Offseason Fish—10/1/19

For many players within the Marlins organization, baseball never stops. Just like last year, Fish Stripes will be consistently updating the whereabouts of your favorite Fish during the offseason. At FishStripes.com/offseason, you can find updates on them, including stats, highlights and (small sample size) analysis.

Arizona Fall League

• RHP Vincenzo Aiello—4.15 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 2 K in 4.1 IP
• RHP C.J. Carter—2.70 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 5 K in 3.1 IP
• INF José Devers—.200/.200/.200, 0 RBI, 1 SB, 7 K in 20 AB
• OF Jerar Encarnación—.250/.345/.417, 3 RBI, 11 K in 24 AB
• OF Víctor Víctor Mesa—.357/.412/.357, 1 RBI, 1 SB, 3 K in 14 AB

• RHP Nick Neidert—2.38 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 12 K in 11.1 IP (3 GS)
• LHP Alex Vesia—0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 8 K in 4.2 IP

Through the Salt River Rafters’ first 10 games (6-4 record, currently riding three-game winning streak), the older Marlins have looked more comfortable. While the 19-year-old Devers—shifted from his usual shortstop to second base—isn’t swinging the bat well yet, the 23-year-old Vesia has been perfect out of the bullpen.

(Don’t be confused by the “100” emoji—according to Statcast, his fastball is topping out at 94 miles per hour)

Still another week or so until the 2019 Fall Stars are selected, but Vesia and Neidert appear to be the most likely Marlins reps.

To this point, all AFL games have been taking place in the late evening. Beginning on Tuesday, thankfully, start times will be more spread out.

Dominican Winter League

In his final regular season appearance on Saturday, RHP Tayron Guerrero exited his outing early with a tight left groin. It’s unclear whether that affects his plans to compete with Tigres del Licey. Hindered by several nagging injuries, Guerrero disappointed in his second full major league campaign (6.26 ERA, 1.70 WHIP in 46.0 IP).

Briefly teammates with the Triple-A New Orleans Baby Cakes, 1B/OF Peter O’Brien and OF Jesús Sánchez will both be on Toros del Este. The highly touted Sánchez was the club’s first-round pick in the 2017 Dominican Winter League draft.

For the 2018-19 Toros, O’Brien slashed .200/.359/.360 with two home runs in 64 plate appearances. He may need a stronger showing than that to earn an invite to 2020 Marlins spring training camp.

League competition begins on Oct. 12.

Puerto Rican Winter League

President of baseball operations Michael Hill confirmed last week that consensus top-10 Marlins prospects SS Jazz Chisholm and OF Monte Harrison will play in Puerto Rico. For Chisholm, the extra reps will help his new organization get a better feel for how close he is to being MLB-ready, while Harrison is compensating for all the time that he was sidelined by a wrist injury.