Offishial news, 7/21/22: Second half begins; undrafted free agency

Today’s Marlins news roundup also includes updated NL Cy Young award odds for Sandy Alcantara.

Marlins Podcast Episodes

• Wednesday’s minor league scores: DSL Marlins won, 3-2; DSL Miami lost, 6-4 (F/7). Third baseman Gregory Mota (DSL Marlins) hit a walk-off two-run home run, the first long ball of his professional career.
• Joe Frisaro of Man On Second Baseball reports that the Marlins have agreed to $6 million signing bonus with No. 6 overall MLB Draft pick Jacob Berry. That is slightly below slot value. He is being formally introduced by the team prior to today’s game.
• The Marlins have already scooped up (at least) six undrafted free agents this week: RHP Matthew Pushard (Maine), RHP Collin Lowe (Bryant), OF Jake Thompson (Oklahoma State) 2B Josh Zamora (Nevada), RHP Tristan Stevens (Texas) and 2B Harrison Spohn (California Baptist).
• Wednesday night, we streamed a Marlins Jeopardy edition of Fish Stripes LIVE with first-time contestants Jeremy Taché and Alex Krutchik. They were no match for the mighty Isaac Azout. Rewatch it on YouTube! It’s never too early to submit trivia for us to feature on the next show.

• FanGraphs gives the Marlins a 56.0% chance to win their makeup game against the Rangers. The rest of the series will be played as a doubleheader on September 12.
• “There’s no way around it, Kim Ng and the Marlins are in a tough spot” as trade deadline decisions loom, writes Just Baseball’s Aram Leighton.
• Although extremely unlikely to come to fruition, I made the case for the Marlins to try to acquire Juan Soto in an eight-player trade.
• Sandy Alcantara emerges from the All-Star break as a sizable favorite in the NL Cy Young award race, according to SportsBetting.ag.
• Christina De Nicola of MLB.com reports on how Alcantara is mentoring Marlins top prospect Eury Pérez. They got to spend more quality time together during All-Star festivities. Learn to pronounce his name!

• Here are the biggest Marlins questions for the second half of the season, according to Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald.
• Beloit right-hander M.D. Johnson is passionate about the science behind player development and the art of glove maintenance, via MiLB.com’s Benjamin Hill. He’s been nicknamed “Doc” since joining the Marlins organization in 2019. Doc has a 2.99 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 201.2 IP across three minor league levels, and should be on his way up to Double-A in the very near future.
• Hill also has a new feature on the Sky Carp broadcaster, Larry Larson.
• Son Los Marlins wants to see the Marlins bring up several young bats from Triple-A Jacksonville.
• Ben Clemens of FanGraphs ranks the worst swings of the MLB season thus far, featuring the Marlins’ own Willians Astudillo and old friend Jorge Alfaro.