The Marlins announced this afternoon that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Eli Villalobos. Right-hander Darren McCaughan was designated for assignment in the corresponding move. If Villalobos appears in a game with the club, it’ll be his major league debut.
Villalobos, 26, came up through Miami’s minor league system and was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November 2022 to protect him from the upcoming Rule 5 Draft but found himself squeezed off the club’s roster early in the 2023 season, at which point he was claimed by the Pirates. He was later DFA’d by the Pirates to make room for top prospect Henry Davis on their 40-man roster and was promptly claimed by the Marlins in late June, ending his three-month sojourn out of the organization. Villalobos was once again designated for assignment by Miami shortly thereafter but this time cleared waivers and was outrighted to the minor leagues, where he has remained ever since.
Now, Villalobos will once again get a spot on the Marlins’ 40-man roster and this time will receive an active roster spot to go with it. The right-hander is more or less a pure relief prospect who hasn’t started a game since the 2019 season but has been relief on for multi-inning appearances at the Triple-A level this year, where he’s pitched to a 4.73 ERA in 13 1/3 innings of work across nine appearances while topping out at 51 pitches in a single outing. That ability to pitch multiple innings could make Villalobos a long relief option for the Marlins behind today’s starter, Sixto Sanchez, who is still building up his pitch count and threw just 68 pitches last time out.
It’s a role that McCaughan occupied with the club in recent days. The 28-year-old was a 12th-round pick by the Mariners in the 2017 draft and pitched fourteen innings for his original club from 2021 to 2023 before joining the Marlins this offseason. He was selected to the club’s roster last week to fill the role of long man in the bullpen and struggled through 4 2/3 innings against Oakland last night, allowing eight runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out just two. The brutal outing brings his career ERA at the big league level to 9.16, and the righty’s 5.26 ERA in 89 career games at the Triple-A level inspires little confidence in his ability to be more than a depth option at the big league level going forward. The Marlins will have one week to trade McCaughan or attempt to pass the righty through waivers.
Living La Villalobos?
We have a winner.
What bothers me is that they were a playoff team last year, fire a baseball person to put a person in who has read a book or two about baseball, watched a few movies and passed a Quantum Physics class. Only successful hire out of the Rays organization for the FO has been Friedman and if he didn’t have the LA money how good would he actually be
Worst comment I’ve ever read. How good would Friedman be? You do realize he came from an organization that didn’t have any money and was consistently kicking the crap out of the rest of the division, right?
Well said @Chemo850.
Two things wrong with this person’s post. What you pointed out about Friedman with the Rays. And also, what I have kept calling out – all the posters who clearly are listening to uninformed national misinformation that tries to make Kim Ng a GM that didn’t do a poor job for us with many gaffes. I’m sorry, while it is fair to question the Bendix hiring due to the early performance, but there is no reason for anyone to question the departure of Kim Ng or Sherman bringing in someone above her considering her many failed moments, and the fact that prior to the start of the 2023 season, it was a foregone conclusion that she would be fired or not renewed after her poor performance filled with some hits and many misses all the way until her garbage bullpen had its fluke 2023 performance and actually held leads they were given, unlike the previous seasons in which they blew nearly every lead in sight…like they have returned back to doing again this season.
These posters don’t realize that, to Marlins fans and people informed about the real situation under Ng’s time here, making statements like Ng did a good job or is a loss to the Marlins = I’m a misinformed idiot that likes saying incorrect things based on assumptions or regurgitating stuff I heard elsewhere from sources providing misinformation. And the best part, not one single one of them can offer support to their statement after they make statements like this, which then gives the odor of trolling with those statements.
Let’s see if this person becomes the first to try to explain why he feels letting Kim Ng go was a mistake or bad thing. I bet, like the many others, this person too will have nothing because this person will look up Ng’s history here, have that “oops” moment, then go silent like the rest who have done the same thing.
They were barely a playoff team and won some obscene percentage of one run games. I don’t think it’s shocking that they weren’t gonna be one this year. But yeah, Bendix wasn’t the answer to Miami’s problems. In fact, they were fine with a GM and nothing else last year. So they lost their good GM to hire someone in a position that was vacant last year.
They lost their good GM? I thought it was Kim Ng that left us. Who was the good GM that we lost?
Heard his mom was a taxi driver in L.A. One night, she picked up a boxer who fled a fight he was supposed to take a dive in (but didn’t and made a ton of cash).
Wasn’t that same boxer later seen in Harlem, NY holding an offensive sign?
Why is it that when posters try to paint a picture like Kim Ng was a good GM or it was a mistake or bad thing for the Marlins to let her get away, those posters go silent after they get called out on how incorrect that thought process is? People debate many things here all the time, but go silent every time when it comes to making these statements and being called out or challenged about it. Can it be that after being called out on it, you all actually go back to check the facts about Kim Ng’s performance as the Marlins GM and you all have that “oops” moment and realize how ridiculous your statement was, so you have nothing to offer to defend your statements, so you have to go silent and abandon your stance? I bet it is.
@BannedMarlinsFanBase
Bendix was brought in to build a strong foundation for the future: a powerful minor league system, solid international signings, smart trades, better assessments and player evaluations. In other words, all of the things that Derek Jeter/Gary Denbo/Kim Ng failed to accomplish – because they were clueless, inexperienced, and incapable. They were in over their heads. I’m glad they’re gone, and I know a lot of Marlins fans who feel the same way. But you won’t see that on ESPN.
Yep, that about sizes it up.
And ESPN never will say anything positive about Miami/South Florida teams. Marlins…nope. Dolphins…nope. Panthers…nope. University of Miami…nope. Even the Heat, it’s a truggle for them to give praise, almost looking constipated when they have to talk about “Heat Culture” like it was something new. I remember LeBron was so loved when ESPN thought he was headed to NY, Chicago or Boston, and “The Decision” was going to be great. The minute word got out that he was leaning toward Miami, all of the sudden, “The Decision” was a bad idea and LeBron was a ring chaser who was more Robin than Batman the second he said he was “taking his talents to South Beach”…and they also set the Heat Index when they were giving other places like NY, LA, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, etc. ESPN sites dedicated to those cities. ESPN has proven to be a joke to all of the parts of the country and the world that they don’t care for.