Jakob

Marsee

It’s a bizarre-looking lineup from manager Clayton McCullough with Ramírez entering the leadoff spot while Jakob Marsee draws out of the lineup for the first time this season. Esteury Ruiz is making his first start of the year in center field. The 24-year-old power/speed combo backstop is off to a frosty start at the dish, hitting .226/.298/.366 with two homers, 12 RBI and one steal through 25 games.

Marsee brought in one run with a walk in the second inning and then drove in another with an RBI single in the fourth. He’s gotten off to a slow start this season, but he’s making an elite amount of contact and walking at a really high rate. He may be putting the ball in the air too much, but this is the profile of a hitter who should be producing at a higher level. We may be starting to see that since he’s 4-for-8 with three RBI and one home run over his last two games. He also has nine steals on the season and should be added if he was dropped in any formats.

Marsee’s homer was almost too low to get out, but it was a 110.9 mph rocket to right. That’s two mph better than his previous hardest hit ball this year. With two singles afterwards, he raised his season average from .149 to .176 tonight.

Marsee also drew a walk for a three-reach game. The 24-year-old has already swiped eight bags, which has helped compensate for — but not erase — a slash of .174/284/.246 over the first 18 games of the season. That’s a 72-steal pace, and while that high of number is unlikely, it’s not out of the question for someone who runs like Marsee.

You couldn’t script a worse start to a season than Marsee’s so far. After bursting onto the scene late last year with a contact-oriented approach and excellent bat-to-ball skills, he’s been lost thus far with a .148 batting average, .458 OPS, and zero home runs. If not for a four-steal game earlier this week, he’d have delivered no value whatsoever to this point. While he’s a bit fly ball happy at the moment, nothing else under the hood appears to be much different from last season when he was far more productive. Don’t give up hope yet. Just don’t be surprised if the Marlins move him from the lead-off spot to try and take a little pressure off.

It’s taken a little while to get going, but Marsee has recorded back-to-back multi-hit performances to get his batting average back near the Mendoza Line. The 24-year-old center fielder is once again starting to resemble the impactful fantasy contributor that exploded onto the scene last year. At a bare minimum, he should be a solid steals source.

Marsee went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a walk, as well. The four steals brings his total to five, and the 24-year-old still hasn’t been caught in his MLB career after going 14-for-14 in 2025 over 55 games. Marsee has been awful prior to Tuesday, but the ability to swipe bases was readily apparent Tuesday.

Norby draws another start at first base with slugging prospect Deyvison De Los Santos on the bench after Christopher Morel (oblique) hit the injured list. The other notable development for the Marlins is Jakob Marsee shifting back to his typical spot atop Miami’s lineup after lefty-masher Austin Slater got the nod to face Rockies southpaw Kyle Freeland on Opening Day earlier this week.

Apparently the Marlins preferred Austin Slater in the leadoff spot against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland. The (righty-heavy) lineup against Freeland is: Slater, C Agustín Ramírez, Marsee, SS Otto Lopez, 1B Christopher Morel, DH Connor Norby, LF Heriberto Hernández, 2B Xavier Edwards, and 3B Javier Sanoja.

Marsee fouled a ball off his foot during his final at-bat of the contest and was lifted for a defensive replacement in the fourth inning. It’s possible he was lifted out of an abundance of caution since the Marlins are dealing with injuries to both Kyle Stowers (hamstring) and Esteury Ruiz (oblique) already this week. There should be an update on his status shortly.