Marlins’ Tanner Scott has been one of MLB’s top relievers in 2023. How he got to that point

When Tanner Scott isn’t striking out hitters with his wipeout slider or maneuvering through a high-leverage situation as the Miami Marlins’ setup man out of the bullpen, his mind is focused on another task.

In about a month, Scott and wife Maddie are due to have their first child, a baby boy the two have affectionately referred to as their “chicken nugget” since shortly after Maddie found out she was pregnant.

Maddie’s due date is Sept. 30, so the arrival of their son could come right as the Marlins are finishing up a push for the playoffs. Miami entered its Thursday off day before a six-game West Coast trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in a three-way tie with the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds for the National League’s third wild card spot with 40 games left to play.

“It’s great,” Scott said. “I mean, if you see me right now, I usually never have my phone on me, but now my phone’s on all the time just in case. She’ll call me and I’ll be look ‘Hey are you good? Are you going anywhere.” She goes ‘No. I’m just calling to see what you’re doing.’ She’s kind of messing with me a little bit. It’s getting surreal. All the baby stuff and all the gits that people have been getting us, it’s getting real.”

What has also been real over the past few months: Scott’s value to the Marlins’ bullpen.

While the 29-year-old lefty isn’t the Marlins’ closer — that role was first A.J. Puk’s and has since been given to David Robertson after his acquisition ahead of the trade deadline — Scott has been arguably not only their most reliable relief pitcher this season but also one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball this season.

Through games played Wednesday, Scott ranks fourth among all MLB relievers with 1.8 wins above replacement, behind only the Baltimore Orioles’ Felix Bautista (2.6), the Pittsburgh Pirates’ David Bednar (2.0) and the Texas Rangers’ Aroldis Chapman (2.0).

He’s striking out more batters than ever before (a career-high 35.7 percent strikeout rate) and walking fewer batters than before (a career-low 10.1 percent walk rate) while pitching to a 2.73 ERA and holding opponents to a .201 batting average against over 56 innings in 55 relief appearances this year.

Manager Skip Schumaker called Scott “arguably our best guy in the bullpen.”

“I’m guessing the industry has an idea of what he has as far as when you’re scouting him,” Schumaker said, “but because he’s not in the ninth inning closer role ... a lot of people don’t know the name, but he’s as good as anybody in the league.”

The metrics back that up.

Outside of walk rate, he ranks in the top-10 percentile this season of just above every key pitching metric Statcast offers.

Fastball spin rate (2,605 revolutions per minute) and expected slugging against (.261) 99th percentile.

Strikeout rate (35.7 percent) and barrel percentage allowed (2.5 percent)? 98th percentile.

Hard-hit rate allowed (27.5 percent) and expected ERA (2.56)? 97th percentile.

Chase rate (35 percent), swing-and-miss rate (35.5 percent) and average exit velocity allowed (85.5 mph)? 96th percentile.

Expected batting average against (.198)? 92nd percentile.

He has held opponents scoreless in 43 of 55 outings and allowed multiple runs just five times this season.

“And we’re putting him in really tough situations,” Schumaker said. “He’s getting the meat of the order every time he’s out there and he’s still doing what he’s doing.”

How is he doing what he’s doing? It starts with improved command. He’s filling up the strike zone more, something he had problems doing earlier in his career.

While his pure stuff is undeniable — a fastball that averages 96.5 mph and a slider that generates swing and miss — Scott regularly was among the worst in baseball when it came to walks. He ranked among the bottom-two percentile in qualified pitchers in walk rate in both 2021 and 2022 when he issued free passes to 14.7 percent and 15.9 percent of the batters he faced respectively.

This year, Scott has thrown nearly half of his pitches in the strike zone — a career-high 49.9 percent. His first-pitch strike rate this season is 68.8 percent, well above his career average of 57.5 percent.

“Just trying to attack from first pitch,” Scott said. “First-pitch strikes have really been a big thing. That’s what we talk about in our pitcher’s meetings. We try to go out there and attack. The count is much different when you start 0-1 instead of 1-0.”