM WINZ, will broadcast 15 games, while 10 contests can be heard in Spanish on WAQI 710 AM. An additional 14 games can be streamed on MLB.com. That covers 29 of Miami’s 30 Spring Training games, excluding only a split-squad contest at Houston on March 6.

This confirms last week’s report about the Noesí signing. I’ll be curious to see how he fits into the crowded starting rotation mix after demonstrating impressive durability overseas the past three years.

Graves and Rivera had been on the 40-man roster at the beginning of the offseason, but cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A New Orleans.

Neidert, the reigning Marlins Minor League Pitcher of the Year, is the headliner of this wave. He hurled 152 ²⁄₃ innings at a 3.24 earned run average for Double-A Jacksonville, with nearly five times as many strikeouts as walks. The 22-year-old ranked as our No. 4 prospect (most other publications have a similar take on him).

Fish Stripes was fortunate enough to interview four of the other prospects in recent months, all of whom have unique backstories. You could be seeing them in Miami at some point this summer.

The Spring Training media details come at a convenient time—our exclusive feature on FOX Sports Florida’s Paul Severino dropped earlier in the day.