Offishial news, 3/21/22: Jorge Soler questions; MiLB previews; Baby Coop

18 days away from Marlins Opening Day.

New Fish Stripes Podcast

Game Preview: Following an off day on Sunday, the Marlins will be hosting the Mets today at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium at 1:05 p.m. The Fish hope to keep the good times rolling after outscoring opponents 18-5 in their first two spring training games. Old friend Starling Marte is still working his way into game shape following an oblique issue, so he won’t be in the Mets lineup. Neither will most of New York’s other veteran position players. Probable starters are Max Scherzer and Elieser Hernandez. Scherzer will be relieved by Colin Holderman, Eric Orze and Trevor Williams.

How to watch, listen and follow: Glenn Geffner has the radio broadcast on FOX Sports 940 Miami. The Marlins will once again set up a grainy-but-better-than-nothing video livestream from the press box. Check the MLB app around first pitch for a link to that (I’ll also tweet it out from the @fishstripes Twitter account). We’re thrilled to have Noah Berger (@Trainboy100) at Roger Dean providing credentialed coverage of the game.

Marlins Communications

• Your Monday Marlins playoff odds update (via FanGraphs): 21.9% chance to make the postseason, 3.4% to win the National League East division and 0.8% to win the World Series.
• Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald reports on the personal and professional challenges that Miguel Rojas faced this offseason between the deaths of his mother and grandfather and serving as the Marlins’ MLBPA rep in the midst of the lockout. Then on Sunday, McPherson speculated about why the Marlins pivoted to acquire right fielder/designated Jorge Soler hitter rather than a center fielder.
• Splashy MLB transactions from Saturday and Sunday (aside from Soler): Trevor Story signed with the Red Sox; Matthew Boyd signed with the Giants.
• Trevor Rogers is experimenting with a new slider grip, per Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Also, it’s unclear if he will appear in any Grapefruit League games this spring. If he continues to pitch every five days—March 25, March 30 and April 4—that means the All-Star left-hander will have to continue facing minor leaguers on the backfields (those are all off days for the major league Marlins).
• The following Marlins minor leaguers were released over the weekend: RHP Evan Brabrand, RHP Troy Cruz, C Dustin Skelton and INF Zachary Owings. Brabrand, Skelton and Owings were each 2019 amateur draft picks, while Cruz joined the organization midway through last season.
• Fish On The Farm’s Sam Hemenway previews the upcoming Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp season. In case you missed it, Fish On The Farm did similarly thorough articles for Double-A Pensacola, High-A Beloit and Low-A Jupiter. By the way, FOTF is set to debut new merchandise this week.
• MLB Pipeline updated their Marlins Top 30 prospects list, with Kahlil Watson getting the nod for the No. 1 spot.
• As of February 24, Francys Romero reports that the Marlins had $1,321,200 remaining in their bonus pool for the 2021-22 international signing period. That was at the time the highest total in baseball with only the Royals still above $1 million. The rest of the National League East has far less flexibility by comparison (less than $300k in combined pools for the Braves, Mets, Phillies and Nationals).
• Jacob Stallings ranked eighth among catchers in MLB Network’s position-by-position “Top 10 Right Now” series (he was unranked entering last season). Next up: their episode on starting pitchers airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET.
• Check out the latest installments of our 2022 Marlins Season Preview series. Dozens more articles to come between now and Opening Day.

• Congrats to Erica and Garrett Cooper on the birth of their daughter! Reagan Olivia Cooper came into the world on Friday.