A chance to rebuild

Miami selects 13th in the first round

Marlins select 13th in first draft round tonight.

MIAMI — Welcome to the next step in rebuilding the Miami Marlins.

After the team stripped its major-league roster of four of its best players to bolster a shallow farm system over the winter, now the organization will turn its attention to the draft. It begins today at 7 p.m. with the first round, when the Marlins will select at No. 13. It will be the first draft under the new ownership group led by Bruce Sherman and headlined by CEO Derek Jeter.

As part of the Marlins’ rebuild, the draft takes on added importance. In order to follow the oft-mentioned paths of the Royals, Cubs, Astros and Braves, the Marlins needs to hit on draft picks, especially early ones. Each of the past three World Series champions had at least four of their own first-round picks on their rosters.

In the last 15 years, only three Marlins first-round picks (Jose Fernandez, Christian Yelich and Chris Volstad) have been worth at least two wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference.

Marlins vice president of scouting Stan Meek said the thinking entering this draft is generally the same as it was

under Jeffrey Loria’s ownership.

“Everything I’ve gotten is ‘Let’s just try to take an impactful player that helps our club,’” Meek said. “We’re in the middle of discussions regarding who that might be and how it’s going to fit. I think we’re just trying to do everything we can do to get the most impact we can from this draft to help this club going forward.”

In addition to the No. 13 pick, the Marlins will also select 53rd (second round) and 69th (Competitive Balance Round B) on Monday night. Only the Cubs have more than Miami’s four picks in the opening three rounds.

Meek said he’s evolved the last few years to involve more analytics as the team builds its draft board. But overall “the process is pretty much the same” under Jeter’s group as it was under Loria’s group.

About two weeks ago, Jeter told reporters he was involved in the draft “in every way.”

“I get a rundown on all the prospects,” Jeter said. “We’ll sit down, we’ll have our draft meetings. I’ll see what direction we’re going to go. I’m very involved in everything that goes on.”

Meek said Jeter mostly listens as the scouting staff deliberates, stepping back to learn more about potential draft picks.

“He’s listened in, and he’s asked some questions regarding our thoughts for the draft and the different people that we’re talking about,” Meek said. “But more listening than anything about what we’re trying to do and just trying to engage what our thoughts are and listen to us as we go. He’s come down some days and listened, but more listening probably than anything else.”

With three of their past four first-round picks, the Marlins have selected highschool pitchers. This year in the minor leagues, many of their top performers — such Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Trevor Richards, Jorge Guzman and Nick Niedert — are pitchers. So could the Marlins lean more toward position players instead of pitchers this season?

“I think we’ll look at it,” Meek said. “I’ve always felt like, as we talk this through a little bit, you can never have enough pitching because you think you’re really deep in pitching, and you think you’ve got all this depth and the next thing you know, two or three guys get hurt and you don’t have any pitching. I don’t think you can have enough pitching.”

Various mock drafts have linked the Marlins to local infielder Tristan Casas from American Heritage-Plantation, outfielder Connor Scott from Tampa Plant and Arizona high-school third baseman Nolan Gorman.

“If we have a guy from a pitching standpoint that we still believe exceeds the value of the hitter, I believe we’ll still be able to do whatever we need to do with a pitcher,” Meek said. “All things being equal, we do need to add some position players into the organization, some impact position players. We’ll be mindful of that as we go into this draft for sure.”