Miami Marlins 2023 MLB Draft Review — College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects
Draft Theme: Play To Your Strengths.
For the weeks and months leading up to the draft, the only thing I heard with the Marlins was: we think they are targeting hitters. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, as the Marlins actually took the top two high school pitchers in the class with their first two picks. RHP Noble Meyer and LHP Thomas White represent the top talent in the 2023 pitching class, and Miami has done an excellent job developing arms. Sure, there’s a case to be made that the team could use hitters in the system, but if you do something well what’s the harm in doubling down on it with a pair of first-round talents?
Most Interesting Day 2 Pick: LHP Justin Storm, 7th round
Storm is a towering 6-foot-7, 232-pound presence on the mound who showed one of the best fastball/slider combinations of any lefthander in the country in 2023. A three-year reliever, Storm had a career season this spring, when he posted a 2.36 ERA over 29 appearances and 45.2 innings, with a 38.7% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. He does a nice job missing bats and avoiding hard contact, while attacking hitters from an over-the-top slot with his high-carry fastball and high-spin slider. The fastball sits in the low 90s and has been up to 95, but the pitch plays up thanks to his slot and the 20 inches of induced vertical break on the pitch, helping him generate a 28% whiff rate. His slider is a hard breaking ball in the low-to-mid-80s that is thrown with around 2,500 rpm on average. It was an effective pitch vs. both righties and lefties and Storm showed an ability to manipulate the pitch nicely, with more slurve action against righthanded hitters and more sweeping, horizontal movement against lefties. Storm has a big frame with both big stuff and big performance to go along with it, and could be an exciting power reliever who gets selected on day two.
Most Interesting Day 3 Pick: LHP Tristan Dietrich, 18th round
Dietrich wasn’t at a lot of the big summer showcase events last year. He was mostly throwing in the mid-to-upper 80s at the time, and while the stuff doesn’t blow hitters away now, his physical projection and upside have intrigued scouts this spring. Dietrich has a long, wiry build at 6-foot-4, 190 pounds with a loose arm and doesn’t have much effort to his operation. His fastball has edged up this spring, sitting at 87-90 mph with heavy life and touching 92, with a ton of space to fill out and potentially throw in the mid 90s once he adds another 30 pounds. Dietrich is more projection than present stuff. His slider and curveball can blend together, but he shows feel to spin his breaking stuff with sharp snap at times to where he should be able to miss more bats once he gains more confidence and consistency. There’s some feel for a changeup as well, though it’s behind his other stuff. Like a lot of long-limbed high school pitchers, Dietrich will need to sync up his delivery to throw a lot more strikes, as he’s been prone to bouts of wildness, something scouts highest on him think could improve with strength gains potentially helping his body control.
