Offseason Fish—11/17/21

Continuing a tradition from recent years, Fish Stripes will be providing weekly updates about Marlins who are actively playing/training during the offseason. At FishStripes.com/offseason, you can find stats, highlights and (small sample size) analysis. These articles will typically drop on Tuesdays.

Arizona Fall League (AFL)

Active Marlins

• C Will Banfield—42 PA, .257/.357/.400, 1 HR, 5 BB, 6 K
• OF JJ Bleday—107 PA, .315/.430/.573, 5 HR, 18 BB, 21 K

• RHP Justin Evans—7.0 IP, 10.29 ERA, 2 HR, 4 BB, 6 K, 2.71 WHIP
• 1B Troy Johnston—74 PA, .297/.392/.344, 0 HR, 9 BB, 19 K
• LHP Zach King—6.1 IP, 7.11 ERA, 0 HR, 7 BB, 7 K, 2.21 WHIP
• OF Kameron Misner—96 PA, .194/.375/.528, 7 HR, 20 BB, 32 K
• LHP Josh Simpson—11.2 IP, 6.94 ERA, 1 HR, 8 BB, 14 K, 1.46 WHIP
• LHP Jefry Yan—7.0 IP, 10.29 ERA, 0 HR, 9 BB, 16 K, 2.29 WHIP

Congrats to the AFL East division winners! The Mesa Solar Sox have clinched a berth in Saturday’s league championship game. Like this past weekend’s Fall Stars Game, it will be airing live on MLB Network and MLB.com.

How much predictive power do AFL stats have? Very little. Even so, Bryan Smith of Bleacher Nation shared some interesting analysis on the historical fates of the league’s top hitters (from 2006-2017). Players with a .900 OPS or greater in the desert have become “playable big leaguers”—averaging at least 1.5 fWAR per 600 plate appearances—30% of the time. Those exceeding a 1.000 OPS have a 35.7% success rate by that measure. Entering the final few games of this 2021 season, Kameron Misner and JJ Bleday own a .903 OPS and 1.003 OPS, respectively.

Liga Dominicana (LIDOM)

Active Marlins

• OF Bryan De La Cruz—16 PA, .188/.188/.438, 1 HR, 0 BB, 4 K
• INF Joe Dunand—23 PA, .190/.261/.238, 0 HR, 1 BB, 6 K
• RHP Cody Mincey—2.2 IP, 10.13 ERA, 0 HR, 2 BB, 3 K, 2.25 WHIP
• OF Jesús Sánchez—37 PA, .303/.378/.424, 0 HR, 4 BB, 9 K

Old friend James Hoyt joined De La Cruz and Sánchez on the Toros del Este roster beginning this week. Yasiel Puig will be activated next week. Presumably, he’ll play regularly in left field alongside the young Marlins outfielders.

Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (LBPRC)

Active Marlins

• C/1B Jan Mercado—27 PA, .200/.407/.300, 0 HR, 6 BB, 9 K

Brian Navarreto elected free agency last week and Isan Díaz still hasn’t come down to the island yet, so Mercado is the lone Puerto Rican Marlin for me to feature. Good to see him as a staple of the RA12 lineup. He has started all six of their games at either catcher or first base.

Mexican Pacific Winter League (LMP)

Active Marlins

• Santiago Chávez—61 PA, .222/.288/.241, 0 HR, 4 BB, 12 K