Maybe Maybin Time?

Cameron Maybin’s stay in the minors could be coming to an end soon. The Marlins’ collective centerfielders aren’t getting the job done, ranking in the bottom third of the league in offensive and defensive contributions. Meanwhile, Maybin has scorched Triple-A in his second month at the level. Overall, Maybin is hitting .323/.404/.452 with a homerun, four stolen bags, and a passable BB/K ratio.

Maybin is only 23-years-old and he’s outhitting the PCL average of .271/.341/.414 by a fair margin. Despite missing a few games after an altercation with an umpire, June has been Maybin’s month. Entering last night Maybin was hitting .377/.472/.492 in the month with a near 1:1 BB/K ratio. A nice contrast from Maybin’s May, in which he hit .270/.333/.413 and struck out twice as much as he walked.

Maybin spent about a month in the majors to begin the year, and according to Cots was just shy of 60 days of service time opening the season. That puts him in the ~90 days range, which means he’s about two and a half months from reaching a full year. With that in mind, the Marlins only have a few more weeks to wait until they can promote Maybin and avoid chipping away on his cost-controlled time.

There’s also the question of whether Maybin is indeed ready for major league action. Given a limited sample size of just under 200 plate appearances, Maybin has hit a pedestrian .242/.309/.345; although, the incumbent group of centerfielders is not doing much better, with a combined line of .272/.321/.443. If Maybin is able to make contact better than 70% of the time, he could do a lot better.

Maybin looks like a special talent, one the Marlins are going to be careful with. Being two games back of the Phillies is going to test the Marlins resolve on whether the extra help for a playoff push is worth the potential long-term cons.