Fish In The Outfield- How The Miami Marlins Outfield Is Shaping Up.

The Miami Marlins had a lot of questions leading into Spring Training 2014. Who would be the fifth starter? Who would win the last few bullpen spots? Who would be coming off the bench and giving starters a day off when needed? Among non-roster invitees, who would make the team and who would be sent off to look for another? One question that was not expected to be asked was, who will be the Opening Day center fielder for the Miami Marlins?

Entering camp, the Marlins were expecting to see Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Christian Yelich in left, and Marcell Ozuna right between them in center field. The only real question regarding the outfield was who was going to back up the starters. Most teams carry a fourth and fifth outfielder, or at least a fourth outfielder and a utility guy who can play the corner outfield spots. Ed Lucas played 10.1 innings in left field last season, so he can play there, but he is more of an infielder than an outfielder. Same goes for Jeff Baker, who was signed for his bat off the bench more so than for his glove. Lucas is a plus defender in the infield, while Baker is slightly below average with the glove anywhere he goes.

Fast forward a few weeks and here we are, the last week of Spring Training. Rosters are starting to take shape throughout the league and teams are trimming down their squads to the 25 men they will carry into Opening Day. Today, the Marlins sent down relievers Carter Capps (acquired this offseason for Logan Morrison), Arquimedes Caminero, and Chaz Roe. They also released Ty Wigginton, making him a free agent. We will likely see both Capps and Caminero in a Marlins uniform this season, while Roe certainly needs to show some improvement before getting another big league chance. Wigginton struggled all month, and may be seeing his career winding down.

Non-roster invitee Reed Johnson, who played for the Atlanta Braves the last two seasons, was informed that he had made the team. Johnson has played extremely well this spring, putting up a slash line (batting average/on base percentage/slugging percentage) of .410/.452/.590 while striking out just 5 times in 43 plate appearances. He should serve as a solid bat off the bench for the Marlins and may see a few starts here and there to spell the young starters.

The most interesting competition this Spring Training in Marlins camp has probably been the fight for fifth starter in the rotation. What was a wide open competition has seemingly been narrowed down to just Tom Koehler and Brad Hand, with Koehler having the…uh oh, phrasing…upper hand.

The second most intriguing competition is one that wasn’t expected to be a competition at all: Marcell Ozuna vs. Jake Marisnick for the starting center field spot. Coming into camp, Ozuna was supposed to have the spot more or less locked up. Given his decent showing last season (which was ended by an injury) combined with Marisnick’s overall poor showing, it seemed like no question that the team would stick with Ozuna. However, through yesterday’s game, Ozuna was hitting .174/.310/.391 while Marisnick was at .442/.489/.605. Both players offer good defense, but scouts see Ozuna as the better defender overall.

Based solely on spring numbers, Marisnick would win the job easily. However, Grapefruit League numbers can and frequently have been deceiving. Last season, Ozuna slashed .265/.303/.389 in 291 plate appearances. That was good for a 90 OPS+, so Ozuna was 10% worse than the average player at his position. Not good, but not awful given his age and the team he was surrounded by. Despite his numbers not looking great, he looked like a Hall of Famer when compared to Jake Marisnick. For the Marlins in 2013, Marisick slashed .183/.231/.248 in 118 plate appearances, good for a 32 OPS+. Thirty-two. He has received plenty of playing time this spring, however, showing that the team knows he’s better than he showed last season.

Inarguably, both Ozuna and Marisnick were overmatched last season against major league pitching. However, Ozuna showed flashes of strong play and was not overall as putrid as Marisnick. I think Marisnick and Ozuna will both eventually be solid big league players. Neither is likely to become a household name, but both have the potential to put together impressive major league careers. For this season, however, I think Ozuna is the safe choice, with Marisnick being the exciting one. Marisnick brings a bit more speed to the team and could potentially lead off, while Ozuna is more of a power hitter (based off of his minor league numbers) and would be better served in the 5 or 6 spot.

Another thing the Fish could do is put Christian Yelich in center and play Jeff Baker or Reed Johnson in left. Baker is 32 and Johnson is 37, and with the team very much in a rebuilding mode, there is not much to gain from giving guys like this 500 plate appearances. I think that, much like with the pitching situation, the Marlins have a “good problem.” Stanton (age 24) is the right fielder, there is no question about that. With a healthy season, he should end up as one of the better outfielders in baseball, at least offensively. Yelich (22) should be the left fielder and may end up as the center fielder, but will certainly be a starter. Finally, one of Marisnick (22) and Ozuna (22) should round out the outfield. The Marlins have nothing to gain from starting Reed Johnson or Jeff Baker and should keep them in the roles they were signed for. As for Ozuna and Marisnick, whoever wins the job stays with the team while the other will go down to AAA in order to get daily at bats. Whoever starts the year as the team’s center fielder will be on quite a short leash, given that there will be another guy at AAA playing for a shot to get back to the big league roster.

However things ultimately work out, the 2014 Miami Marlins outfield will be very young but very promising. The team has a lot of problems in the infield, with none of the players projected to do pretty much anything offensively or defensively. The outfield, however, should not be a problem on either side of the ball for a long time.

Author: David Marcillo

David has been a Marlins fan since 1993. ’97 and ’03 were nice. Best of times, worst of times, mediocre times in between.

You can follow David on Twitter: @DavidMarcillo77 or you can email: [email protected]

Twitter

Related Posts

• 
  The Future Is Now For The Bulls
• 
  Who Will Be The Third Triplet For The Cowboys?
• 
  Oakland Athletics: Projected Opening Day Lineup