The Marlins’ message to Edward Cabrera, and a look at his first two Triple A starts

When the Miami Marlins demoted right-handed pitcher Edward Cabrera to the minor leagues earlier this month, they gave him a simple task to work on.

“The message,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said on Aug. 1, “is to throw strikes.”

Cabrera, despite his talent, wasn’t doing that lately in the big leagues. In his three starts since returning from a monthlong stint on the injured list, the 25-year-old righty had walked 11 batters through 10 innings, including six in a three-inning outing on July 31 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

On the season as a whole, Cabrera has walked 15.4 percent of the batters he faced — 52 walks to 337 total batters — and had walked at least four batters in seven of 17 starts.

So the Marlins sent him to the Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to give him a chance to reset.

“At this level, where we’re at right now, pound and attack the zone,” Schumaker said. “If he does that down there, you’ll see him back here. ... We can’t go three innings and six walks and that kind of thing.”

Cabrera has done that two starts into his tenure with the Jumbo Shrimp, holding opponents to just two earned runs on five hits and (most importantly) three walks with 13 strikeouts through 12 innings. The two runs he allowed were solo home runs.

At his best, Cabrera has the potential to be a key contributor to the Marlins’ rotation. His fastballs — a four-seam and a sinker — both average 96 mph, and his three secondary pitches (a changeup, curveball and slider) all can induce high swing-and-miss rates when he has his command.

“Cabby’s got good stuff,” Schumaker said Saturday before Cabrera made his second start with Jacksonville. “We’ve said that from Day 1: [If] he throws strikes, he’s going to be one of the better pitchers.”

So how are the Marlins evaluating how he performs in Triple A when deciding when to bring him back up to the big leagues? He is eligible to return to the active roster as early as Wednesday.

“You watch him, [but] you don’t watch the results,” Schumaker said. “When you’re watching him, he’s commanding all of his pitches again, which is what we’re looking for. Hopefully he continues to do that. If he continues to do that and knock the door down, he’ll come back up. And if he goes the other way, we’ll wait until he’s ready.”

Prospect list updates

Both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have updated their top-30 prospect lists following the MLB Draft and trade deadline.

And there’s a lot of movement in the Marlins’ system after they dealt five top prospects — pitchers Jake Eder (in Jake Burger trade) and Sean Reynolds (in Ryan Weathers trade) along with position players Kahlil Watson (in Josh Bell trade), Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez (both in David Robertson trade) — to bolster the MLB roster for a playoff push.

A couple notables:

▪ Both outlets have five members of the Marlins’ 2023 draft class in their top 30 lists: first-round pick right-handed pitcher Noble Meyer (No. 1 for both outlets), competitive balance pick left-handed pitcher Thomas White (No. 2 for MLB Pipeline, No. 3 for Baseball America), second-round pick outfielder Kemp Alderman (No. 8 for Baseball America, No. 9 for MLB Pipeline), third-round pick first baseman Brock Vradenburg (No. 10 for MLB Pipeline, No. 15 for Baseball America) and fifth-round pick left-handed pitcher Andrew Lindsey (No. 17 for MLB Pipeline, No. 18 for Baseball America).

Baseball America also has fourth-round pick left-handed pitcher Emmett Olson (No. 16) and seventh-round pick left-handed pitcher Justin Storm (No. 17) in their top-30.

▪ Switch-hitting utility player Xavier Edwards, who is hitting .374 this season in Triple A, is now a top-five prospect in Miami’s system, with MLB Pipeline ranking him at No. 4 among Marlins prospects and Baseball America pegging him at No. 5.

Two other position players are in the Marlins’ top 10 by both outlets: Outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. (No. 4 for Baseball America, No. 7 for MLB Pipeline) and shortstop Yiddi Cappe (No. 7 for Baseball America, No. 8 for MLB Pipeline).

Beyond those three, however, the two outlets have some noticeable variation with where they placed Miami’s hitters.

MLB Pipeline, for example, has infielder Jacob Berry at No. 5 and shortstop Jacob Amaya ranked sixth. Baseball America, by comparison, has Berry and Amaya at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively.

Baseball America is much higher on shortstop Nasim Nunez (No. 9 compared to MLB Pipeline at No. 18) and utility player Dane Myers (No. 10 compared to MLB Pipeline at No. 14) and has Jordan Groshans ranked No. 12 (MLB Pipeline bumped him from its top-30 list).

This and that

▪ Outfielder Griffin Conine, the son of Mr. Marlin Jeff Conine, was promoted to Triple A Jacksonville last week. In his first four games with the Jumbo Shrimp, Conine hit .333 (5 for 15) with one double, one triple, one RBI and four runs scored.

▪ Troy Johnston continues to impress in Triple A as well. The first baseman is hitting an even .400 (28 for 70) with seven doubles, one triple, four home runs, 18 RBI and 11 runs scored through his first three weeks with the Jumbo Shrimp. He has safely reached base in all 17 games he has played in Triple A, with 10 multi-hit games.