Newly Acquired Marlins Prospect Off to Strange Start at Triple-A Jacksonville
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With a 61-59 record and coming off of three consecutive wins, the Miami Marlins remain firmly in the NL wild card mix, sitting just 2.5 games behind both the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres.
However, the club still operated largely as a seller at the trade deadline, acquiring reliever Victor Vodnik but shipping out Liam Hicks, Braxton Garrett and Luke Bachar for future help.
As one might expect, the Marlins moves helped bolster an already-strong farm system with a number of new prospects. The only one to crack the organization's top-10 at MLB Pipeline though, was 24-year-old infielder Brayden Taylor (No. 10), acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays for Hicks.
While with the Rays, Taylor was in the midst of a big breakout campaign (17 home runs, 56 RBI, .897 OPS) at Double-A Montgomery, creating intrigue over what he might bring to Miami. So far, it's probably fair to say the jury is still out.
Inside Taylor's Strange Start with the Marlins
At 24 and with four seasons of professional baseball under his belt, Taylor has likely been looked at by the Marlins as having the chance to impact the big league roster sooner rather than later (his MLB prospect rating projects a 2027 arrival in the majors).
So team brass was probably hopeful for more production from Taylor than zero hits over his first 22 plate appearances with the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp of the International League. Of course, it's hard to collect hits if you aren't seeing good pitches, and so much of the 2023 first-round pick's hit drought can be explained by the whopping nine walks he has already taken.
Despite going hitless through six games, Taylor has now compiled a .409 on-base percentage at Jacksonville, comprised entirely of base on balls. To put that in perspective, he has already surpassed the walk total of fellow infield prospect Jesús Bastidas (eight walks), who has played in 35 more games and amassed 126 more at-bats.
Taylor has improved his plate approach this season, cutting down on his swing-and-miss rate (27.7% to 22.9% K rate) per MLB.com. However, he is primarily known offensively for his combination of power and speed, so long, grinding at-bats and free passes probably isn't what Miami expected from their new addition.
As a guy with lots of positional versatility who can address an area of weakness throughout the organization (third base), Taylor should get a long look for the remainder of the season and into spring training. While Marlins brass would ideally love to see him do some damage with the bat, they can't be too disappointed in a prospect who is finding ways to get on base more than 40% of the time.
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