Marlin of the Month: April 2023

The month of April was full of excitement for the Miami Marlins. As of early Monday night, they sit tied with the New York Mets for second place in the NL East. The Marlins ended the month on a four-game winning streak in which they won every game by one run—that has been a trend for Miami, as they are 10-0 in one-run games this season.

It took clutch individual performances from many Marlins to make this possible, but we’ve narrowed it down to four Marlin of the Month finalists who really stepped up. Most of them are new faces who made a great first impression during their debut month in a Marlins uniform.

The Finalists

Luis Arraez

Luis Arraez did everything he was expected to do and more in April. He is leading the league in batting average, on-base percentage, and is tied for the league lead in hits. The most exciting thing he did this month? Hitting for the first cycle in Marlins history on April 11. It was a historic night that made Marlins fans fall in love with a guy who was only in his 12th game as a Marlin.

In the early portion of the season, Arraez is putting his name with the best of the best, rocking the highest batting average through April of any MLB player since Barry Bonds’ 2004 MVP season.

A.J. Puk

It is easy to overlook the other non-Arraez players, but A.J Puk has been a star out of the bullpen. He has stepped into the new closer role for the Marlins this year and has been lights out. Puk allowed a solo home run in his first appearance on March 31. In 11 innings pitched after that, he gave up zero earned runs while striking out 11 batters and only walking two. This has been a pleasant surprise to Marlins fans as this All-Star level pitching was not expected from him going into this year. Puk has five saves so far and you can expect that there’ll be more coming in the near future as he takes on the full-time closing role.

Garret Hampson

Garret Hampson was another bright spot for the Marlins this month as he wasn’t expected to get a lot of playing time, but an injury to Joey Wendle in early April changed that and he played 18 games this month. He was third on the team in batting average at .267 and was tied for second on the team in doubles with six this month. This slugging ability puts him far ahead of last year’s pace as he only had seven doubles in 90 games with the Colorado Rockies.

Hampson also gave the Marlins versatility in the field—he started nine games at shortstop, three at second, one in right field, and played a few innings in center field.

Dylan Floro

Dylan Floro was another bullpen arm that hit ground running this month and he just missed having a perfect month. On April 26, he had a bad outing vs. the Braves—giving up three earned runs—but those were the only runs he gave up this month. In 11 other March/April appearances, Floro struck out 12 batters while surrendering only six baserunners. He has turned into a perfect setup guy for Puk and it gives the Marlins a consistent one-two punch out of the bullpen.