COVID shuts down minor-league complex

The Marlins’ minorleague complex in Jupiter is being shut down through the weekend as a precaution after “a few guys” tested positive for COVID-19, a team spokesperson confirmed to the Miami Herald on Saturday morning.

At least five players and staff members tested positive, a source told the Miami Herald. The team is following protocols with contact tracing and isolation.

The pause is not expected to impact the start of the minor-league season for any of the club’s four fullseason affiliates — the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Class A Advanced Beloit Snappers and Class A

Jupiter Hammerheads. The minor-league season for all four levels begins on May

4.

The Marlins have more than 120 minor-league players at their complex at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. A group about 30 players, primarily higher-ranked prospects and veterans on minorleague deals, have been working out in Jacksonville as part of the team’s alternate training site. That site has had no issues with COVID-19 testing.

Until the minor-league season begins, MLB teams can only call up players who are working out at the alternate training site to the active roster or have them travel with the team as part of the taxi squad.

Local radio host Andy Slater was first to report the shutdown.

The timing of the positive tests comes toward the end of a shortened minorleague camp, which couldn’t start until after big-league spring training finished because of COVID-19 protocol restrictions.

The camp is the first hands-on interaction for many prospects with members of the club’s minor-league coaching staff and instructors in more than a year.

The 2020 minor-league baseball season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Players who were not part of the 60-person roster pool in 2020 were not able to work out at team facilities during the season.

A group of 45 players took part in a month-long instructional league camp in October. About 20 prospects inside the organization who are not part of the 40-man roster, many of whom took part in that instructional league camp, took part in big-league spring training as non-roster invitees.

INCENTIVE FOR VACCINATION

MLB told teams in late March that health and safety protocols and restrictions will be loosened for teams if 85 percent or more of their Tier 1 individuals (players and coaches) become fully vaccinated from COVID-19, which means they are two weeks removed from either the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer shot or from the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, the latter of which had its national pause lifted by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. About 10 MLB teams have reportedly hit the 85 percent threshold.

The Marlins have not hit that mark yet, but general manager Kim Ng said Wednesday the team is “working towards it” and that she is “fairly confident that in the end, we will get there.”

“I do think it’s important for team chemistry,” Ng said, “to the extent that we can socialize in a bit of a different way than we have been doing. … I hope we get there.”

The Marlins waited until April 5, when the state of Florida expanded vaccine eligibility to all adults, to have players on the active roster receive their first dose. That lines them up to receive their second dose within the next week.

The Marlins spaced out when players receive their first dose in case anyone had side effects that would cause them to miss a game or two. The Marlins coaching staff has been vaccinated. Marlins manager Don Mattingly received his second dose last week.

“It is something we still have to watch,” Mattingly said before Opening Day. “Obviously, things are better in the country and things like that. I think we’re all gonna feel a lot better once we’ve had multiple shots and both rounds of that. You’ll feel more comfortable. … [but] it’s a time that you still have to be vigilant.”

As of Friday, there have been just 39 total positive COVID-19 tests across MLB (23 players, 16 staff members) since the start of spring training out of 123,770 tests — a 0.03 percent positive rate.

Miami Herald senior baseball contributor Craig Mish contributed to this report.

Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126

said of the mound visit. “Let me calm down a little bit.”

One pitch later, Rogers got Urias to bite on a changeup, which rolled right to Chisholm for an easy ground out.

Rogers, for the first time in his career, had thrown seven innings on an efficient 82 pitches. He’s the first Marlins pitcher to get that deep into a game this season.

“Definitely one of my better outings,” Rogers said, “if not my best one.”

Exactly what the Marlins need right now.

Rogers’ emergence and continued development was always going to be key for the Marlins as they try to stay competitive in the National League East in 2021.

The importance is magnified with injuries putting the backend of the Marlins’ starting rotation in flux.

The Marlins know what they have in Sandy Alcantara, a topof-the-rotation player with the pure stuff and evolving mind-set to potentially be one of the best in MLB.

They know what they have in Pablo Lopez, a steady middleof-the-rotation pitcher who can regularly give six innings and stay competitive against top lineups, even if the results are shaky from time to time.

They also know a lot of their top-end starting pitching depth isn’t going to be around for a while.

Elieser Hernandez, the Marlins’ only other pitcher not named Alcantara or Lopez with more than 25 starts, has been sidelined since the Marlins’ first series of the season with a right biceps injury. He’s slated to throw his first bullpen session since the injury next week.

Sixto Sanchez, the club’s top pitching prospect who dazzled at times during his MLB debut last season, is dealing with a right shoulder injury and isn’t throwing off a mound yet. Fellow top pitching prospect Edward Cabrera missed all of spring training with nerve inflammation in his right bicep although the team hopes he will pitch in minor-league games this season.

That puts extra pressure on Rogers, the team’s first-round pick in 2017 who had an up-anddown shortened debut season in 2020, but showed a maturity both physically and mentally in spring training.

So far, he has handled what has been thrown his way.

“I don’t think he’s disappointed from what we’ve seen so far these last two weeks,” general manager Kim Ng said. “We look to Trevor to do exactly what he’s been doing.”

TOP-END STUFF

What exactly has Rogers been been doing to lead to this success?

In simplest terms: He’s throwing strikes and finding himself ranked among the league’s top pitchers four starts into the season.

Heading into Saturday’s games, Rogers ranks ninth among 79 qualified starting pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (12.68), 10th in ERA (1.64), 13th in batting average against (.161) and tied for 30th in walks and hits allowed per inning pitched (1.00).

Those are the results.

How has he gotten there? There are physical aspects to consider. According to Statcast, 35.1 percent of Rogers’ pitches this season have been called strikes or swings and misses, which ranks 10th among 152 pitchers who have thrown at least 200 pitches. This shows he has the ability to locate his pitches and be deceptive enough to keep hitters guessing.

He has also added velocity on all three of his pitches. His fourseam fastball, which he throws 61.9 percent of the time, is averaging 94.9 mph after sitting at 93.6 mph in 2020. His slider is averaging 82.2 mph (compared to 81 mph) and his changeup is averaging 86.6 mph (compared to 84.4 mph).

“When you have a guy like that on the mound,” Leon said, “it makes it easy for me to call a game. I can just put my fingers down and know he’s going to execute.”

But then there’s the mental side of Rogers’ game.

He learned from the mistakes that came from his inaugural season in 2020, mistakes that resulted in him going 1-2 with a 6.11 ERA over 28 innings despite promising metrics (primarily a 30 percent strikeout rate and a .195 expected batting average against his fastball compared to the .314 average that opponents actually produced against the pitch).

“This is a guy who really benefited from coming up last year and getting a few starts,” manager Don Mattingly said. “He really learned his lessons, and went to work and made some big strides. He has been very mature about the way he goes about it. And this guy’s stuff is really good.”

THE ROTATION AS A WHOLE

Rogers putting all of that together is instrumental for the Marlins’ starting rotation, the position group that is supposed to be the team’s strength.

The good: Marlins starting pitching entered Thursday ranked in the top 10 of the league in ERA (eighth, 3.50) and batting average against (fifth, .212) while ranking 11th in walk and hits per inning pitched (1.21). Opponents’ average exit velocity against Marlins starters is just 87.2 mph, the third-best mark in MLB.

And Miami is doing this without a single starter older than 26 to this point.

“We pitch our butts off,” Rogers said. “I think we’ve been called the young guns. We can go out and compete with the rest of them.”

But while the results are good, the Marlins need more length out of their rotation. Miami starting pitchers have averaged just 5.14 innings per game so far this season. Alcantara threw at least six innings in each of his four starts before only going five on Friday and has pitched into the seventh twice. Rogers and Lopez have gotten through six innings twice each.

Daniel Castano made it five innings in his first two starts of the season. Nick Neidert, who was optioned off the active roster on Wednesday, did not make it through the fifth in any of his three starts.

Short starts result in a trickledown effect on the bullpen, which then has to throw more innings than the Marlins likely would want them to pitch. Ten Marlins relievers have made a combined 75 appearances in 19 games. That’s the third most in baseball. Meanwhile, 73 of Miami’s 170 2/3 innings pitched have come from the bullpen — 42.8 percent.

And even with the wave of starting pitching injuries early on this season, Ng said the organization’s focus is to rely on in-house players for reinforcements for the time being. That’s why Castano, who pitched to a 3.03 ERA in seven appearances last year, is in the rotation. That’s why Neidert got an opportunity.

Right-hander Jordan Holloway, who was used out of the bullpen in his one appearance so far this season but is viewed as a starter, and left-hander Braxton Garrett, who made two starts last season, are the top in-house candidates left beyond the group that is currently pitching or working back from injury.

“I feel like it’s really important for us to stay within the organization at this point,” Ng said, “and really look to those guys to try and use their experiences from last year to come in and try to help us and to pitch this year to get more experience.”

Jordan McPherson: 305-376-2129, @J_McPherson1126