Marlins Sign 1st Rounder Jose Fernandez

After over two months of negotiating back and forth — or the complete opposite, in fact — the Marlins have finally inked Jose Fernandez, their 2011 first round selection. The deal is for two million dollars, according to Baseball America’s Jim Callis. Let’s take a look at the newest member of the Marlins organization.

This courtesy Baseball America:

He throws three swing-and-miss pitches: a fastball that sits 90-95 mph with heavy sink at times and a pair of breaking balls. Scouts aren’t sure if Fernandez means to throw both a slider and a curve, but his slider can be sharp and his curve at times has 12-to-6 break. He’s shown flashes of a changeup as well and could wind up as a four-pitch workhorse. Sturdy at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, Fernandez has a mature body and will have to work to maintain his conditioning.

On a personal level, I’m excited about Fernandez for many reasons. One of which is because of his young age and where he fits in to the prospect shuffle in the Marlins organization. If you know the Marlins system, you know that the small amount of prospects they have are in Greensboro, with the exception of Chad James and Kyle Jensen to name a few who are in higher levels of the system. Christian Yelich, Noah Perio, Mark Canha, Ryan Fisher, Jacob Realmuto and Marcel Ozuna all represent the core of the system. Only one of those prospects, maybe two are impact level talents but still solidify a large gap within the franchise. Slotting Fernandez in that same group if not now, very soon, will replicate the influx of talent that the Marlins saw come up when Stanton, Morrison and Sanchez made their way to the bigs.

In any case, he’s a Marlins and the Fish didn’t lose their man. And with the Lomo news that’s occupied nearly the entirety of the internet, I’m quite surprised they didn’t.