The Marlins have three catchers on their 40-man roster. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the club would prefer to open the season with Agustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks in the big leagues, with Joe Mack optioned to Triple-A, though it’s possible Mack could win a job.
Ramírez has shown a lot of promise with the bat but was arguably the worst defensive catcher in the majors last year. In 605 2/3 innings, he was behind the plate for 19 passed balls and 36 wild pitches. In terms of the passed balls, Ramírez lapped the field, with no other backstop allowing more than nine. Four catchers were present for a larger totals of wild pitches but they all had larger samples of playing time.
Modern analytics also agree. Ramírez was credited with minus-14 Defensive Runs Saved last year. The only guy worse was Salvador Perez at minus-15, in a larger sample of innings. Fielding Run Value had Ramirez at -12, worse than everyone except for Edgar Quero. Statcast ranked Ramírez as one of the worst catchers in terms of blocking and controlling the running game, though his framing was well regarded.
It feels inevitable that Ramírez will get moved to designated hitter or first base, where he has spent some time in the minors. The Fish don’t really have a slam-dunk first baseman standing in the way, as they’re going into the season with a hodgepodge group consisting of Hicks, Christopher Morel, Connor Norby, Griffin Conine and Graham Pauley. But the Marlins are apparently not quite ready to make that move. Jackson reports that they still want to give Ramírez a shot to show some improvement behind the plate and potentially stick as a viable backstop.
That could leave Mack trapped at Triple-A for a while longer, even though he feels like the long-term answer behind the plate. The 31st overall pick from the 2021 draft, Mack played 112 games last year, 99 of those at the Triple-A level. His 27.9% strikeout rate at that level was a bit high but he hit 18 home runs and slashed .250/.320/.459 for a 107 wRC+. That’s great production for a catcher, especially one with a strong defensive reputation like Mack. The Marlins added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.
Going into 2026, Mack is a consensus top 100 prospect, which means the prospect promotion incentive factors in. If the Marlins were to carry him on the roster early enough to get a full year of service time, he could net them an extra draft pick by playing well enough to garner awards consideration. If they don’t call him up that early, he could earn a full year of service retroactively with a top two finish in Rookie of the Year voting.
If Mack ends the 2026 season with a full year of service, he would be on pace for free agency after the 2031 season. If the Marlins hold him down long enough to not get a full year of service and he doesn’t get one retroactively, then that schedule would be pushed into the future by a year.
Turning to the pitching staff, right-hander Janson Junk suffered a right ankle sprain about a week ago and was in a walking boot for a while. It seems he is moving quickly past the issue. Per the MLB.com injury tracker, he was scheduled to throw 15 to 18 pitches off a mound yesterday. There hasn’t been word on him since, so he presumably threw without issue. He posted a 4.17 earned run average for the Marlins in a swing role last year. As of now, he will probably open the season as a long reliever but could earn a rotation job if injuries open a path for him.
Photo courtesy of Jim Rassol, Imagn Images