When Marlins evaluate players in spring training, what the box scores show doesn’t mean that much
JUPITER
Marlins manager Skip Schumaker has uttered the saying multiple times during the past couple of weeks: He does not fall in or out of love with a player after any given spring training game.
“There’s a lot that goes into it,” he said. “It’s not just the results.”
Trying to judge how ready a player is for the season based on spring training stats can be a fool’s errand. There are so many moving parts that can’t always be judged by what a player does in two to three at-bats or an inning on the mound.
The goal of spring training, of the six-week leadup to the season that starts March 28 against Pittsburgh at loanDepot park, is for players to get themselves prepared for the 162-game grind. There’s competition for roster spots, of course, and performance in live settings surely is a factor.
But, Schumaker insists, it’s not the end-all, be-all.
There is work that goes on away from the field and out of public view that has as much — and somehaving times more — meaning than what Grapefruit League stats show.
“It’s very easy to overreact to performance. We have to keep in mind that, ultimately, the job of spring training is to prepare yourself for the season,” Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. “Different players have different ways of going about that. It’s about each person making sure they do what they need to do to be ready to go on March 28.”
PITCHING STAFF STILL IN FLUX
In particular this spring, that applies to what Schumaker and Bendix are looking for in their pitchers, since there are a slew of moving parts with a staff under construction.
A.J. Puk, for example, is being stretched out to be a starter for the first time in his MLB career. While Puk showing how his stuff can play against a lineup multiple times through the order is vital this spring, so too is the ability of his left arm to bounce back after pitching multiple innings in one outing.
And then there’s the inverse of the Puk scenario, where a pitcher moves from being a starter and a set schedule to potentially moving to the bullpen, where he throws shorter stints and his schedule is less structured.
That’s the case with Sixto Sanchez, whom the Marlins are hoping can be of value to them in some capacity after three lost years due to an assortment of shoulder issues. If Sanchez is going to pitch as a reliever (really the only viable option at this juncture), the Marlins need to see if his arm is able to bounce back quickly so that he can be available to pitch multiple times per week rather than once every five games.
And then there are the pitchers recovering from injury. Max Meyer (a starter) and Anthony Bender (a reliever) are both returning from Tommy John surgery that knocked out their 2023 seasons. Trevor Rogers made just four starts and threw just 18 innings in 2023 before a left biceps injury and right lat tear shut him down.
Miami is toeing the line between caution and execution as these pitchers work their way back to being game ready.
“I know people are going to be looking at box scores and everything,” Schumaker said, “but I promise you I don’t really care about guys that have huge springs. That doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m watching for health. I’m watching for what they’re doing.”
CAMP CUTS LOOMING
With minor-league camp officially starting and playing time ramping up for players expected to be on the Opening Day roster, Schumaker said roster cuts from bigleague camp will start being made over the “next few days.”
Miami entered Monday with all 63 players who reported to big-league camp — everyone on the 40-man roster, plus 23 non-roster invitees — still with the group.
“That’s just the reality of the camp,” Schumaker said. “We’ve got to start playing guys back to back and more innings and more at-bats.
“You try to get in the 40 to 50 mark with your main guys. If you map it out, you’re gonna see after the off day [Thursday] backto-back games, seven innings [and then an] off day.
“There’s just going to be limited at-bats and innings for some guys. Pitchers start ramping up and throwing more innings, too, so you want to get a lot of those guys ready for the season, too. It’s not fair to them just to be in big-league camp. So yeah, we have to start you know making [decisions] pretty soon.”