Miami Marlins Top 57 Prospects

Ramírez ranked 43rd on the offseason Top 100, debuted in late April, and has performed pretty much in line with expectations to this point: He’s a chase-prone power hitter dealing with growing pains as a defender. Ramírez has been catching Edward Cabrera, Eury Pérez, and oftentimes Janson Junk, but is DH’ing the rest (most) of the time. He isn’t throwing well and needs to quicken his exchange and improve his accuracy. The rebuilding Marlins have time to let him do that.

Here is the report that’s been on The Board for the last few months: Because of the pandemic and in part because of the crowded field of Yankees catching prospects above him, it took Ramírez four years to exit rookie ball, which he did during a breakout 2023 that saw him climb all the way to Double-A. In 2024, Ramírez slugged his way to another promotion with a monster .289/.372/.570 first half at Somerset, and he spent a month in Scranton before the Yankees traded him to Miami as part of the Jazz Chisholm Jr. deal. The 2024 season was Ramírez’s first on the 40-man roster and, due to his immaturity on defense, it was a purely developmental season that used one of his option years.

His receiving around the edge of the zone and pure arm strength are both fine, but Ramírez is currently pretty bad at picking balls in the dirt, and his slow exit from his crouch drags his pop times down into a slightly below-average range. He isn’t ready to be a big league defender just yet, but he also isn’t so bad that he has to slide to first base. This is still a young catcher with rare power at a position where players tend to break late. Ramírez has big bat speed and power, and enough plate coverage to weaponize it. He has maintained modest strikeout rates despite a max-effort style of swinging, with the finish of Agustín’s backswing so big that it’s often incredibly dangerous for the catcher behind him. He is going to do enough damage to warrant starts at first base and DH like Ryan Jeffers has — essentially an everyday player who catches some of the time. Expect Ramírez to get his feet wet at the big league level in 2025 and get regular at-bats at C/1B/DH, then establish himself as Miami’s primary catcher as soon as he gets a little better at playing defense.

As an underclassman, White was sitting in the low 90s with a snapdragon breaking ball and a great physical foundation on which to layer velocity. He unleashed even more heat at PG National in 2022 (lots of 93-96 mph) and then shut things down for the bulk of showcase season. Leading up to the 2023 draft, White looked more muscular and mature in the body, and held mid-90s velocity throughout the spring, albeit under a very conservative workload. The Marlins gave him just over $4 million as one of two first-round prep arms taken that year, the second straight draft where Miami coaxed a high school pitcher away from Vanderbilt. In 2024, White’s first full season, he carried a 2.81 ERA across 21 starts, mostly at High-A. He worked 96 innings and K’d 29.2% of opposing hitters while keeping his walks largely under control. He began the 2025 season at High-A Beloit but was promoted to Double-A Pensacola in late June after enjoying another little uptick in velocity.

White’s fastball has now held 95 mph across an entire 100ish-inning season. His curveball has morphed into more of a sweeper (which helped it play as a back-foot weapon against righties), and while White’s changeup doesn’t have great movement right now, his feel for locating it is pretty good considering he barely had to use it as an amateur. White’s strike-throwing is still of moderate concern. His arm stroke can be tough to time, a lot of fastballs sail on him, and as of this update, he’s throwing his fastball for strikes at a below-average 58% clip. It’s enough to pump the brakes a little bit and leave White’s offseason FV grade intact even though his promotion is a positive thing. White is charting a mid-rotation course.

Mack is a lefty-hitting catcher with a big frame, plus bat speed, and a grooved, uppercut swing that helped him hit 24 bombs in 2024, mostly at Double-A Pensacola. He’s off to a similar start in 2025 — he’s again on pace for 20 homers and has an OPS just over .800 as of publication — and is now at Triple-A Jacksonville. Though ‘Cola and a couple of other Southern League ballparks tend to inflate home runs, Mack has real juice and big league physicality. At times his cut can be a little out of control, and Mack often swings over the top of secondary stuff, but he has rare all-fields power for a catcher and, even at age 22, there is still room for muscle on his frame. Mack has also posted above-average offensive lines at every level except for his 2023 campaign at High-A. Catchers sometimes play through bumps and bruises that impact their offensive production for long periods of time, and it’s plausible that was true of Mack in 2023, as that season now looks like an anomaly. He’s going to swing and miss a ton, both because of how much effort his swing features and because Mack is not a patient hitter, but so long as he’s getting to his power, that’s fine for a catcher.

Mack still needs to develop as a ball-blocker. His crouch style has changed this year and he now looks like he’s exclusively catching from one knee as opposed to doing a mix of traditional crouching. He’s still adjusting to ball-blocking in this style. He is otherwise a good defender with a tremendous arm. Capable of popping sub-1.9, Mack has hosed 33% of would-be basestealers the last two years. He’s in his 40-man platform year and is on pace to get his feet wet in the big leagues late in 2026, and eventually be a primary catcher with a pretty extreme power-over-hit skill set.

The primary return from the Phillies in the Jesús Luzardo trade, Caba has a chance to be the best shortstop defender in all of baseball at maturity. He is an unbelievable athlete with ridiculous body control and range, and a big arm for a 5-foot-9 guy. He’ll make the occasional overzealous throw that misses first base entirely, but he is otherwise a complete and sensational shortstop. Despite his age, he is basically a lock to be a special defensive player at arguably the most important position on the field.

Caba has also shown great plate discipline and contact ability in the lower minors, but his overall line has been underwhelming due to a lack of power. Caba has accumulated many more walks than strikeouts during his career, and his granular contact data (5% swinging strike rate, 93% in-zone contact, 87% overall in his last full season) is exceptional, especially for such a young switch-hitter. He might not have a huge offensive ceiling, however. Caba is two inches shorter than Zach Neto and his bat speed is only fair. There isn’t going to be big power here; in fact, it’s possible Caba’s lack of power will dilute the performance of his on-base and contact skills somewhat — he tends to keep infielders busy. A career similar to that of Jose Iglesias is fair to hope for Caba, while Andrelton Simmons (who had a more meaningful power peak) feels like the absolute ceiling. Caba sprained his thumb in late April and missed two months. He returned just a couple of weeks prior to list publication and his 2025 stats have been bad, but in too small of a sample to really care about.

Meyer hasn’t had anything close to his peak high school velocity so far in pro ball; he’s parked in the low 90s and has struggled with walks. He’s begun to throw his slider more than his heater, seemingly in an effort to throw more strikes, though Meyer’s feel for slider location is also mixed. There’s still a lot of good stuff happening here. Meyer has prototypical starter size, his delivery (though often ill-sequenced) is still loose and fluid, his fastball’s nasty, uphill angle is going to make it a weapon if he can either command it or throw hard again, and both his slider and changeup (barely used so far this year because Meyer can’t get ahead in the count) have plus potential. Meyer’s upside hasn’t changed, but he’s struggled for long enough now to declare that the likelihood of him hitting his ceiling has diminished. He went on the IL with a knee issue toward the end of June.

Fulton was actually throwing a little bit harder in the early part of 2023 (averaging 93.5 mph per Synergy, a tick and a half more than 2022) when he blew out and had a mid-June Tommy John, a little less than five years after his first one; he spent the 2024 season on the IL. He returned to start 2025 at Double-A and is struggling to throw strikes more than has been normal for Fulton, but not more than is normal for a guy coming off of surgery.

Fulton’s arm stroke is super short for such a tall pitcher, and this mechanical funk and the extreme downhill angle of his fastball combine to make him an uncomfortable at-bat. He commands two solid secondary pitches, the best of which is a breaking ball in the 81-86 mph range, which he’s throwing harder now than he was in 2023. Fulton also commands a changeup to the bottom/arm-side part of the plate. Both of Fulton’s secondaries are currently performing much better than when he was last healthy, as his miss and chase rates are a little higher than average on those pitches. He’s on Miami’s 40-man and stands a great chance to debut near the end of the year, late enough to retain rookie eligibility for next season.

Salas was viewed as being among the top players in the 2025 international class for a while, in part because of his siblings (Ethan and Jose), his own domestic showcase activity, and his family’s heavily-scouted baseball training facility. There were rumors that the family was unhappy when the Marlins traded his older brother to Minnesota as part of the Pablo López/Luis Arraez swap and that Andrew might opt to sign elsewhere, but regime change occurred in Miami and Andrew signed for $3.7 million in January 2025.

Shockingly, just a month after he turned 17, Salas broke camp with the Low-A roster, effectively skipping over both rookie levels to begin his career. He isn’t exactly crushing it (his wRC+ is a shade below 90 as of this writing), but as is customary with the Salas kids, we have to view Andrew’s performance in light of his age relative to his Low-A peers who are, on average, four years older than he is. Salas entered pro ball with experience at both middle infield spots and in center field, and he’s continued to play all three in Jupiter. The talented, older infielders on the roster have mostly relegated Salas to center, where he’s played more than his middle infield reps combined. He’s okay out there, which is to say he’s quite good for his age. He comfortably has the range, actions, and arm to stay at shortstop, and he’s great around the bag himself and at feeding teammates. It’s not clear which position he’ll settle into (my vote is for shortstop), but it’s going to be a position of value.

On offense, Salas’ has a good-looking lefty swing with exciting hip-and-hand separation and natural pull-side loft. He has much better bat speed and swing comfort from the left side at the moment, which isn’t remotely surprising given his age. His contact performance to this point (75% overall, 83% in-zone) is impressive for his age, but Salas isn’t strong enough to make quality contact against full season pitching right now and his hard-hit rate is in the single digits. Salas has a projectable build — he’s 6-foot-2, with broad, sloping shoulders — and should grow into at least average power down the line. I’d expect him to repeat Low-A in 2026, which would still have him a full year ahead of what is typical for a prospect his age. He has long-term everyday shortstop upside, but probably isn’t on the Vladdy/Soto/Julio trajectory where he debuts at age 19 or 20.

Martorella was a freshman during the COVID-shortened college season, then didn’t hit for power as a sophomore. Though he broke out as a junior (and took a great BP at the 2022 Draft Combine), the combination of having just one full season of big performance and Martorella’s first base projection on defense depressed his draft stock into the fifth round. He’s been very good as a pro, slashing .269/.373/.446 with San Diego leading up to the Luis Arraez trade, then hitting 16 homers in 102 games at Pensacola after the deal. He’s back in Pensacola for the first half of 2025, and he’s making lots of contact but isn’t slugging as much as last year, though his underlying hit data is practically identical.

Martorella’s uppercut swing in among the more entertaining ones in baseball. He’s much more athletic in the batter’s box than in the field, at times finishing his swing on one knee. He takes a big stride forward and uses the ground to help him generate power. Despite his swing’s effort and ferocity, Martorella’s measured peak power is closer to big league average than it is to plus. Still, the quality of his approach and the big lift in his swing will help ensure he gets to all the power. Martorella’s tools aren’t big enough to project him as a big time first baseman, but you can win with this guy as a 1B/DH who you spell versus lefties.

Benitez has some growing up to do as a teammate and professional, but he’s very talented and still projects as a no. 4/5 starter. I was at Benitez’s late-May start versus Daytona and he lacked any kind of poise. He had several negative interactions with the umpire and showed up teammates who made a mistake; he was demoted to the FCL roster for a month after that outing. This is general immaturity; there’s nothing (so far as I know) truly troubling going on, just an immature young man feeling his way through failure in a profession that guarantees some amount of it.

Stuff-wise, Benitez is precocious and exciting. He’s a plus on-mound athlete with multiple plus secondary pitches and mid-90s velocity. His changeup, usually in the 84-86 mph range, has enough action to miss bats even when Benitez hasn’t located it well. His upper-70s curveball is a second weapon versus righties and is also plus, while his mid-80s slider is the least consistent of his four weapons but is still generating above-average results. Benitez has mid-rotation upside if he can sharpen his command, which might enable his changeup to play like a 70 on the scale, but he needs to get out of his own way.

Defrank was associated with a couple of teams during the scouting process, but he settled with Miami for a $560,000 bonus. Amateur reports fixated on Defrank’s combination of present arm strength and prototypical athletic build, as he was peaking in the mid-90s already at age 16. Now he’s touching 100. Defrank’s heater is averaging 98 mph for two to three innings at a time in the DSL right now. Its shape isn’t great (it has equal parts vertical and horizontal movement), and at some point, it might need a tweak. He already has three pitches, led by an 89-91 mph splitter, with bat-missing sink and tail. His curt 85-88 mph slider is more like a cutter right now and features average spin. It’s an exciting place for a pitcher in the DSL to be, let alone who is still 16 as of this writing. Defrank’s body is fairly developed already, and he’s thicker and more muscular than most prospects his age. How that trends as he ages into his 20s will be a key developmental variable for him. Hopefully, he can remain powerful and mobile while holding this kind of velocity across a starter’s load of innings. Defrank looks like a first round high school pitching prospect.

Do the Marlins have some sort of right of first refusal when it comes to signing condor-like Dominican pitching prospects? The 6-foot-7 Pena signed for $400,000 in January and was effortlessly peaking in the 97-98 mph range during the couple of DSL starts he made prior to a three-week dark period leading up to this update due to a lower body injury.

This is an incredibly exciting, but also seriously undercooked, prospect who has the ingredients to be a front-end arm if his delivery clicks. Right now Pena, who might be closer to seven feet tall when he’s fully grown, struggles to find a consistent release point, but his low-effort delivery is generating cozy mid-90s velocity and 20 inches of vertical break from 6-foot-10 release height. It’s a fairly upright operation creating donwhill plane on Pena’s fastball. Let’s be sure (this note is as much for next list cycle’s Eric as it is for any reader) to check on his release and extension data early next season to see if this guy is getting down the mound a little better. His lower body is so skinny and underdeveloped that it isn’t shocking he doesn’t yet feel comfortable and balanced powering down the mound.

Suffice to say, Pena could have a monster fastball at peak, be it via elite velocity, extension, or both. His feel for killing spin on a mid-80s splitter suggests that pitch will also be plus down the line, though Pena’s feel for it (like everything else) is crude. His breaking ball is basically a cutter right now. We’re in the nascent stages of development here, but this is an exciting start. With Pena, we again have a situation where it’s useful to view a player’s prospectdom through the lens of the draft. Were a 17-year-old like this going to be an 18-year-old senior next year, we’d be talking about him as a likely late first rounder, with the potential to go higher than that if things came together from a command standpoint early next spring.

Santana stomped onto the prospect radar in 2023 as a 16-year-old with a low-90s fastball, a promising curveball, and an NBA wing player’s frame at an uber-projectable 6-foot-7. It seemed likely, with his size and athleticism, that Santana would eventually throw harder. Instead it happened almost right away. In his first DSL start of 2024, Santana sat 93-98, debuted a slider/cutter in the 88-90 mph range and was working with a 91-94 mph changeup. He made just three starts last year before he was shut down and had Tommy John in late June. We’re now right around the 12 month mark after his surgery and Santana has progressed to throwing live BPs; in late April, video of him holding a tablet with a TrackMan readout that said “99 mph” began circulating online.

In thinking about how to “value” Santana, I’m reminded of where top injured high school pitchers (like Dylan Lesko and Nick Bitsko) have been drafted despite their injuries. Obviously things have not gone smoothly for those two in particular, but they were too talented not to go in the mid-to-late first round. I think the same is true of Santana, who doesn’t turn 20 until October. This is a freaky guy I want to grade highly. His fastball has promising vertical ride, he made relevant and significant adjustments (especially to his breaking ball) in his second year, and he was throwing more strikes before he blew out than he was in 2023. I wait with bated breath for him to get into some actual games this summer (rumors are we’ll see him very soon) and hopefully participate in Instructional League activity in Florida after the season concludes since he’ll likely be in Jupiter next year. His 40-man platform year is 2027, so the next couple of seasons will be about stretching Santana’s workload to the point where he can be added before 2028 and probably spend his first option year in a purely developmental capacity.

Morlando had the best present power among the high schoolers in the 2024 draft, absurd BP pop for a hitter his age that allowed him to make big league parks look small with a wood bat. He signed for $3.4 million rather than go to South Carolina, and so far his pro career has been beset by injuries. A stress reaction in his back ended his short pro debut in 2024, then Morlando needed ulnar nerve transposition surgery in the spring of 2025 before straining his hamstring in May. He’s striking out in about 30% of his at-bats to this point, but we can’t really glean anything from that because he just hasn’t had consistent playing time. His 79% contact rate on the high school showcase circuit was a comforting marker before the draft, and Morlando pretty clearly looks rusty at the dish right now. He’s also undergone a slight swing change. He didn’t use any kind of stride as a high schooler (which I thought robbed him of athleticism and rhythm), but now he has a little baby leg kick. It isn’t elaborate, but it is a change to which Morlando is still adjusting.

Despite all that, his power is intact. You’ll catch glimpses of him making thunderous contact in multiple quadrants of the zone, and Morlando has the juice to hit homers toward the opposite field gap and to just left of the batter’s eye. The power potential here is massive — Morlando has 30-homer raw in there — it’s just not totally clear yet how much of it he’ll get to in games because his hit tool is more volatile than his high school showcase contact performance indicates. He’s played some center field but isn’t a realistic fit there and will need to mash to profile. This FV grade is more in line with a power-hitting platoon guy.

Milbrandt signed for just shy of $1.5 million in the 2022 third round rather than head to Vanderbilt. He quickly reached High-A in his first full pro season, but trouble with strike-throwing has since kept him there and creates long-term relief risk and likelihood. The good news is that Milbrandt’s stuff is nasty enough for him to play a higher-leverage relief role. Even though he had an early-2025 IL stint due to fluid buildup in his arm, Milbrandt is throwing as hard as ever and mixing in several different breaking ball types. He’ll show hitters an upper-80s cutter, a mid-80s slider, and the occasional low-80s curveball. The mix not only misses bats but generates a ton of groundballs. He can land his slider for strikes at will, but that’s not true of any other offering, and Milbrandt has walked about 5 per 9 IP each of the last couple years. Next year is his 40-man platform season and it might make sense to shift Milbrandt into the bullpen part of the way through the year to prep him for a 2027 debut.

Cova seemed to last deeper into the international scouting process than most premium prospects before agreeing to a $1.4 million deal with Miami as part of the 2024 class. He slashed .239/.376/.348 in his debut season and posted a 10% K%. So far in 2025, Cova looks like he’s swinging harder and he’s striking out more even though he’s repeating the DSL. He still has exciting tools as a hitter and runner, the latter allowing for center field projection. Cova is often on time to pull even though his swing is somewhat elaborate; its finish is big enough that it takes Cova a while to leave the box and he ends up running in the 4.4s even though he’s clearly a more explosive runner than that underway. There’s been no change to Cova’s FV grade compared to last cycle. He’s still a toolsy dev project in the DSL who has everyday outfielder ceiling so long as his uptick in K’s isn’t a portent of hit tool doom.

Ekness spent his underclass seasons at Lamar University before transferring to Houston for his draft spring; he struggled as a Cougar, and was shuttled back and forth between starting and relief. Ekness has been put into the bullpen full-time since turning pro, and his stuff and performance have both taken a leap. His fastball velocity is up two ticks, averaging 97 mph and peaking at 99-100. A cross-bodied, drop-and-drive, low-slot delivery creates tough, uphill angle on his fastball and allows his otherwise loose, blunt slider to play up, especially against righties. Ekness has an impact fastball and his slider is starting to look like it might be a second above-average offering. Ekness’ size and athleticism are a fit with relievers who consistently work the seventh inning or beyond.

Acquired from the Yankees as part of the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade, Serna projects to be a Dylan Moore type of role player, a hard-swinging, undersized rover who sees time all over the diamond. Serna’s power has dried up this year. After clubbing at least 13 homers each of the last three seasons, he only had five extra-base hits in 63 games with Pensacola before he was put on the IL with a pinky injury toward the end of June. His average launch angle is way down, from 11 degrees last year to two degrees in 2025. Even tough Serna is a little guy, he’s so athletic and swings so hard that he posted an above-average hard-hit rate the last two seasons (down slightly this year), and he has some pull power if he can get to it. Given how much effort it requires his little body to swing hard, there is valid skepticism around Serna’s ability to sustain the roughly average rate of contact he’s made throughout the minors, and his tendency to chase (which has actually improved the last couple of seasons) adds to the risk there.

Importantly, I’m making a speculative bet that Serna’s athleticism will allow him to grow into special defensive versatility. His range and acrobatic effort help him mask mediocre arm strength for a shortstop and would be an asset at any other position. He’s played some outfield in winter ball and that might become a bigger part of his duties soon, Serba is on the 40-man roster now and the clock is ticking for him to carve out a role in the near future. Defensive versatility will need to be part of that because, especially if the power reduction is a permanent thing, Serna doesn’t have the look of an everyday player.

While most of the many other Marlins’ DSL pitching prospects of note are big and graceful, Mosquera is the most powerful athlete of the bunch. He is generating huge force from the ground and powering his short little arm action through release to produce a fastball that has averaged 96 mph during his couple of starts before list publication. His lack of size creates flatter angle on his stuff (6-foot-3 extension, 5-foot-6 release height, 13 inches of vert), and Mosquera is striking out well over 40% of opponents. His slider is also awesome and freakishly hard for a pitcher his age and size at 86-90 mph, and it has big two-plane depth. Mosquera has a fairly violent delivery and isn’t all that big, so he carries a ton of relief risk, but even if he just sustains the stuff he’s currently working with, he would fit toward the back of a bullpen à la Orion Kerkering. Let’s see how his stamina and changeup develop as he gets stretched out.

Encarnacion is a spindly, live-armed lefty whose fastball was living in the mid-to-upper-90s during his two 2024 DSL starts before he blew out and needed Tommy John. In May 2025, around 11 months after his surgery, Encarnacion touched 101 in the bullpen (on a pitch nowhere near the zone). It’s possible Encarnacion’s arm action has been changed during his rehab (it sounds like we’ll know for sure pretty soon, as he’s nearing a return to game action), but before he got hurt, it was a super long, swooping, reliever-y arm stroke that looks incredibly difficult to repeat. That’s what’s driving the proactive relief forecast here. Encarnacion is otherwise a starter-quality athlete with prototypical size and exciting long-term physical projection. Kifraidy’s slider has huge two-planed wipe and enough depth to play as a backfoot weapon versus righties when it’s located. He has an electric arm and a big breaking ball, but he’s also only made two starts. You could reasonably clump him with the gigantic young pitchers I have up in the 45 FV tier, but to me his delivery is significantly more reliever-y than that group, so I have him a tier below.

Snelling was a multi-sport athlete in high school, earning acclaim as both a quarterback and linebacker, before an outstanding season on the mound earned him a first-round selection and $3 million signing bonus in the 2022 draft, luring him away from the gridiron for good. He moved through San Diego’s system quickly and reached Double-A as a 19-year-old in 2023, then was traded to Miami as part of the Tanner Scott swap in 2024. He’s now at Double-A Pensacola and has basically picked up where things left off for him in 2023.

The evaluation of Snelling here at FanGraphs has been lukewarm since he was an amateur. Snelling hammers the strike zone with his fastball and his repertoire is deep, but his stuff is rather vanilla. His fastball’s movement can be hittable and Snelling’s most-used secondary pitch (his slider) is generating below-average miss; it has loose spin and tumble, and lacks bat-missing bite. The way he hides and locates his changeup might make that his best pitch at peak. The forecast here is for more of a backend guy than a mid-rotation stalwart due to Snelling’s stuff quality.

De Los Santos didn’t play well enough during spring training to make the Guardians’ 2024 roster as a Rule 5 Draft pick. He was sent back to the Diamondbacks, who later traded him to Miami as part of the A.J. Puk deal. De Los Santos has had plus-plus big league raw power since he was 19, but the rest of his game has been sushi raw. For basically his entire time as a prospect, including right now, De Los Santos’ future has hinged on whether or not he’ll get to enough power to support a lower-OBP first base profile. His selectivity at the plate and infield defense have ranged from “immature” to “god awful,” and both are reasons why Deyvison hung out in this FV tier during the offseason despite hitting 40 bombs last year. His performance at Jacksonville this season has regressed and his wRC+ is comfortably below average as of this update.

De Los Santos is kind of a freak, comparing physically to former NFL fullback Lorenzo Neal more than he does anyone else in baseball. He does not get cheated and swings as hard as he can at every opportunity. His slider recognition is awful and DDLS chases at a 46% clip with two strikes. Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been a free-swinging canary in the coalmine for this kind of profile and things haven’t gone especially well for him; a deeper look back at hitters of this ilk produces comps like Ryon Healy and C.J. Cron. De Los Santos is way more fun to watch swing and hit oppo bombs than that, but realistically, he’s on a similar path.

The wispy Mazur, a transfer from South Dakota State to Iowa, was peaking in the upper 90s early during the spring of 2022 before his velocity fell off a cliff at the end of the season, and so did his chances of going in the first round. The Padres took Mazur in the second, and he quickly moved to the upper levels of the minors and debuted in San Diego during just his second pro season.

Mazur has had a pretty easy go of things in the minors but has had trouble finding his footing in the big leagues. None of his pitches are plus; Mazur mixes five pitches that are average or a shade below. The downhill plane on his fastball seems to make it hittable and Mazur is throwing more sliders this season. It might mean his ultimate role will be in the bullpen, where pitching backwards right away is more typical. But Mazur throws all of his pitches for an average rate of strikes and will graduate this season as a fifth starter prospect.

Payne’s breaking balls are dominating the FCL, as both his 76-79 mph curveball and 80-85 mph slider are generating an absurd rate of miss. Both have plus depth and bite coming from Payne’s higher arm slot. His fastball features below-average velocity and downhill plane, but Payne is throwing it for strikes consistently even though his delivery looks rather effortful. He doesn’t have great changeup projection, but his curveball might be good enough to play against righties, and Payne is a very physical dude who looks like he’ll be able to withstand a starter’s workload. This was a nice pull late in last year’s draft. It only took $235,000 to keep Payne from going to George Mason, and a year later, he looks like a guy who should’ve gotten closer to a million.

Sanoja is a diminutive, plus-running, multi-positional prospect with precocious bat-to-ball skills and much less physicality than is typical for a big leaguer. Though he’s very chase-prone, Sanoja finds a way to put the bat on the baseball all over the zone and tends to work the opposite field even when pitches are in on his hands. He had an absurd 90% contact rate in 2024 and made his first Opening Day roster in 2025.

Sanoja’s special hand-eye coordination is most evident when he puts pitches in play that he has no business swinging at, up around his chest. He isn’t very strong, but he is remarkably athletic and he can maintain a high-effort swing to produce sufficiently hard contact for the big leagues. Sanoja has been developed at both middle infield spots and in center field. He isn’t an ideal fit at shortstop — his range is weirdly mediocre despite his speed because Sanoja is simply too small to reach for some balls hit near him — but he can play there in a pinch and he’s capable at second base and in center. He’s going to be a very fun utilityman in the Jon Berti mold, except in Ronald Torreyes‘ body.

Acosta was perhaps one of the most pronounced statistical improvers in the minors in 2024, as he cut his strikeout rate by eight percentage points even though he was promoted to Double-A as a 21-year-old. He posted a 21.1% strikeout rate in 2023 (as well as a below-average offensive line overall) and then a 13.4% K% in 2024 and a career-best 118 wRC+. It hasn’t stuck, and Acosta is striking out at a 25% clip this year at Jacksonville after he was traded to Miami for Jake Burger in the offseason. At the time of the trade, it looked like Acosta might be a second-division regular were his strikeout improvement able to hold, but he’s back to playing like a bench utility type.

Acosta is a fit at shortstop. His release is quick enough to make up for merely average arm strength, and Acosta often delivers the ball accurately and on time even when he has to make a tough, rushed play. Perhaps because he got to play the Robin to Alejandro Osuna‘s Fall League Batman, Acosta seemed to hit a different competitive gear during last year’s AFL and was one of the circuit’s most engaged and outwardly competitive players for all six weeks. That’s the kind of secondary trait you want from a likely role player.

Ignoffo played all over the diamond at Eastern Illinois, including as a pitcher, with most of his time coming at the corner infield and outfield spots. He converted to catcher in pro ball and has reached Double-A a little less than two years after he was drafted. For how recently he converted, Ignoffo is already a fantastic pitch framer. He’s an agile, low-to-the-ground receiver who is active and moving back there until just before the pitch is delivered. The movement seems to help him get to the catch point on time despite being a smaller guy, and it prevents runners from relaying info to the batter based on what they’re seeing Ignoffo do, because he’s shapeshifting. A slightly below-average arm is his lone blemish on defense, and he didn’t start to catch until last year. He could end up being really good back there, and the upside of his defense is what’s spearheading a backup catcher projection here.

Offensively, Ignoffo has been a plus contact hitter in pro ball, but he’s also been pretty old for each level (even now that he’s in Pensacola), and his lack of size and power are going to cause his hit tool to play below his pure bat control. He’ll slice the occasional high fastball down the right field line for a double or yank out a hanging breaking ball, but mostly Ignoffo is going to be an opposite field singles hitter, especially against big league fastballs. Still, a lighter-hitting backup is a great outcome for your last pick in a draft.

Marsee entered 2024 yet to post a wRC+ below 131 and then was somewhat humbled, as he slashed .200/.345/.315 split between the Padres and Marlins orgs (he was traded as part of the Luis Arraez deal). Marsee is similar to Diamondbacks outfielder Jake McCarthy. He has catalytic qualities on offense, but his short-finishing swing doesn’t generate big power, and while he’s fast, he’s a cleaner fit in a corner than in center. If there’s daylight between Marsee and McCarthy, it’s that Marsee’s swing has enough loft that he should be able to ambush the occasional pull-side homer. The uppercut path required to do that sometimes leaves Marsee vulnerable to well-executed fastballs at the belt, but he’s gotten better at spoiling pitches up there and occasionally puts them in play.

This guy is on the fourth/fifth outfielder line depending on how you feel about his center field defense. Marsee tends to break a little late coming in on balls, but also looks as lean and mean in 2025 as ever. He should be put on Miami’s 40-man during the offseason and be given his first extended big league opportunity next year.

Green was drafted by Boston in 2021 but didn’t sign, and instead went to North Carolina State for two years before transferring to Georgia Tech, where he had a power breakout in 2024 as a junior. Green has kept on trucking in pro ball and has a wRC+ approaching 130 at High-A Beloit at the midseason mark. His hitting hands have real verve, though his swing is fairly grooved and only dangerous when Green is getting extended on pitches middle-away. He has great feel for airborne, all-fields contact in that part of the zone, allowing him to get to oppo doubles power despite modest raw.

Green isn’t a great shortstop defender, but he does enough to keep playing there. His range and hands are below average, and his exchange around the bag is a little slow, but he has the pure arm strength to play there. Keeping him alive at shortstop is imperative; if Green moves to third base permanently, he lacks the plus offensive tool needed to profile there. Green is tracking like a good part-time, righty-hitting infielder in the Yu Chang mold.

Once a backfield sensation christened “Heribertgod” by the local scouts because of his nutty run with Texas late in the 2019 ACL season and during the playoffs, half a decade and two orgs later, Hernandez has finally made it to the bigs at age 25. He has basically been the same player the entire time. Heriberto is a short-levered pull power hitter with plus bat speed whose uphill swing leaves him vulnerable to elevated fastballs and well-executed breakers. He struggles to spoil tough pitches because he’s so hellbent on crushing mistakes, which he does, and Hernandez’s calling card has long been the damage he does on contact. He’ll be able to get to power with this approach, but it’s going to come at the expense of striking out, and readers should expect Hernandez’s contact rate to live near the bottom of the big league continuum.

If there’s one thing about Hernandez’s skill set that has progressed, it’s his conditioning and speed, which are both at a career apex right now. He’s given himself a better shot of being rostered consistently because he has some utility as a pinch-runner and is no longer as much of a defensive liability. Hernandez likely won’t be able to sustain the excellent numbers he’s posted in his first 70 odd big league plate appearances, but because of how consistently he gets to power, he’s arguably the most stable of the righty-hitting part-time mashers poised for near-term playing time in Miami during this stretch of the Bendix rebuild.

Alderman, a 2023 second round pick out of Ole Miss who had some of the best exit velocities in that draft class, slugged under .400 in 2024 as he dealt with a broken hamate, but he hit a ball 119 mph in that year’s Fall League and pretty clearly just needed time to get further away from the injury to get all of his juice back. He’s hitting better at Double-A Pensacola in 2025, but he has some looming strikeout issues due to his swing length that are more likely to be exposed by big league velocity.

Alderman loads his hands so deep, high, and late that he struggles to be on time to pull the ball at all. His strikeout rates themselves don’t raise alarm, and it’s fine to be hopeful that I’m wrong, or that Alderman will make necessary adjustments once better stuff starts beating him. He has the power to clear the offensive bar at a corner outfield spot if he can carry a 23-25% strikeout rate forever. He projects into a late-career Adam Duvall type of role, where Alderman can be deployed against lefties (who he has a more palatable 74% contact rate against in 2025) to help ensure he gets to his power.

Valor has a prototypical right fielder’s build and long-term power projection; at a strapping 6-foot-3, he stands a chance to grow into plus raw power at maturity. Valor’s hit tool will then need to outperform expectations if he’s going to be an impact big leaguer. He struck out roughly a quarter of the time in his first two seasons, and now that he’s in full season ball, Valor’s K% has ballooned to around 32% as of this update. His hands trigger a little late and he ends up underneath a lot of fastballs, and he tends to chase sliders more than is usual (but not other pitches). The power component will be big enough for Valor to play a lefty-mashing role, but it’s looking less and less likely that he’ll hit enough to be a true everyday, omni-situational player.

Castro is a power-hitting corner outfield prospect in his second DSL season. He hit .148 last year and K’d a third of the time, but his OPS is just shy of 1.000 this year and his strikeout rate is down to a more palatable (but still scary for the DSL) 23%. Castro has big time pull power and bat speed. His top hand doles out corporal punishment to the baseball, and he comfortably leads the Marlins’ two DSL rosters in hard-hit rate and max exit velocity. There’s still strikeout risk here but, man, Castro checks a lot of the boxes typically associated with a power-hitting right fielder, from his bat speed and physicality to his long-term physical projection. He needs a promotion and a new challenge to prove the hit tool piece of this can remain viable as he climbs, but the other physical tools to be an everyday outfielder are here.

Head came to Miami in the Luis Arraez trade last year but barely played immediately following the deal because he required surgery to address a hip impingement. Back at Low-A in 2025, he’s running well, playing good center field defense, and hitting for a plus rate of contact, but not with any power. Head can really fly, and traverses the distance between home plate and first base in roughly four seconds flat. That speed gives Head spectacular gap-to-gap range in center, but he gives some value back on defense because he doesn’t throw well. Playing a quality center field will allow him to seize a big league job, but a lack of all-around offense will probably limit him to part-time duty. It takes Head the rest of his body to swing hard, and getting all of that going requires time. It means he’s only really capable of hitting fastballs to the opposite field. He’s making a plus rate of contact, but he’s so without power that his hit tool will likely play down. He’s begun to track more like a fourth or fifth outfielder who is a little bit behind the developmental curve due to last year’s injury and a repeat Low-A assignment.

Pauley climbed three levels in 2023 and made his big league debut in 2024 with the Padres, though he struggled badly on both sides of the ball. Eventually part of the Tanner Scott trade, Pauley broke camp on the Marlins’ big league roster, but his playing time dwindled and he was demoted to Jacksonville, where he’s been great. Pauley has a gorgeous low-ball swing, his top hand drives consistent pull side contact, and he uses the ground well. In-zone fastball vulnerability puts a damper on things. Pauley was once a really bad defender — there was a stretch where routine plays were an issue for him — but he has improved a lot at both second and third base, and should be able to play a modest part-time role.

Pintar had a rare power/speed combination for a college middle infielder, running 4.10 and searing doubles into the oppo gap, but a shoulder injury that required multiple surgeries to correct caused him to miss most of his junior year, fall in the draft, and made his defensive future blurry. Back to start 2023, Pintar played at Low-A Visalia for just a couple of weeks before he got hurt again, this time rolling his ankle over a bunted ball while playing second base. The ball slipped just under his glove as he bent to field it and rolled right beneath his foot. It was the kind of broken ankle they don’t show a replay of on TV, and Pintar missed two and a half months. After that Pintar moved to the outfield, and it’s in this area that he has improved the most as a pro. Pintar’s speed plays out there, and his reads and routes are crisping up. The 2025 season is only his second full slate in center field and already his ability out there is the most important part of his skill set. Pintar doesn’t have great natural feel for contact, but his hands are powerful enough to lash doubles the opposite way and torch hanging breakers. Trayce Thompson’s output is a fair approximation.

Gibson’s college career began at LSU Shreveport so long ago that when he decided to transfer to Tech, the NCAA rules still dictated that he had to sit out a year. He redshirted for a season and then blew out, which caused him to miss another as he rehabbed, but it wasn’t until Gibson’s redshirt senior year in 2022 that he was finally effective. The Marlins attempted to develop Gibson as a starter (he worked 118 innings in 2023), but began varying the way he was used in 2024. He posted a 2.23 ERA and 52% groundball rate en route to a 40-man add.

Gibson has been back and forth from Jacksonville this year and has worked exclusively out of the bullpen in big league games. Of his six pitches (four-seam, two-seam, curveball, slider, sweeper, changeup), Gibson’s tight, vertical, 2,900 rpm curveball is his best. He can mix shape and velocities to generate groundballs (his career rate is over 50%), which is probably a better approach in the majors since he lacks the arm strength to overpower anyone. Gibson is a big league-ready middle reliever.

Miller was a very exciting two-way athlete with big league potential as both a pitcher and an outfielder. He was seen often in the U.S. (usually at tournaments in Florida) as an amatuer, and signed with the Marlins for just shy of $1 million in January of 2023. He hit and pitched in his first pro season, then only hit in his second (he K’d around 40% in both seasons), and now in his third DSL campaign is being developed solely as a pitcher. Miller has the look of a lefty power reliever, but he needs to add velocity. His nearly due north arm slot creates good carry on his low-90s fastball (which has touched 95 this year but has peaked above that in the past) and also adds depth to his low-80s slider, which is generating near-elite miss as of this writing at 47%. Miller has had trouble throwing strikes in the two seasons he’s pitched, which is why he’s projected in relief, though of course this is a plus athlete who until this year wasn’t solely focused on pitching. He’s still a slow-burning dev project several years away from the bigs.

May transferred from Pima Community College to Arizona and finally to Oregon State for his draft year. He’s a cross-bodied, low-slot righty with a broad-shouldered 6-foot-2 frame. In college, he used a secondary-heavy approach to pitching due to his fastball’s hittable sinking shape, most often a plus low-80s sweeper that he throws a ton and locates much better than his other pitches. Though his upper-80s changeup had a miss rate north of 40%, May’s feel for landing it much less consistent. There’s lots of relief risk here due to his fastball shape and lack of command. May had arthroscopic elbow surgery in April and has yet to make his pro debut.

Monteverde began his college career at Division III Virginia Wesleyan before transferring to D-II Seton Hill, where he lost most of 2019 (his junior year) to Tommy John surgery and 2020 to the pandemic. As a fifth-year grad transfer, he went to Texas Tech and struck out 101 batters in 86.1 innings despite only sitting 88-90 mph. Monteverde still only throws about that hard, but his short, deceptive arm stroke helps his fastball sneak past hitters at the top of the strike zone more than an upper-80s fastball should. After feasting off his changeup in college, Monteverde tweaked and then emphasized his 84-87 mph cutter, which is now his most-used pitch. It has late, short action and Montverde’s command of it is exceptional. After starting for his entire pro career, Montverde has been deployed as a swingman and long reliever at Jacksonville this year. He’s in his first option year, and should be up and down this season (he briefly debuted in April) and then transition into a bulk relief role.

Montero signed for $35,000 in January and is off to an impressive DSL beginning, as he’s K’d 44% of opponents and allowed just four hits across his first four starts. He’s a smaller-framed righty sitting 92-95 mph and topping out at 97 with plus vertical break. His low-80s slider is of the sweeper variety, with 12 inches of horizontal break. This is not the most physical or projectable athlete — Montero is a smaller guy without overt room for mass and strength — but his stuff is good and he’s performed well enough to hop on the radar as a fastball/slider starter prospect.

Paulino is a barrel-chested DSL righty with exciting present stuff and a little less projection than is typical for a pitcher at this level. He’s listed at 175 pounds but is closer to 220 and arguably has reverse projection at this stage. He’s throwing very hard and can really spin his curveball, which is averaging 2,900 rpm so far this year and has plus-flashing depth in the 80-83 mph range. His build and feel for location are both reliever-y, making Paulino a deep developmental sleeper in the org.

A powerful, tightly wound righty from the Midwest, Miller had among the best present arm strength/breaking stuff combinations of the 2022 draft’s high school pitchers, and the Marlins gave him $1.7 million to eschew a commitment to Louisville. He hasn’t had his peak velocity so far in pro ball. Rather than sit 92-95 mph and bump 97 like he would in high school, Miller’s fastball is averaging closer to 92 mph the last few seasons. This is pretty typical for high school pitchers whose throwing schedule and innings count become more labor-intensive as pros, and the hope is that through physical maturity, they can at least maintain their high school velocity, if not improve upon it. Because Miller isn’t the most projectable young guy, this is less likely to happen for him.

Miller’s secondary stuff is generating slightly above-average swing-and-miss. His slider and changeup both reside in the 80-84 mph range most of the time, and the slider is a nice east/west complement to Miller’s two-seamer. His arm stroke has a little downward stab in the back and makes it a little tougher for Miller to repeat than is ideal, but he’s still tracking like a starter, though likely a depth option rather than a rotation mainstay.

Hicks was drafted in the 2021 ninth round out of Arkansas State and signed for $30,000. He made plus rates of contact all the way up through Double-A with the Rangers before he was traded to the Tigers at the 2024 deadline as part of the package for Carson Kelly and then was the Marlins’ Rule 5 pick during the winter. He made the team and has been playing regularly at a mix of catcher, first base, and DH.

Hicks has a unique statistical profile thanks to his combination of contact ability (he had a 6% swinging strike rate in 2024) and the extreme uphill launch created by his swing. He takes his cuts bent at the waist with his hands over the top of the zone, and his bat has a vertical angle through contact. He makes a lot of flush, airborne contact, but Hicks lacks the power to weaponize his bat path. In fact, his contact is so light that it detracts a bit from his ability to hit for average even though he’s making so much of it. Hicks has also struggled to develop on defense. Too often he just whiffs on catching pitches altogether, and he gives up a ton of long rebounds on balls in the dirt. A fascinating statistical outlier, Hicks projects as a team’s third catcher long-term.

Tolentino is a hitterish lefty-batting catcher prospect who is having a much better second pro season than his rough 2024 DSL debut. He K’d a third of the time in just under 70 PA last year, but is currently walking more than he’s striking out and has an OPS over 1.000 as of this update. Tolentino is a bat-first prospect who needs a ton of work on defense. It was challenging just to get a pop time from him because he’s so often fumbling his exchange on throws to the bag. But Tolentino rakes. He tracks pitches well, his swing has lovely natural loft, and he rotates well through finish to generate playable power for his level. There’s risk he has to move to first base eventually if he doesn’t improve on defense, but lefty-hitting potential catchers like this don’t exactly grow on trees. It’s probably going to take a while for him to develop.

Johnson’s showcase contact rate across several years and nearly 500 pitches was a stable-looking 83%, and even though opinions on him were fairly mixed before he was picked, it’s still surprising that he’s been wholly overmatched by pro pitching. He’s striking out in roughly a third of his career plate appearances to this point and has a sub-70% contact rate at Jupiter as of list publication.

Negative pre-draft specifics centered around Johnson being a slower-twitch guy without explosive bat speed. His issues in pro ball are pretty specific: sliders. He can’t touch them, or a lot of pitches outside the zone. His hands are loading tight to his body and still have a visually pleasing look when Johnson gets a fastball to hit in the middle of the zone, but he isn’t moving the barrel all over the place with precision like a guy with an 83% contact rate in high school would be expected to. He’s also struggling some with throwing accuracy on defense. Right now, Johnson is purely in a bounce back FV area as a prospect.

Shepardson is a slightly undersized (albeit well built) righty who is enjoying a modest velo uptick across his entire repertoire (most significantly his breaking ball) during his first year in pro ball. He sat 91-94 throughout entire starts and showed a plus upper-70s slider with big length but inconsistent shape. In 2025, he’s been more 92-95 and is pitching heavily off a slider that’s now in the 83-87 mph range in the FCL. I saw some upper-80s changeups in person in late May, but he’s thrown too few for them to show up in the data sample I’ve sourced since then; it’s a distant third pitch right now. Shepardson is throwing strikes with his fastball, but it’s been vulnerable to damage, which might be why he’s already leaning on his slider at such a young age. He’s a developmental starter prospect who could re-add a second breaking ball and/or improve his changeup en route to a backend role.

Ortega is a twitchy, Lilliputian catching prospect with great feel for contact. His body control and lightning quick exit from his crouch allow his average arm to play up a bit, and Ortega is an agile ball-blocker whose lack of size is only sometimes a problem. A lack of strength makes him a sub-standard pitch framer, as he’s a little too noisy at the catch point to influence umpires, but he’s otherwise a good defender who probably lacks the size to withstand a full-season grind at the position and is better suited to be a backup.

Ortega can hit. His lack of size allows his swing to be short, and he is adept at flattening his bat path to cover the top of the zone. He has a 92% in-zone contact rate as of this update, which would put him in the top 15 among qualified big leaguers. Again, a lack of size and power mean Ortega probably isn’t a primary catcher, but he’s similar to Rafael Marchán and should end up in a similar second or third catcher role during his prime.

Machado has been a catalyst near the top of the Marlins’ DSL lineup this year as a switch-hitting SS/3B. He’s maybe the skinniest player on the entire roster and need to add strength if he’s going to have viable big league physicality, but Machado has big league skills. He’s a pretty explosive rotator for his size and does so without sacrificing his contact ability. Machado’s swing is geared for loft and if he becomes meaningfully strong, he’ll be able to get to power without any kind of mechanical adjustment. He can drop the bat head to poke pitches that fool him into play. The contact and plate discipline components of his profile are exciting, and he should be a shortstop fit at maturity; Machado just needs to get stronger. Unless he adds much, much more strength than is anticipated here, he has more of a long-term utility fit.

Solano is a stocky, compact, switch-hitting middle infielder who has posted nearly elite rates of contact in rookie ball as he’s been brought along very slowly. Solano has spent two years at each rookie ball level, with his 2025 interrupted by a hamstring strain that looked very serious when he sustained it but that thankfully only cost him three weeks. He posted a 94% in-zone contact rate in 2024, and his sample is smaller and altered by the hammy this year. There’s very little power to speak of here, neither raw thump nor any ability to lift the baseball in games, and so Solano basically needs to sustain an elite contact rate all the way through the minors to have any kind of shot at being an everyday second baseman. He hasn’t played anywhere but second for the last couple of years and probably needs to find at least one more viable position to project as a utility piece.

Both of White’s breaking balls have added several ticks of velo since he left Cal and both are now plus. They have big depth thanks to his arm slot and often move late. His vertical delivery requires a lot of effort, but White has been able to throw a fair rate of strikes with everything but his curveball. He was dominating Double-A and moved up to Jacksonville a couple weeks before this update. He is on pace to be added to Miami’s 40-man this offseason and debut in an up/down role next year.

Kempner went to high school in San Jose and took a little less money than he could have gotten elsewhere to become a Giant. He has dealt with injury issues throughout his career, including biceps and finger flexor tendon issues in college, and a fractured foot that cost him all of the 2024 regular season. Kempner seemed to hit his stride upon moving to the bullpen in 2023, after which he carried a 30% strikeout rate. He looked good in his couple of 2024 Arizona Fall League innings, as he sat 94-97 and bent in a slider that sometimes had 20 inches of horizontal movement. He was traded to Miami in January for international bonus pool space and has climbed to Double-A. He’s a fairly explosive hip-and-shoulder athlete with a low release. Kempner’s health and conditioning add volatility to his prospectdom, but when he’s been healthy (like in 2025), he’s looked like a good middle reliever.

So many pro pitching prospects are taking circuitous routes to pro prospectdom and Stanavich is yet another, as he originally committed to Marshall but left after a year (and never pitched there), went to a JUCO, than ended up at Rutgers. During the last three season as Stanavich has climbed to Triple-A, he has struck out roughly 33% of opponents. His fastball has uphill ride, and Stanavich’s grip-and-rip delivery adds a layer of deception to it. It’s generating 38% miss so far this year. Stanavich struggles to throw strikes with his mid-80s slider, but both it and his upper-80s cutter are nasty when they’re located. The chaos of his delivery is a double-edged sword because what it adds in deception it loses in repeatability. Stanavich should debut next year and pitch in an up/down capacity until he proves he can throw enough strikes for a regular role.

Belgrave and the other Pensacola players wore custom Player’s Weekend-style unis recently and the back of Belgrave’s jersey read “Stuff Plus.” This is a big-framed, 6-foot-4 righty who uses a short stride down the mound and a sidearm slot. His fastball finishes with tail in the up/arm-side corner of the zone, but Belgraves’ best pitch is easily his slider. His lower slot creates big lateral wipe on that pitch, and Belgrave can throw it for strikes much more consistently than his fastball at this stage. He also shows you a cutter every once in a while, though he’s only using it 10% of the time right now. He’s tracking for a late-2026 debut in an up/down relief role.

After he was dominant in his debut DSL season, Genao has progressed to the Jupiter complex and has continued to pitch well and throw hard even though he’s already crested his innings mark from last year. Relatively mature physicality and a higher-effort delivery featuring a hat-removing head whack point to the bullpen, as does Genao’s need to pitch off his slider more often than his fastball due to the sink and “round down” playability of his heater, as well as its sub-60% strike rate. The saving grace here might be Genao’s splitter, a tertiary pitch right now that has a promising lack of spin. This is a developmental starting pitching prospect who is more likely a slider-heavy reliever, though probably a good one.

Martinez’s curveball might be the best individual pitch in this system and is one of the better pure curveballs in all of the minor leagues. It has breathtaking depth and bite in the 75-80 mph range, and often leaves hitters totally frozen. It’s generating a miss rate north of 50% so far in 2025, which is in line with what you’d expect of an elite pitch. Martinez doesn’t have a big arm, but he’s a good athlete with a lubricated delivery. He throws his fastball for strikes, often higher-quality strikes at the top of the zone that set up his curveball. He is leading Jupiter in innings as of publication and will be able to start if he can develop a third pitch.

Fresh off signing for $3.5 million, Cappe looked like a potential do-everything shortstop as a statuesque 6-foot-3 guy hitting well in the low minors. Chase and sketchy infield defense (Cappe is now a second base-only defender, and he’s not great there) have caused him to stall out at High-A, where he’s been since 2023. After really struggling in 2024, Cappe is having a much better season in Beloit, with a .286/.349/.429 line in his first 200ish plate appearances.

He’s kept growing and growing, and he still has exciting long-term power projection because of his size. His swing is fairly grooved, but Cappe tracks pitches well and can at least match timing, if not location, often enough to have kept his strikeout rate under 20% throughout most of his career. His measurable power is trending up close to the big league average, and Cappe is just about to turn 23. This is a priority six-year minor league free agent for after 2026, a candidate for a move to the outfield and a focus on adding strength at the expense of agility that Cappe won’t need anymore (and arguably already lacks).

Can the Marlins’ (or maybe another team’s) dev group get this guy to throw strikes? Serrano has one of the two spinniest fastballs I’ve ever seen (Kenyi Perez of the Cubs is the other) at 2600-2700 rpm, often with natural cut. He’ll also flash a plus-plus curveball and slider anywhere from 76-86 mph, but Serrano is going on his second year of walking more than a batter per inning in A-ball or below. We’re not all that far from Serrano being a six-year minor league free agent, and he needs to be put in front of your favorite team’s pitching people to see if they can identify ways to help him repeat his release more consistently. His stuff is freaky enough to give him some sleeper value here.