Marlins draft LSU's Jacob Berry in hunt for offensive impact: 'He's pretty close'

A much-needed impactful hitter is about to join the Miami Marlins.

The Marlins on Sunday night selected LSU infielder Jacob Berry with the sixth overall pick in the MLB Draft.

A polished college hitter, Berry has a chance to move up quickly to the big leagues.

“He’s pretty close,” Marlins senior director of amateur scouting DJ Svihlik said. “This is a young man that has extreme plate discipline. He has really good bat to ball skills.”

The selection just so happens to line up the “best available player” mindset with Miami's greatest organizational need. In recent years, the Marlins have had more success developing pitching than hitting.

Right-hander Max Meyer, their first-round pick in 2020, made his MLB debut on Saturday night. The jury is still out on some of their other first-round position players.

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Outfielder JJ Bleday (2019 draft) is at Triple-A Jacksonville and infielder Kahlil Watson (2021 draft) dealt with some disciplinary issues at low Class A Jupiter.

In Berry, the Marlins are hopeful they have a legitimate middle of the lineup threat. First, they have to get him signed. The recommended slot for the sixth pick is $6,034,300.

According to a source, the Marlins are getting close to getting a deal at the slot figure done. Small details are said to still being worked on before it is finalized. And first, he’d need to complete a physical before anything is officially announced.

It’s no secret the Marlins lack a prototypical middle of the order threat. They feel they have one about to enter their system in Berry.

“Just his ability to hit,” Svihlik said. “We just really liked Jacob. We’ve liked him for a long time.”

The Marlins selected Berry the same day they were reminded at the big league level they need more offensive firepower. Miami was swept in its weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies, being out-scored 16-1 in the three-game set.

They were shut out, 4-0, on Sunday, and blanked 10-0 on Saturday.

“We’ve had our offensive struggles here in the last week,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said. “I think a lot of us here feel that we hope sooner rather than later he will be able to help us.”

Berry, 21, played third base and was the designated hitter at LSU this year. At least one scout, who requested anonymity, believes Berry will profile to play first base and DH.

Svihlik said the plan is to give Berry every chance to play third base. Berry is a switch-hitter with power from both sides of the plate, and the ability to hit for average.

The scout gave a Lance Berkman comparison. Berkman was a power-hitting switch-hitter who had a tremendous big-league career.

This draft was heavy on college hitters, and Berry was the first college player taken.

“We’ve always talked about best available,” Ng said. “It just happened to be this year mostly bats, college bats.”

A native of Queen Creek, Ariz., Berry initially attended the University of Arizona in 2021, and he reached the College World Series. When his manager Jay Johnson left Arizona for LSU, Berry followed him to Baton Rouge.

In his sophomore season with the Tigers, he hit .370 with 17 home runs, and walked 27 times, compared to 22 strikeouts.

“One of the coolest memories I think I’ll ever have is going to the College World Series as a freshman last year with Arizona, and playing in front of thousands of fans at LSU every weekend is unbelievable and something I’ll never forget,” Berry told ESPN.

The first day of the MLB Draft was Sunday, and with the first overall pick, the Baltimore Orioles picked Jackson Holliday, the son of former big leaguer, Matt Holliday. With the second pick, Druw Jones, son of ex-big leaguer Andruw Jones, was taken by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The surprise pick was No. 3, when the Texas Rangers picked Kumar Rocker, a first-round choice of the New York Mets in 2021. But Rocker had a medical issue and the Mets didn’t sign him.

Rocker re-entered the draft, and his selection caught many off-guard.

“Prior to our selection, you don’t know what’s going to happen, but you always have to be prepared for a surprise,” Svihlik said. “We talked about it all day [Saturday]. We talked about it [Sunday]. That was a surprise. We didn’t know that would happen, but it happens every single year.

“As you’re preparing for it, you don’t know who the player is going to be. You just usually pencil in, one or two players ahead of you that’s going to force some players to drop.”

That was the case on Sunday. With the fourth pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates took Termarr Johnson and Elijah Green, a University of Miami commitment, went fifth to the Washington Nationals.

With all the top high school players off the board, the Marlins had their pick of college hitters. Berry was an easy call.

“Along with his physical tools, and his ability to impact the ball, you get very excited that those characteristics are going to carry over into professional baseball, and carry him quickly through a system,” Svihlik said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Marlins: LSU's Jacob Berry offers potential early hitting impact