Offishial news, 1/23/23: Inside Jazz’s move to center field; 2023 ZiPS projections

Marlins Podcast Episodes

• Sunday’s winter ball updates: J.D. Osborne (Melbourne Aces) went 3-for-4 with a home run, his fourth dinger of the Australian Baseball League season.
• As my Marlins winter ball tracker shows, every player in the organization has concluded their participation except for Osborne and Cody Mincey in the ABL.
• Half of the respondents to our Twitter poll gave the Marlins a “B” grade for the trade. I’m sticking with my initial grade of a C.
• Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic went deep on Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s conversion from second baseman to center fielder. The Marlins had preliminary talks about it in 2022 when the club was struggling to get competent production from that position. Chisholm confirms that “he has never played outfield in a competitive game,” but he was shagging fly balls during the team’s recent hitter’s camp at LoanDepot Park—“I couldn’t take the smile off my face,” he says. “This does not work if we do not have complete buy-in from him,” Skip Schumaker says. “I didn’t have to convince him. He was the one that came to me.” The history between Chisholm and outfield coach Jon Jay goes back more than four years to when both were part of the Diamondbacks organization, so there’s already a key relationship in place.
• Unsurprisingly, Schumaker describes Luis Arraez as a fit “at the top of the order” (via MLB Network Radio). The Twins primarily used him in the leadoff spot over the last two seasons.
• Nicole Cahill reflects on the departures of Pablo López and Miguel Rojas in back-to-back weeks, two long-tenured Marlins players who were role models off the field as well.
• The Marlins still appear to be frontrunners to get free agent Yuli Gurriel, with Bob Nightengale of USA Today reporting that they are “expected to sign” him to a one-year deal. According to Nightengale, regular playing time is a huge motivation for Gurriel, though it’s hard to see him being a frequent starter in Miami unless one of the position players currently projected to be on the Opening Day roster is traded.
• Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs posted his ZiPS projections for the 2023 Marlins. He wrote separately about Arraez’s “rather bland” projections in his Twins piece. However, that was under the assumption that he’d be deployed primarily at first base; the Marlins will try him out at second base.
• In prospect ranking updates, the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 list features Eury Pérez (No. 11), Max Meyer (No. 72) and newly traded José Salas (No. 93). Salas, Jacob Berry, Yiddi Cappe, Jake Eder, Dax Fulton and Sixto Sánchez missed out on Baseball America’s Top 100, but each received at least one Top 150 vote during their staff’s internal discussions. BA sees Fulton being on the cusp of cracking the Top 100 if his changeup improves.
• Kim Ng doesn’t co-sign it, but she passes along one scout’s bold comparison between Pérez and Félix Hernández, according to David Laurila of FanGraphs.
• Daniel Castano remains in DFA limbo. By Thursday, we’ll find out whether he was claimed by another team or outrighted to the minors (I expect the latter). Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post goes inside Lewin Díaz’s chaotic offseason that involved being DFA’d five separate times.
• Stanley Makowski comments on how the Marlins have addressed each position from last year to right now. Reminder that any of you can publish your own FanPosts!
• Contrary to popular opinion, Mike Petriello of MLB.com finds that the Marlins actually might suffer from the league’s new schedule format. Unplanned series against every AL East and AL West team outweigh the benefits of reduced NL East matchups.
• Eric Dadmun of Pitcher List spotlights Jesús Luzardo in his article about hot second-half pitchers who deserve attention entering 2023.
• To end on a light note, Alex Krutchik “analyzes” hypothetical fights against mascots Billy the Marlin, Scampi, Kazoo, Poopsie and Hamilton R. Head.