As Marlins wrap up draft, four players from class to watch beyond top pick Noble Meyer

After three days and 21 total selections, the Miami Marlins’ 2023 MLB Draft has come to an end.

And if draft prognosticators are to be believed, the Marlins had a successful three days.

Entering the final day of the draft Tuesday, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel listed the Marlins as one of two teams that “nailed the draft” through the first two days, which consisted of the first 10 rounds — the timeframe that typically produces the best prospects to potentially reach the big leagues.

Miami began the draft by selecting arguably the top two high school pitchers available — right-handed pitcher Noble Meyer at No. 10, left-handed pitcher Thomas White at No. 35 — before selecting nine consecutive college players (five pitchers, four position players) over the rest of the first 10 rounds. Miami capped the draft by taking six more pitchers, two more position players and a pair of two-way players on Day 3, nine of whom were from the college ranks.

“The best organizations at drafting get their various departments on the same page, then settle on a point of view on what they scout and develop well — then lean into that as hard as they can,” McDaniel wrote. “In the MLB draft, creating value is the name of the game, not trying to fill big league holes; you can use trades and free agency to do that. So, sure, the Marlins could panic that they haven’t picked or produced a ton of solid-average position players in the draft. But instead, they realized that they create value more reliably with high-ceiling pitchers and leaned hard into that.”

While Meyer and White will command most of the discussion from this group, there are other notable names and stories from this year’s crop of Marlins selections that are worth noting.

Here are three of them.

Right-handed pitcher Andrew Lindsey

At this time a year ago, Andrew Lindsey wasn’t playing baseball.

After beginning his college career with two seasons at Walters State Community College and a third at Charlotte, he gave up the sport and took the 2022 season off. During that time, he returned home to New Johnsonville, Tennessee, and took a temporary job helping with flood relief in nearby Waverly.

He eventually got back into the game by coaching a youth baseball team, which helped him rediscover his desire to play again. He pitched in the Appalachian League that summer before landing at Tennessee for the 2023 season.

Lindsey started the season in the bullpen before moving into the Volunteers’ rotation. He finished the season with a 2.90 ERA and 73 strikeouts against 19 walks over 71 1/3 innings.

His fastball sits between 93-95 mph and has topped out at 98. His slider is in the high 80s and has hit 91. He also has a curveball and changeup to round out his four-pitch arsenal.

“By the time he rebounded and came back this year, it was almost like scouting him from scratch a little bit,” Marlins senior director of amateur scouting DJ Svihlik said. “He improved a ton, did a lot of work in the bullpen for them, and then eventually took over the Friday-night role from [Chase] Dollander, who went [ninth overall] yesterday. A very, very competitive kid, very motivated kid. To watch him take on this Friday-night role and develop into this starting pitcher that he developed into, it allowed us to have a lot of confidence in him. We saw him late, all the way down the stretch, and we were very, very happy to get a guy like Lindsey here in the fifth round.”

Two-way players Colson Lawrence and Ryan Ignoffo

The Marlins used a pair Day 3 picks to select two-way player. In the 13th round, Miami drafted Colson Lawrence, who was both a right-handed pitcher and and an outfielder at South Alabama. And then with their final pick, they took Eastern Illinois’ Ryan Ignoffo in the 20th round.

Lawrence spent one year at South Alabama, hitting .257 with a .542 slugging mark, 11 home runs, 34 RBI and 31 runs scored over 144 at-bats. He also pitched 16 2/3 innings over 11 relief appearances, logging three saves and striking out 22 batters against four walks with a 2.70 ERA.

Prior to transferring to South Alabama in 2023, Lawrence played two seasons at Wallace State Community College-Hanceville, where he tossed the school’s first-ever perfect game and had three complete games overall in 2022. Offensively, he tallied 22 doubles, 25 home runs, 79 RBI, 100 runs scored and 29 stolen bases over two seasons.

Ignoffo hit .347 over his five years at Eastern Illinois with 36 home runs, 138 RBI and 126 runs scored over 144 games. He also made 36 appearances on the mound, striking out 86 batters over 68 2/3 innings.

Left-handed pitcher Tristan Dietrich

Amid all the college selections over the final two days of the draft, the Marlins dipped their toes into the high school ranks for one pick: Left-handed pitcher Tristan Dietrich out of Owen J. Roberts High in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

Dietrich, an FIU commit, participated in the MLB Draft combine last month and was actually listed as a top-100 prospect in this draft cycle by the Athletic, checking in at No. 98 on Keith Law’s list.

As a senior, he pitched to a 2.04 ERA over 24 innings pitched with 55 strikeouts.

His scouting report, via the Athletic: “Dietrich is a very lanky, projectable lefty who started to see his stuff tick upward this spring from the upper 80s last summer, now bumping 92-93, while he already had good feel for a tight slider and a pretty good delivery that at least gives a starting point to project on the command. He’s 6-4 and all arms and legs right now, with a very low-effort delivery and great feel to spin the ball. You can dream on this body and the ease with which he works right now, hoping it’s mid-90s in two or three years once he’s added 30 pounds to his frame and worked with better coaches.”

Full Marlins draft class

▪ 1 (10): Portland (Oregon) Jesuit right-handed pitcher Noble Meyer

▪ CB-A (35): Andover (Massachusetts) Phillips Academy left-handed pitcher Thomas White

▪ 2 (47): Ole Miss outfielder Kemp Alderman

▪ 3 (78): Michigan State first baseman Brock Vradenburg

▪ 4 (110): Nebraska left-handed pitcher Emmett Olson

▪ 5 (146): Tennessee right-handed pitcher Andrew Lindsey

▪ 6 (173): Georgia Tech outfielder Jake DeLeo

▪ 7 (203): Southern Mississippi left-handed pitcher Justin Storm

▪ 8 (233): Vanderbilt right-handed pitcher Nick Maldonado

▪ 9 (263): Oregon outfielder Colby Shade

▪ 10 (293): North Carolina A&T right-handed pitcher Xavier Meachem

▪ 11 (323): UCLA right-handed pitcher Jake Brooks

▪ 12 (353): Houston right-handed pitcher Josh Ekness

▪ 13 (383): South Alabama outfielder/right-handed pitcher Colson Lawrence

▪ 14 (413): UNLV left-handed pitcher Jack Sellinger

▪ 15 (443): Maryland right-handed pitcher Nigel Belgrave

▪ 16 (473): Seton Hall left-handed pitcher Kevin Vaupel

▪ 17 (503): Rhode Island outfielder Mark Coley II

▪ 18 (533): Pottstown (Pennsylvania) Owen J. Roberts High left-handed pitcher Tristan Dietrich

▪ 19 (563): USC third baseman Johnny Olmstead

▪ 20 (593): Eastern Illinois outfielder Ryan Ignoffo