Our Noticias, 3/30/20: Edward Cabrera, Francisco Cervelli join new agency

Difficulties of the delayed season

Our latest Fish Bites episode focuses on how the Marlins are being affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

A shortened or cancelled season would prevent them from evaluating their major league-ready top prospects in prominent roles. That, in turn, complicates their approach to 2020-21 free agency. Then there’s the financial element to it—would the Marlins be willing to boost payroll (as initially projected) coming off a year of greatly reduced revenues?

Also of great consequence, the league has agreed to shorten the draft. Although the Marlins can still pursue high-upside talent, they won’t be able to stack up on organizational depth.

Cabrera, Cervelli switch agencies

Rafa Nieves has founded his own agency, Republik Sports. Two of the longtime clients who’ll be joining him are young Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera catcher Francisco Cervelli. Cabrera is entering his age-22 season and ranks as our No. 4 prospect in the Fish farm system; Cervelli signed a one-year, $2 million deal with Miami during the offseason.

Earlier in his career, Nieves also represented Miguel Rojas at Beverly Hills Sports Council. But they no longer have a professional relationship.

Walk-off links

• Each Sunday afternoon, Fish Stripes will provide a roundup of how 2020 Marlins season simulations are unfolding on Baseball-Reference, Strat-O-Matic and elsewhere. Check out the first edition here.
• Television broadcaster Paul Severino speaks to Wells Dusenbury of the Sun Sentinel about how this all feels like a continuation of his long offseason (with the added responsibility of homeschooling his son). On Sunday, Severino and Glenn Geffner welcomed ex-big leaguer and current analyst J.P. Arencibia on Sev & Geff LIVE. The full conversation is available on their new YouTube channel.

• Speaking of new YouTube channels, old friend Curtis Granderson just made his to house his “Baseball At Home” video series.
• The Statcast podcast did a draft of the last 25 World Series champions, generally favoring teams that had the best regular season performance and the most individual star power. The 2003 Marlins were selected at No. 18, while the 1997 Marlins went dead last.
• Great visuals of the near-complete Riverfront Stadium, which will be home to the Triple-A Wichita Wind Surge:

• With news that the 2020 MLB Draft will be reduced to as few as five rounds, Aram Leighton shares his Marlins mock draft.