Offishial news, 4/19/21: Top prospects; top plays

FG’s take on top prospects

Danis Sosa/Fish Stripes

Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs features 46 Marlins prospects with brief notes on 18 others. “This is a very, very strong system,” he writes, “and perhaps the toolsiest in baseball.”

Longenhagen is known for putting more of an emphasis on players’ ceilings than other evaluators do, resulting in some unorthodox rankings. He’s especially high on Max Meyer (No. 1), José Salas (No. 7), Osiris Johnson (No. 15), Eury Pérez (No. 16) and Ian Lewis (No. 23) relative to the rest of industry, while coming in low on Lewin Díaz (No. 14), José Devers (No. 25), Braxton Garrett (No. 26) and Will Banfield (No. 41).

New intern

Fish Stripes is thrilled to welcome aspiring broadcaster Kevin Barral to our staff. You’ll be seeing and hearing plenty of him during the 2021 season.

Kevin’s content projects will include weekly Marlins top plays videos, posted to the Fish Stripes YouTube channel (please subscribe). The first edition is up! It features Miguel Rojas, Adam Duvall, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Starling Marte and Jorge Alfaro from the April 12-18 games.

Walk-off links

• The Marlins signed right-hander José Mesa Jr. to a minor league deal. He was most recently seen pitching for Tigres del Licey in the Dominican winter league. Prior to that, he was a Yankees farmhand from 2014-2019, getting a taste of Double-A on three separate occasions. The 27-year-old Mesa is the son of longtime MLB reliever José Mesa.
• Monday’s podcast focuses on how Miami will survive Marte’s absence. The center fielder suffered an apparent oblique injury on Sunday.
• Corey Dickerson has gotten back to running like his usual self, MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola explains.
• Jazz Chisholm Jr. leads the entire majors in barrels per batted ball (28.6 Barrel%).
• Checking in on old friends, Christian Yelich has landed on the injured list with a lower back strain. Assuming no setbacks, he’ll be eligible to return just in time for the April 26-28 Marlins vs. Brewers series in Milwaukee. José Ureña established a new career-high with eight strikeouts (though the Tigers lost). Alex Vesia received his first call-up as a Dodger, only to be optioned the very next day. And as you already know, Jarlin García’s Miami homecoming ended poorly.

• For the first time in an eternity, Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel is excited that “none of our (professional sports) teams stink” in South Florida.
• At least through the All-Star break, Bally Sports Florida Marlins broadcasters will continue to call road games remotely.
• David Samson has plenty of stories about Barry Bonds’ brief Marlins coaching tenure. He also adds that Brad Arnsberg did a terrible job in his pitching coach role.
• Laurence Leavy is back and just as orange as ever.