Rule 5 players, obtained for $50,000 each, must open the season on a team’s 25-man roster or be returned to their original club. But Miami hopes both players can stick and produce.

On Thursday, the Marlins selected three players in the Rule 5 Draft. The team selected two players in the MLB Phase of the draft, outfielder Alfredo Silverio from the Los Angeles Dodgers and pitcher Braulio Lara from the Tampa Bay Rays. The team selected Tyler Kehrer from the Los Angeles Angels in the Triple-A phase.

Alfredo Silverio is the most intriguing pick for the Marlins. Silverio had a breakout season in 2011 for the Dodgers Double-A team, posting an impressive .306/.340/.542 line with an impressive .382 wOBA.  Silverio also scored 90 runs and collected 42 doubles, 18 triples, 16 home runs and 85 RBI in 132 games with double-A Chattanooga in 2011, earning Southern League All-Star honors.

On Jan. 23 of this year, he was involved in a one-car accident in the Dominican Republic. Silverio in the accident suffered injuries to his back, shoulder, elbow, and neck. He was reportedly suffering from concussion-like symptoms six weeks after the car crash.

“The Dodgers just showed me pictures of the car. He’s lucky he’s alive,’’ said Marty Scott, the Marlins’ vice president for player development.

The good news for the Marlins, Silverio was recently taking batting practice in the Domincan Republic. Hopefully that is a positive sign for his career going forward. Silverio has not been cleared to throw the ball, as of yet, as a result of his Tommy John Surgery.

“If we get him healthy as quickly as we can, not rush him, he’s a possible DL guy to start the year,” Scott said.

“He’s a project and you bring him in but tool-wise and the grades we had on him and the fact that he has recovered from the concussions and the Tommy John, it’s very promising.’’

This is what Baseball America had to say about the Marlins pick:

Showed the potential for five average or better tools, but missed all of 2012 after a car accident resulted in a concussion and an elbow injury. If healthy, could be the safest bet to stick on big league roster.

Silverio will likely start the season on the disabled list, but will have to be active for at least 90 days for the Marlins, or they will have to return him to the Dodgers.

The Marlins also selected Braulio Lara from the Tampa Bay Rays. Lara is an intriguing prospect, as he is a left-hander with plenty of zip on his fastball. He has however struggled with command in the minor leagues. Last season, Lara, 23, was 6-10 with a 5.71 ERA (112.0 IP/71 ER) in 25 games, including 21 starts, with single-A Charlotte in the Tampa Bay Rays system. Lara has a career 4.41 ERA in his minor league career.

This is what Baseball America had to say about the Marlins pick:

Lara has a lean, athletic build that produces a mid-90s fastball and a hard, downer curveball. He went 6-10, 5.71 in high Class A in 2012 so while the stuff is excellent, he’s a long ways from being ready to help a big league club.

Lara is a solid pick, but he is a less likely candidate to stick with the Marlins. He has never pitched above High-A and it would be a stretch to see him succeeding in the Majors, but with the Marlins likely to be out of contention early, Lara will have a chance to make it work with the Marlins.

In the minor league phase, the Marlins selected left handed pitcher, Tyler Kehrer from the Angels Double-A team. I do not know as much about Kehrer as the other prospects, but his raw numbers in the minors do not look too good, as he walks way too many hitters.

Dietrich was ranked as the 15th best prospect on the Rays by Fangraphs, 9th by Baseball America, and graded out as a C+ prospect by Minor League Ball’s John Sickels before the season began. Dietrich would likely slot somewhere between 8-10 in the Marlins top prospect lists, due out later this off-season.

Dietrich was drafted as a shortstop, but most scouts see him moving over to third base as he moves up in the minors. Dietrich hit .282/.343/.468 (.367 wOBA) in High-A before earning a late-season promotion to Double-A. In Double-A, Dietrich continued his hot hitting .271/.324/.429 (.346 wOBA). He graded out as better than league average there.

Baseball America sees him as a second or third baseman long-term, and with his above-average power, Dietrich has a solid chance of becoming an above-average major leaguer in his career.

Escobar was recently acquired by the Marlins in the mega-trade with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was reportedly accommodating to move to third to play for the Marlins, but the Marlins were looking to trade Escobar even before the deal with the Jays was finalized.

Stay tuned to Marlins Daily for more updates.

• Another rebranding is suggested for the team in the wake of the latest trade.
• Some people are hoping Bud Selig will “force” Loria into selling the team.
• Billy doesn’t seem too upset about the whole thing, though.
• One fan is hoping to convince the government to look at Loria’s ownership issue (and with 25,000 signatures, it may happen!).
• Logan Morrison talks about playoff odds with Jon Heyman on Twitter.
• San Francisco Chronicle’s Hank Schulman gets in on the fun.

There were also several revelations that occurred, like:

• Zack Cox is now the Marlins’ 7th highest salary.
• The over/under on the Marlins’ average attendance for next year is 18,500.
• The Marlins’ ticket sale team is still hard at work.
• Nearly half of last year’s Opening Day roster has been traded.
• There are tremendous tax implications for the new Blue Jays players.

The deal is set to send starting pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, catcher John Buck, shortstop Jose Reyes, and utility player Emilio Bonifacio north of the border. In return – and stop me if you’ve heard this before – the Marlins are receiving a boat load of prospects.

The details are still hazy, and with nothing official yet, we are relying on “sources” and Twitter feeds. It appears the Marlins will be receiving Jake Marisnick, Henderson Alvarez, Adeiny Hechavarria, Yunel Escobar, Jeff Mathis, and Justin Nicolino. A quick breakdown of each player:

• Jake Marisnick, 21 year old outfielder, is a former 3rd round draft pick who was rated as the 67th top prospect by Baseball America prior to the season. He possesses a lot of tools, but doesn’t yet have the stat line to show for it. He will turn 22 before the 2013 season starts. Last season, he split time between high-A and AA. In high-A, he had a .263/.349/.451 slash line with 6 home runs, 35 RBI, and 10 steals in 266 at bats. After being promoted to AA, he hit .233/.286/.336 with 2 home runs and 15 RBI in 223 at bats.
• Henderson Alvarez, 22 year old starting pitcher, was signed as an international free agent by the Jays in 2006. He posted somewhat mediocre numbers in the low minors until his promotion to AA in 2011, where he went 8-4 with a 2.86 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. Later that year, Alvarez was promoted to the big league team directly from AA, where he went 1-3 with a 3.53 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP in 63.2 innings. In 2012, Alvarez made 31 starts and went 9-14 with a 4.85 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 187.1 innings. He walked 54 and struck out 79 batters.
• Adeiny Hechavarria, 23 year old infielder, was signed as a free agent defector from Cuba. He struggled in the low minors but had success in AAA, though it was buoyed by a particularly high BABIP in both of his stops there (.471 and .371, respectively). He was promoted to the big club last season and he hit .254/.280/.365 with 2 home runs and 15 RBI in 126 at bats. He profiles as a utility fielder at this point.
• Yunel Escobar, 30 year old shortstop, homophobe. A 6 year veteran, he is the most accomplished of the group, with a career OPS+ of 99 in his years with Atlanta and Toronto. Reports had him driven out of Atlanta in 2010 due to a bad attitude. His OPS last season was .644, a career low. He also had a homophobic slur written on his eye-black at the end of the season. Ozzie Guillen supported hi.
• Justin Nicolino, 21 year old lefty starting pitcher, was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2010 Draft. He has thus far put up tremendous numbers in the low minors, with a 1.33 ERA in 61 innings in 2011 and a 2.46 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 124.1 innings in A ball last season.
• Jeff Mathis, 29 year old catcher who will turn 30 before Opening Day. He is a former first round pick who has been extremely underwhelming in his 8 years in the majors, with a career .198/.256/.314 slash line and 53 OPS+ for his career. A righty hitter, one would assume he will platoon with Rob Brantly against lefties.

Reports currently have the Marlins also sending $4 million in cash to the Blue Jays, and possibly having another minor leaguer (Anthony DeSclafani) headed back as well. We know there is a deal, but we don’t quite know all the details for sure. More as this gets sorted out. With this trade, the Marlins’ payroll obligations for next year will be around $30 million.

Update: It does appear the Marlins are getting DeSclafani in the deal. Drafted from UF in the 6th round of the 2011 draft, he made his debut as a 22 year old in A ball last year. In 28 games (21 starts) spanning 123 innings, DeSclafani went 11-3 with a 3.37 ERA and 1.38 WHIP.

After hiring Tino Martinez as their hitting coach last week, the Marlins’ on field staff is beginning to take shape. New manager Mike Redmond will have fielding guru Perry Hill back as the first base coach, with Joe Espada returning as the third base coach. Reid Cornelius, the former Marlins hurler who has been the team’s bullpen coach for the past few seasons, will be returning to the staff in some capacity, either as the pitching coach or bullpen coach. With the exception of Perry Hill, all of these coaches have one thing in common: relative inexperience.

Hill, of course, has been with the Marlins on multiple tours of duty and has been coaching for some time. Beyond Hill, Reid Cornelius and Joe Espada are the two most experienced coaches on the staff, with both having been minor league coaches until their promotions for the 2010 season. Martinez is a first year coach, whose prior experience includes Spring Training special instructor and YES Network color commentator, and Redmond has two years of managerial experience in A-ball under his belt. The bench coach position is an important hire for the Marlins, and they would be wise to go with an experienced hand in the position.

Recently it was reported that Redmond had mentioned Don Wakamatsu as a possibility. Wakamatsu is a former big league manager and is currently the bench coach for Toronto. Joe Frisaro recently noted Ron Hassey as a name that could merit consideration. Hassey is currently the Marlins’ AAA manager and was a big league coach in the mid-1990s as well as the Mariners’ bench coach from 2005-2006.

Beyond those names, however, the others that have been surfacing are more inexperienced names. In the same article, Frisaro mentions Mike Mordecai, Andy Fox, and Dave Berg. Mordecai managed for a year in the minors with the Marlins organization before going to coach high school baseball. Berg is currently a manager in the Marlins’ system. Fox, the most experienced of the group, was a Marlins first base coach from 2007-2009, but the team fired him after the season. A final name that has come up is Mike Lowell; MLB Network Radio noted that Redmond and Lowell made an agreement to name each other bench coaches if and when one of them became a manager.

With such an inexperienced staff, the Marlins would do well to find an experienced coach to sit alongside Mike Redmond in 2013. There are plenty of former managers – Jerry Manuel, Larry Bowa, Willie Randolph, Jerry Narron – who would likely appreciate an opportunity to rebuild their reputation and take the reigns as bench coach. Given the overwhelming youth of the coaches, this team could use a baseball lifer on the bench.

As a result of all this, I will be taking over the site from David, while David will still be associated with the site, he will not be making as many posts as he has in the past. There will be some changes coming to the site with the changes. If you guys remember my days as the editor of Marlin Maniac, the site will head in the direction of how I ran that site.

Some of the changes I will be bringing over include analysis of every move the Marlins make this off-season, and moves that the Marlins could potentially make in the future. Marlins Daily will also be all over any breaking news for the Marlins this Hot Stove this season.

In season, Marlins Daily will have extensive game previews, weekly live game chats, and recaps for each and every game in the 2013 season. Expect some brand new fresh content every day on Marlins Daily.

To make sure the content is flowing on a daily basis, this is the structure everyone should expect on a weekly basis, similar to what I had on Marlin Maniac:

Monday- Weekly Recap on all the posts from the previous week. This will make sure none of the Marlins Daily content goes unseen.

Wednesday- Marlins Way: This segment will be a link dump to all Marlins news from across the internet, including other Marlins blogs and the Marlins beat writers.

Friday- Marlins Way: Around the NL East: This segment will be a lot like Marlins Way, but instead of links about the Miami Marlins, we will take a look at some of news floating around about our closest foes.

Also, expect to see to see a Marlins off-season update twice weekly. Along with this, I will post some sort of analysis piece on an almost daily basis. With the Miami Marlins struggles in the past two seasons, there is a lot to sort out on how the team can improve in the 2013 season, and hopefully become strong contenders very soon.

I hope you guys will join us on the ride for the new Marlins Daily website. This will be your one-stop site for all Marlins breaking news, fun facts, game recaps, and analysis.

If you have not already, please follow Marlins Daily on Twitter, you can also follow me on Twitter as well.

We will also be featuring a brand new writer today, so we are looking forward to that as well!

Brice has an unnatural looking delivery, featuring a high leg-kick, and keeping his back stiff which causes him to have to throw across his body with some head-whip. Brice was never a full-time pitcher until entering the Marlins system, which is probably why his mechanics are still so raw. The leg-kick allows him to get a big stride and push off the mound, so he should be able to add some velocity as he fills out and cleans his mechanics up.

Brice has strong legs that he leverages to be able to sit 92-93, but because of his sloppy mechanics he struggles to maintain velocity. He has broad shoulders that he has yet to fill out, and when he does he should be a strong presence on the mound.

As I mentioned Brice really needs to work on his stamina. In the first inning he sat 92-93, but tired himself out and ended up sitting 88-89. He is still very raw on the mound, and his pitchability suffers more than anything because of it.

Brice’s fastball was hard to grade, as there were two versions of it that I saw: 1^st inning fastball, and everything after that. In the first his fastball was 92-93, with late life and some arm-side run. I would have graded it as a 55/60 pitch had he maintained that the whole game. After the first inning however, he didn’t throw one fastball I would grade as league average. The ball lost velocity, and lacked any kind of movement or life.  I think if he can clean up his mechanics and work on consistency that this pitch could be an above-average one, featuring good velocity and movement.

His curveball was inconsistent, sitting 75-78. He threw it at times with good depth and two-plane break, but also had a propensity for hanging them. Brice also lacked feel for the pitch, not always knowing just how much it was going to break.  He needs to work on being able to repeat the depth and velocity on the pitch, as otherwise he will never be able to spot it. This pitch is still very raw, but could end up an above-average offering.

His change-up made the curve seem polished, as Brice would slow his arm, and occasionally drop it when throwing his change-up. It also lacks the desired 10 MPH difference, meaning that batters will still be able to foul it off if/when he fixes the arm-action. It sat 84-85, and behaved a bit like his fastball when the fastball was on, featuring arm-side run.

I think his change-up can become average, as long as his fastball can sit 92-93 and he improves the arm-action.  A lot of it depends on the fastball and its progression.

I think that if Brice can put it all together, that he could be a league-average starter. He could be able to slot in as a 3 or 4 starter, depending on the progression of his pitchability, secondary offerings, and command. He really lacks elite tools, and because of his rawness and average only potential grade, he will probably never show up on any top prospect lists.

Chris Volstad probably giving up another home run

Back in January, Miami quietly dealt 5th starter Chris Volstad to Chicago, and in return recieved the embattled Carlos Zambrano. The Cubs also picked up most of Zambrano’s $18 million dollar contract, giving Miami all the more reason to take a chance of Zambrano, and ship the perenially underwhelming Volstad off to Theo Epstein. While the trade has not worked out exactly as planned for the Marlins, who hoped to use him as they competed for a playoff spot, it has gone quite well compared to how it’s turned out on the Cubs side.

Drafted 16th overall in 2005, Volstad quickly rose through the Marlins farm system, and was even  ranked the organization’s number one prospect by Baseball America in 2006. At the time the team promoted him to the MLB, he was expected by most to be a key part of the future in Florida, and considered one of the better young starters in the game–although things have turned out very differently since then.

This season has been especially rough for Volstad, who has posted an awful 5.99 ERA to go along with a 3-10 record. His Fielding Independent totals are slightly better with a 4.73 FIP and 4.62 xFIP, yet Volstad has underperformed his underlying metrics throughout his time in the Majors, so this development should not be surprising. He once again is allowing homeruns at an extreme pace–12.6 HR/FB%–but at this point, it is no longer reasonable to expect his HR/FR% to regress toward league average; rather, he is more likely to continue allowing homeruns at a rate closer to his career 12.4% HR/FB mark.

Volstad has been the target of some back luck this year, stranding only 60% of baserunners, but he’s also striking out fewer batters and walking more. His improved peripherals in 2011 were almost certainly one of the reasons the Cubs were willing to accuire him, hoping that the former top prospect could continue to build on his development from last season. Unfortunately, he’s taken a significant step back in that department this year. His K/9 is down from 6.34 to 5.11 and his BB/9 is 3.53 after a 2.66 mark in 2011.

So poorly has Volstad played, in fact, that he spent much of June and July in Triple-A, before being recalled to the Cubs once again. In all, Volstad has amassed just 0.5 fWAR over 91.2 innings, compared to Zambrano’s slightly better 0.9 fWAR season.

The outlook is bleak at best for the 26-year old Volstad, who is currently spending his fifth year in the big leagues without any sustained success. Any hope that this season he would finally make the jump to becoming at least a solid back end starter is now gone, and it is increasingly apparent this is the best Volstad is going to be. For the Marlins, it seems they bailed at just the right time (if not too late), managing to at least get something in return for the former first round draft pick.

September is a very important month in the baseball calendar. One may argue that it’s the most important of the baseball season, for teams both contending for a playoff spot as well as those who know they’ll be watching from their couches come October. The Miami Marlins are a team in the latter category, but that doesn’t mean this final month of the 2012 season can’t be a valuable one.

Case in point: catcher Rob Brantly. 

After being acquired from the Tigers as part of the Anibal Sanchez/Omar Infante deal and spending a short stint in New Orleans, Rob Brantly was brought up to the majors and given the chance to be the Marlins’ starting catcher. Despite initial big league struggles, Brantly’s September is an indication that he’ll have the chance to be the player the Marlins believed he would be .

Brantly made his major league debut exactly one month ago today against the Phillies and after going just 1-f0r-16 in his first four starts, he now finds himself sitting at .305/.397/.492 in 18 games. He’s even been more patient since he arrived in the big leagues, as his 13.2 BB% is the highest of his professional career at any level (especially surprising considering he hardly walked at all during his time in AAA). Throw in one of the biggest positives in the eyes of Marlins fans (the fact that he isn’t John Buck) and although we’re obviously dealing with a small sample size, the adjustments Brantly has made at the plate since those first four games have been encouraging at the very least.

Looking back on Brantly’s minor league career, it seems as though making adjustments has been one of his biggest strengths. In fact, he never spent more than 75 games at the same level when in the minors. Brantly had just 50 games in Triple-A under his belt when the Marlins promoted him on August 13.

Brantly still has work to do, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. His defensive struggles were highlighted recently by a dropped popup against the Phillies that led to a Jimmy Rollins home run on the next pitch. Manager Ozzie Guillen told the Sun-Sentinel on Thursday that those kind of mistakes will happen for a young player early on, saying:

“He’s going to drop more balls,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “This kid is a baby. I didn’t even know he just signed in 2010. That’s a lot to ask a kid with no experience to do what he’s doing right now.”

Guillen understands that the strength of Brantly’s game isn’t in his defense, but based on his improvements with the bat, there’s no reason to think he can’t improve with more experience under his belt. Guillen also added that he felt Brantly has done a good job with the pitching staff, despite how much the pitchers have been struggling. Calling games will be another area of development and with how often Brantly has changed levels and pitching staffs during his professional career, an extended stay at the major league level should provide for a much more steady opportunity to improve.

All in all, Rob Brantly has been impressive in the month he’s spent with the Miami Marlins and his development will be one of the most important storylines as the club closes out the 2012 season.

OF Christian Yelich

Remember that old childhood playground insult, “boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider?” Horrendous grammar and insinuations of impossible space travel aside, it remains a classic verbal barb. But for the Miami Marlins, much of their future does in fact lie in Jupiter.

Jupiter, Florida, that is.

Despite falling just short of a Florida State League championship, the single-A Jupiter Hammerheads were one of the more intriguing Marlins affiliates to watch in the 2012 season. With the debacle that has occurred at the major league level this season, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the fact that there are plenty of players for Marlins fans to get excited about at the minor league level. And much of the most impressive developments from this system have taken shape on the Hammerheads’ roster.

Jose Fernandez

Hammerheads ace Jose Fernandez, MLB.com’s #23 overall prospect (1 ER in 10 IP during FSL playoffs), has established himself as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball. Some were worried that he may struggle in the FSL after being promoted from Greensboro this past June, but Fernandez has continued to dominate even as the organization has prevented him from throwing any more than five innings since making the jump.

His numbers currently read like something out of a dream. 14-1 with a 1.75 ERA and 158 strikeouts (with just 35 walks) in 134 innings. For his career, Fernandez has struck out 10.7 per nine and after struggling in 8.2 innings after being drafted 14th overall in 2011, it appears the Fernandez has really hit his stride. His talent is undeniable and it was on display for the world to see at Futures Game, where Fernandez started the second inning by hitting 99 mph on the gun and striking out one of this year’s most talked about prospects, Rangers’ infielder Mike Olt.

Fernandez is just 20 years of age, which makes his dominance, over this his first full season, even more impressive. Not only could Fernandez wind up being the best pitching prospect the Marlins have ever developed, but the payoff could be even sweeter considering he’s a local product out of Alonso High in Tampa.

It’ll be intriguing to see how the Marlins handle Fernandez next season. The fact that they have not yet allowed him to go deeper than five innings in a start during his time in Jupiter shows just how valuable he is to the future of the organization, but one must also wonder how quickly the club will be willing to promote him if he continues to dominate the competition. It’s likely that they could send him to Jacksonville coming out of spring training in 2013 to try to challenge him, as it seems like he’s already bored of dominating hitters in the Florida State League. Fernandez will still have to improve his command as he moves up in the Marlins’ system, but he certainly has the pure stuff to develop into the ace of the Miami rotation for years to come.

Christian Yelich

Outfielder Christian Yelich, a first-round pick in the 2010 draft out of, began the year as the Marlins’ top position prospect and did nothing to disprove that assessment. Yelich flashed all five tools for the Hammerheads in 2012, posting a slash line of .330/.404/.519 to go along with 12 home runs and 20 stolen bases. Even with injury troubles that limited him to 106 games this season, Yelich put up those great numbers to go along with playing good defense in center field. Like Fernandez (and current major-leaguer Rob Brantly), Yelich also made an appearance at the All-Star Futures Game in Kansas City, singling and drawing a walk in the U.S. team’s 17-5 thrashing of the World squad.

Yelich has proved that the Florida State League doesn’t provide much of a challenge for him at this point, so it’s possible the club could start him out Double-A Jacksonville alongside Fernandez. No one is quite sure exactly how much power Yelich will end up with by the time he’s fully developed, meaning he but for now, he’s a great athlete with an advanced approach at the plate and could be on the fast track to the big leagues if he’s able to repeat his success from this season.

Adam Conley

In a season that has featured many strong performances from Marlins’ pitching prospects, Conley’s improvements this season have been particularly impressive. A second-round pick in the 2011 Draft, many believed that the Marlins’ selection of Conley was a reach, particularly because he didn’t seem to have all that much upside. Sure, he was a polished college lefty that could change speeds effectively, but guys like Daniel Norris, Nick Maronde, and Tony Cingrani remained on the board, with the latter two already having reached the big leagues.

Conley began the year in Greensboro and posted a 7-3 record, with a 2.73 ERA before being promoted to Jupiter. With the Grasshoppers, Conley struck out 84 in 74.1 innings, which was surprising considering the fact that he wasn’t thought of as a strikeout pitcher going into the draft. Conley may not have the upside of 2012 draftee Andrew Heaney (you can check out Spencer Schneier’s terriffic report on Heaney for Marlins Daily here), but it appears that Conley could contribute to the back end of the Marlins’ rotation in the future, or at the very least as a lefty specialist out of the bullpen.

Marcell Ozuna

Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2008, the 20-year-old Ozuna is one of the more fascinating prospects in the system, with big time raw power and solid defensive skills that profiles to a corner outfield spot. He’s posted three straight seasons of 20 or more home runs but there are still plenty of questions to be answered about his bat in general. He’s had trouble with keeping his strikeout totals in check and doesn’t walk all that much, never having posted an OBP above .330 in his minor league career. Still, if Ozuna can show he is ready to make the jump to Jacksonville next season and continues to make adjustments at the plate, he could soon provide a desperately-needed power boost to the Marlins lineup either at the end 0f 2013 or some time in 2014.

Jake Realmuto

Entering the 2012 season, the organizational catching depth for the Marlins was a sight for sore eyes. With the addition of Rob Brantly, who’s now making his presence felt on the big league club, Jake Realmuto has emerged as Miami’s best catching prospect in the minor leagues. Realmuto, who will head to the Arizona Fall League next month (where I’ll try to gather as good of a scouting report as I can on him and other Marlins Fall League reps), is a converted shortstop with solid all-around skills. The Marlins took the 21-year-old Realmuto in the third round of the 2010 draft and since entering the system, he’s put up solid numbers at the plate. After a stellar 2011 in Greensboro, his numbers fell off a bit for the Hammerheads, but Realmuto still has the ability to hit for average with a little bit of pop, in addition to being a pretty good baserunner. He DH’d 24 games for Jupiter this season, so the Marlins could be trying to keep his legs as fresh as possible going into his stint in the Fall League and beyond. It’s unlikely that Realmuto will see time with the big league club at any point next season, but his continued development is encouraging for a system that has been sparse on catching prospects for quite some time.