Mr. Marlin’s son forging own path to the majors
Marlins outfield prospect Griffin Conine, son of Jeff Conine, has 23 home runs. His power potential is his strength as he moves through the minor leagues.
The play looked all too familiar, bringing some Marlins fans back to when it happened 18 years ago.
A fly ball drops into left field with two outs. A runner on second races around third base and makes his way home. The left fielder quickly corrals the ball, takes a couple steps and throws with all his might, falling forward in the process, to get the inningending out at home plate.
Jeff Conine, affectionately known as Mr. Marlin, made this throw to catcher Pudge Rodriguez at Pro Player Stadium in 2003 to seal the Marlins’ National League Division Series matchup with the San Francisco Giants — a playoff highlight on the way to the franchise’s second World Series title.
On July 9, 17 years and nine months later, it was Jeff’s son Griffin Conine who made that run-saving throw as a member of the Marlins organization.
Like father, like son.
The stakes weren’t as high this time around. It happened in a regularseason game for the Marlins’ Class A Advanced affiliate Beloit Snappers against the South Bend Cubs.
But the nostalgia was there.
“It was really cool to see that link up,” Griffin Conine, who was 6 years old when his dad made the highlight throw all those years ago, said Saturday, a little more than a week after he replicated his dad’s play nearly stride for stride. “Similar footwork and throw. It was awesome.”
Equally awesome, in Griffin’s mind: Having the chance to potentially play for his hometown team, for the team his dad won two World Series rings with, the team he was around when his love for baseball began to flourish. It’s a chance that became possible a year ago when the Marlins acquired him from the Toronto Blue
Jays at the trade deadline in exchange for Jonathan Villar.
But this much is also clear: Griffin Conine doesn’t plan to live in the shadow of his dad or put extra pressure on himself because of the last name on the back of his jersey. Right now, he doesn’t view himself as Mr. Marlin Jr. as he climbs through the Marlins’ minor-league system.
He’s Griffin Conine. Simple as that.
“It’s definitely cool to have that piece of history in my bloodlines,” the younger Conine said, “but as far as pressure goes, I just go out there and play. It’s kind of all you can do. I’m not not real big on social media because there’s just a lot of negativity out there. But yeah, I think most pressure is created in my own head, just on myself. It’s kind of just me versus me. As far as all that talk about Mr. Marlin Jr. and whatnot, if I earn that name for real eventually, then I’ll be happy about it. For now, I just go out and play.”
A LOT OF HOME RUNS
One of Conine’s biggest strengths is his power potential as a left-handed hitter.
That attribute has been on full display so far this season.
The 24-year-old slugger, ranked as the No. 17 prospect in the Marlins’ system by MLB Pipeline, has belted out a minorsleading 23 home runs over his first 66 games this season, all with Beloit, Wisconsin. He has also accrued 59 RBI along with a .587 slugging and .969 on-base-plus-slugging mark through his first 66 games this season.
Through 203 games since making his pro ball debut in 2018, Conine has 52 career home runs, 99 extra-base hits and 156 RBI.
“I just want to put the barrel on the ball. That’s really what it is,” said Conine, who was promoted to Double A Pensacola on Tuesday. “I’m not gonna say I don’t love hitting homers. It’s awesome when that shows up in the game, but at the same time I’m happy if
I’m barreling three, four balls a game. That’s my goal every time I step in the box is just put a good swing on it, be consistent as I can.
So no goals when it comes to a specific number of home runs this season?
“No goals there,” Conine said. “It’ll end up what it ends up at. Just gotta keep riding it.”
BUT A LOT OF STRIKEOUTS, TOO
While the home runs and the hard hits and the production are nice, there is one main area where Conine knows he needs to improve.
Conine has 103 strikeouts in 288 plate appearances this season — a 35.6 percent strikeout rate. His career strikeout rate is 33.5 percent.
“My strikeout numbers are super high,” Conine admitted, “and that’s something that I don’t want anyone to think that that’s something I’m OK with. That’s something I’m working on every day. I am.”
What exactly is Conine doing?
He’s trying to do more damage earlier in counts — 39 of his 58 hits and 18 of his 23 home runs this year have come before he gets into a two-strike count.
“Up and down the org, all they talk about is twostrike approach, two-strike hitting,” Conine said. “It’s hard once you get in a hole like that, though, because you see less strikes and pitchers know that you’re a guy that will chase and then you kind of just work yourself into a hole by getting less pitches to hit. It becomes harder on you, but also you know I created that for myself. It’s just every day coming in and working on changing speeds working on hitting offspeed [pitches] better and doing whatever I can to to be better in those counts, but it’s been a grind for sure.”
‘IT’S THE SAME GAME’
As Conine makes his way through the minorleague ranks and gets closer to what he hopes is a promotion to the major leagues, he’s leaning on a few key phrases and pieces of advice that his dad, a 12-year MLB veteran, has passed on to him.
“He always talks about just keeping the game simple, as simple as you can,” Conine said, “especially more specifically as you rise through the minor-league ranks. Every rank gets harder and harder.
The game speeds up slightly and that’s the purpose of all the levels in the minors, but he’s just like he always preaches it’s the same game.
“It’s a different scenery, obviously a different difficulty, but between the lines, it’s all the same.”
Having a set routine helps.
Pregame shower after batting practice. Pregame meal about two-and-a-half hours before first pitch. A workout shake about an hour after that. Listen to music to get pumped up (Conine’s playlist features a lot of rap this year, specifically Lil Baby and J. Cole).
Then it’s 20 minutes or so in the cage for a few final swings before getting to the field about a half hour before first pitch.
“It’s down to a science at this point,” Conine said.
The hope, the goal, is that it helps on his path to the big leagues.
“Baseball is kind of my life,” Conine said. “That’s the main goal.”
MORE MINOR-LEAGUE UPDATES
Edward Cabrera, the fourth-ranked prospect in the Marlins’ system and No. 51 in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, made his first career start for the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp on Sunday.
A weather delay and spotty command hampered his debut.
Cabrera’s line against the Durham Bulls: four earned runs allowed on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts over three innings of work. He threw 60 pitches, 33 of which went for strikes, and also had two wild pitches and hit a batter.
Cabrera threw 12 pitches before recording his first out, a sacrifice fly that followed a leadoff walk and single, and was up to 19 pitches overall before getting out of the first inning. He gave up another run on two doubles and a walk in a 16-pitch second inning and worked around a leadoff hit by pitch in the third. The first two batters he faced in the fourth inning reached on a single and a walk before the game was halted due to rain and Cabrera was pulled. Both of those runners scored.
Zach McCambley, the Marlins’ third-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft and the No. 21 prospect in Miami’s system, returned to form in his second career start for Double A Pensacola on Saturday.
The 22-year-old righty gave up just one unearned run on three hits and two walks while striking out six over six innings for the Blue Wahoos.
It was a needed outing for McCambley, who had struggled in his previous two starts prior to Sunday, including a Double A debut that saw him walk nearly as many batters (five) in 3 innings as he did during his 11 starts in Beloit (six).
Rounding up some position player stats: Infielder Bryson Brigman is hitting .311 with 10 runs scored this month for Jacksonville . ... JJ Bleday is hitting .256 with three doubles, a home run, six RBI and 10 walks against six strikeouts in 12 games this month for Pensacola. ... Bubba Hollins is hitting .442 with 15 RBI and eight doubles in 13 games this month for Beloit.