An explanation for the Marlins’ decision on youth. And Mattingly addresses several issues

With their starting pitching staff, the Marlins have committed entirely to youth, fully comfortable in using a rotation without a single pitcher who has made even 50 big-league starts.

With their outfield and first base, not so much.

Credit the Marlins for spending the money, during the past 14 months, to add three veteran starting outfielders — Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte and Adam Duvall.

But the decision to play an all-veteran outfield — barring injuries or trades — also means delaying extended big-league auditions for any of the team’s top outfield prospects (Monte Harrison, Jesus Sanchez are the closest of the group).

They’re taking the same approach at first base, where Lewin Diaz gets more minor-league seasoning while Jesus Aguilar and Garrett Cooper hold down the position with the big-league team.

“Our young position players, we had a little success [in 2020] but not the success we would have liked,” manager Don Mattingly said Wednesday, on the eve of the start of Marlins workouts in Jupiter. “This spring will be really important for those guys.”

The Marlins would like one of their better prospects (Jazz Chisholm or Isan Diaz) to win the second base job, with veteran Jon Berti available as the backup plan if neither wins the job this spring.

With the pitching staff, there is no veteran fallback option, now that Jose Urena has moved onto Detroit. That means a rotation of three young veterans — Sandy Alcantara (45 big-league starts), Pablo Lopez (42), Elieser Hernandez (42), likely Sixto Sanchez (7) and potentially Trevor Rogers (7) or Edward Cabrera (0) or Nick Neidert (0).

Why the difference in approach between pitching and the outfield?

Several reasons: 1). The Marlins liked Duvall and felt his power would help. 2). They believe the young outfielders could use more minor-league at-bats after struggles last season. 3). The young pitchers - Alcantara and Lopez in particular - have proven they’re ready to anchor a staff. And Hernandez and Sanchez showed enough to be projected for rotation spots.

“Adam continues to get better and better and we saw it firsthand from Atlanta,” Mattingly said of Duvall, who will play a lot in right field. “He puts power into our lineup. You would love those guys [Harrison, Sanchez] to continue to get at-bats. The worst thing for a young guy is to be here and not play.

“You’ve got to keep playing. With Monte and Sanchez, we love their talent and what we think they can be, but they’re part of a big mix — JJ Bleday, Kameron Misner, Peyton Burdick. There’s going to be stiff competition for spots in the outfield” long-term.

While it could have been fully justified to “allot” one outfield spot to some combination of Harrison, Sanchez, Lewis Brinson or Magneuris Sierra, that would also have been risky, and the Marlins probably did the right thing by opting for veterans to play first base and right field.

Sanchez, a .296 hitter in the minors, went just 1 for 25 with two RBI and 11 strikeouts in his Marlins cameo last summer.

The Athletic’s Keith Law, a smart evaluator of minor-league talent, wrote this week that Sanchez “swings hard and often, and though he didn’t see great results in the majors, he did make some very hard contact, although his inexperience and questionable plate discipline held him back.”

Harrison hit .170 — 8 for 47 — with 26 strikeouts and a home run in 51 plate appearances.

“I don’t really know what to do at this point,” Law wrote. “He has too much ability to say he’s not a prospect but there’s no major-league role for a guy who has this much trouble making contact.”

Brinson showed improvement last season, especially against lefties (.260) but still hit just .226 overall.

Sierra has had the most big-league opportunity and most success of any of the four, but the results are still fairly modest (.247 in 315 career plate appearances), and it’s difficult to project him as a full-time starter.

The Marlins’ most polished hitting outfield prospect is Bleday, who hasn’t played above high A ball. Burdick — who hit .308, with 11 homers and 64 RBI in 69 games in the low-level minors — would be second or third on that list, in the conversation with Sanchez

Former first-rounder Connor Scott and ballyhooed international signing Victor Victor Mesa have much to prove; Victor’s younger brother, Victor Jr., is probably the better prospect of the two. Misner and Jerar Encarnacion round out the list of nearly a dozen outfielders with big-league potential.

At some point in the next year or two, the Marlins will need to give an extended big-league look (at least a few weeks of regular at-bats) to the outfielders who crush Triple A pitching. Bleday assuredly will get that chance when he’s ready; Sanchez probably will, too. With Harrison, it’s not quite as clear.

And if any of those three are ready for that extended look by this summer, Miami could always trade the expiring contracts of Dickerson or Marte if the team is out of wild card contention.

And CEO Derek Jeter cautions against assuming the rookie outfielders won’t get a chance sooner rather than later.

“You can never make the assumption that everyone is going to stay healthy for 162 games, especially when we’re still in the middle of a pandemic,” Jeter said. “Give me too many players. I would rather work with that than sit here and say I wish I had more.”

As for first base, the Marlins made the right move retaining Aguilar, because of Cooper’s past injury issues and because Diaz doesn’t seem to be ready. Diaz went 6 for 39 (.154) with 12 strikeouts during his Marlins cameo last season.

Law said Diaz “projects to hit for some average and some power [but] is probably a year away from being ready for the majors but should be an everyday first baseman who can hit fourth or fifth in the lineup.”

MORE FROM MATTINGLY

More nuggets from Mattingly’s Wednesday news conference:

▪ The hope appears to be that Diaz or Chisholm will win the second base job.

“Berti can definitely be an everyday guy,” Mattingly said. But… “we look at Bert more all over the field to give guys breaks. Jazz and Isan will be interesting. We’ve got to see where that one goes. Jazz is fun to watch. Isan had a rough year medically. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

▪ Mattingly said Cooper will play some in right field and give Aguilar some days off at first.

Cooper’s “best position is first base,” Mattingly said. “It’s best for his health to be playing first. Aguilar, Cooper, Duvall need days off over 162. You are going to have to load management some guys.”

▪ Mattingly said catcher Jorge Alfaro has worked on improving his interaction with a pitching staff (his game calling needed work), and Mattingly expects him to bounce back. Alfaro was replaced by Chad Wallach in the playoffs.

“We think he can still be that guy who’s a run producer, dangerous in our order and a force,” Mattingly said of Alfaro. “Last year, he seemed to struggle. Don’t know if it was COVID or what it was. He’s worked really hard this winter to make sure he understands our staff. We feel he’s going to take strides this year. We saw some things we liked towards the end of year. Better understanding of the strike zone.”

▪ On third baseman Brian Anderson: “We think there’s more in there. He’s still got more ceiling left.”

▪ Mattingly mentioned Anthony Bass, Yimi Garcia and Dylan Floro as back-end bullpen candidates but added “almost every guy in our pen can pitch late in the game.”

▪ He said the Marlins have discussed the possibility of using a six-man rotation but they won’t do that to start the season.

“The pros of six man rotation is an extra day rest,” Mattingly said. “The negative would be if you’re pitching once a week [because of a day off in the schedule]. Guys don’t like that. It causes problems of too many guys getting little rhythm.”

▪ Mattingly’s general thoughts: “We hang our hat on our pitching. Every time we put a starter out there, we feel we have a guy who will keep us in the game. I want to be a club that’s able to play fast. We want more athletic guys, play a pressure game with speed. We think we’re getting there, not quite there yet. And a game that people like. People want action. We want to run when it’s there.”