Offishial news, 4/11/21: Yimi gets the 9th; minor league signings

Bass demoted

After surrendering two home runs and nine total baserunners to his first 16 batters faced, Anthony Bass is getting a break from closer’s duties. He wasn’t even among the three pitchers used for high-leverage relief work in Saturday’s win—that save opportunity went to Yimi García.

In January, Bass became the first pitcher to receive a guaranteed, multi-year major league contract from the current Marlins ownership group. Relative to the rest of MLB, $5 million is a modest expenditure, but the team went out of its way to hype him up. Although Miami never explicitly named Bass the closer during spring training, there wasn’t a formal competition for the role, either. It was his to lose.

Another reminder: this is a long season. Any player who has been an initial disappointment in 2021 has ample time to wind up as an overachiever, and vice versa. That being said, for the Marlins to alter their bullpen hierarchy so early on speaks to their genuine concern about Bass’ inability to locate his pitches.

Walk-off links

• FiveThirtyEight gives the Marlins a 37% chance to win their series finale against the Mets (weather permitting).
• The Marlins are re-signing right-hander Brett Eibner and stashing him at the Fish Tank in Jacksonville, according to Craig Mish. This comes days after Mish’s report that they’ve done the same with left-hander Brandon Leibrandt. Both made their major league pitching debuts in 2020.
• Homering at both of the current New York MLB ballparks put Jazz Chisholm Jr. in some select company.
• Trevor Rogers is averaging 95.6 miles per hour on his fastball, the highest among all qualified left-handed starters.
• Starting on Thursday, April 15, season, group and mini-plan ticket packages for the Low-A Jupiter Hammerheads will go on sale here. Shop for single game tickets the following week (April 22).
• Check out the musical stylings of prospects Jesús Sánchez and Federico Polanco.
• Old friend Austin Dean is two seasons into his tenure with the Cardinals, but Saturday was only his eighth regular season game for them. He went yard for the first time as a Redbird.
• Analysis from Pattern finds that MLB Opening Day boosted demand for Marlins hats by 70% compared to the average day. Demand was up 35% compared to last year’s Opening Day.
• Lifelong Marlins fan Nick Alvarez has launched The Fish and WHIP’s Podcast.
• Any Miami Dolphins fans in here? Our friends at BreakingT have a new Tua Tagovailoa t-shirt for you.
• Get your bids in for this vintage Florida Marlins pennant flag (h/t @MarlinsHistory).