Dane Myers’ MLB debut with Marlins ‘a dream come true.’ How he got here and what’s next

The phone call came around 7 a.m. Monday, and Dane Myers wasn’t sure what to think at first.

“I thought it was a dream,” Myers said, “but it was true.”

Within a span of a few hours, Myers would be on a flight from Jacksonville to Miami. He was being called up to the Miami Marlins.

One day later, Myers made his MLB debut and quickly made an impact..

Myers played the final five innings of the Marlins’ 15-2 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals, replacing an injured Jonathan Davis, and going 2 for 3 at the plate with an RBI and two runs scored.

He is just the fifth player in franchise history to have multiple hits, multiple runs scored and at least one RBI in his MLB debut, joining Joe Dunand (May 7, 2022), Mike Redmond (May 31, 1998), Charles Johnson (May 6, 1994) and Darrell Whitmore (June 25, 1993)

“A dream come true,” Myers said.

It’s a dream that will extended for at least the foreseeable future. With Davis and Jazz Chisholm Jr. both sidelined indefinitely, Davis due to his knee and Chisholm with a minor left oblique strain, Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said Myers will get his share of playing time as Miami plays out its final handful of games before the All-Star Break.

And it’s the latest chapter in Myers’ storybook run to his MLB debut.

Myers was a sixth-round pick by the Detroit Tigers in the 2017 MLB Draft out of Rice University. He was a two-way player in high school and college but began his minor-league career exclusively as a pitcher before shifting over to being a position player full-time beginning with the 2021 season, the first season following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Marlins acquired Myers in December in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft and immediately made his presence known in the minor leagues.

Over 69 combined games with the Double A Pensacola Blue Wahoos and Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Myers hit .335 with a .956 on-base-plus-slugging mark, 13 home runs, 46 RBI and 50 runs scored. His production skyrocketed after being promoted to Triple A Jacksonville on June 8. Myers hit .440 with six home runs, 21 RBI and 16 runs scored in 20 games before being promoted to the big leagues.

Defensively, Myers has split time among all three outfield spots, third base and first base, giving the Marlins flexibility on defense.

“He just kind of tore up the minor leagues so far in Double A and Triple A,” Schumaker said. “Plus athlete. Can play all over the place. Really good arm. Hopefully he keeps doing what he’s been doing and provides a spark.”

The spark was already there when he entered the game in the fifth inning Tuesday. The Marlins already had a 7-0 lead on St. Louis thanks in large part to a pair of home runs from Jesus Sanchez and Garrett Cooper.

But Myers helped keep things going. His first MLB hit, a line drive single to right field in the seventh inning, drove in Joey Wendle to start a four-run inning. His second hit of the game, another single, was part of a four-run eighth inning.

“After everything that he’s been through, it’s just an incredible story really of how fast it happened for him to come up here,” Schumaker said. “He’s so athletic. You know he has a good arm because he’s an ex-pitcher. He can run the bases. But you don’t how what the swing looks like until you get up here because you just see video. “The [batting practice] was really good and then all of a sudden you’re watching these at-bats and he’s taking some borderline pitches. You feel like he’s — I don’t wanna say comfortable but it does feel like he’s more seasoned than just a rookie coming up the way he took those at-bats.”

And Myers got to have his moment with more than 30 family members and friends in the stands.

This included his mom, Rhonda, who was the first person he called after he got the news he was going to the big-leagues.

“She’s been dreaming about this day for a while, too,” Myers said. “She was happy. ... Being a single parent, raising me, my siblings, sacrificing what she did for me to be here today, it was a good moment for us to have.”

They had another good moment on Tuesday when he made his debut.