Janson

Junk

Junk was incredibly efficient, throwing 78 percent of his first pitches for strikes and piling up a 34 percent CSW. He leaned on his four-seamer more than usual in this one and got 17 percent whiffs on it despite it not having the usual vertical movement that we’ve seen this season. However, it was around the zone all day, and then he picked up whiffs with his changeup. This may have more to do with the offense he was facing than anything, but Junk has been solid this season and remains on the streamer radar. You just may want to avoid it next week against the Dodgers.

Junk pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless ball, but loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. After putting Luis Rengifo on first via an HBP, Junk then allowed a single to Garrett Mitchell, which scored Gary Sanchez from third. An RBI by Greg Jones on a fielder’s choice, followed by Rengifo coming around to score on a throwing error, suddenly gave the Brewers a 3-0 lead. Junk would return to pitch a scoreless fifth and was pulled with one out in the sixth inning after walking Jake Bauers and allowing an RBI double to Rengifo to bring home Bauers on the next at-bat. Junk has allowed three earned runs or fewer in three of his four starts. His next start is scheduled for Wednesday against the Cardinals.

Junk’s velocity spike disappeared on a 52-degree day in Detroit; he averaged 92.8 mph with his fastball, down from 95.4 and 94.5 in his first two starts. We’ll find out whether it was an aberration when he returns home to face the Brewers next week. He’s now 0-2 with a 4.32 ERA through three starts, and his spot might soon be in danger with Braxton Garrett performing well in Triple-A.

Junk tallied three strikeouts and limited Cincinnati’s strong lineup to just seven hits, including an eighth-inning homer by Tyler Stephenson, and required an extremely efficient 87 pitches (57 strikes) to work into the eighth. The 30-year-old righty has looked like a different pitcher this season, with his fastball velocity up nearly two mph from last year, averaging 94.5 mph in this one, while also featuring a kick changeup to neutralize left-handers and a gyro slider to combat right-handers. He’ll carry a solid 3.09 ERA, 1.20 WHIP and 8/2 K/BB ratio across 11 2/3 innings into a road matchup against the Tigers on Saturday to close out a two-start week.

Junk finished with five strikeouts and only issued one walk. He gave up five hits with run-scoring singles by Munetaka Murakami and Andrew Benintendi accounting for all the damage against him. He didn’t stick around long enough to qualify for a win in his season debut. He’ll square off against the Reds at home on Monday in his next outing.

We’d really like to know what Braxton Garrett looked like outside of his two official spring appearances — when he showed the best velocity of his career and posted a 64% groundball rate while giving up four runs in four innings — and a decent March 3 outing against Team Israel to result in him losing a rotation spot to Junk, who has now finished the spring 0-3 with a 10.13 ERA. Junk did solid enough work last year, and his spring ERA doesn’t really matter much at all. However, he’s probably best utilized going once around a lineup in middle relief.

Junk beat out Braxton Garrett for the final spot and will pitch the fifth game of the season on Tuesday, March 31 against the White Sox. Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Max Meyer and Chris Paddack will pitch in the first four games for the Marlins.

Garrett, 28, was expected to have one of the final spots in the Miami rotation, but he didn’t show enough in the Grapefruit League for that to become official. Janson Junk will instead be the fifth starter for the Marlins, and it’s likely Garrett will be up with the Fish at some point this spring.

Zack Littell was scheduled to take the hill opposite Braxton Garrett, who is vying for the final spot in Miami’s rotation along with Janson Junk. Littell worked three innings last Friday in his spring debut. He’ll presumably get his work in during a bullpen session to stay on schedule for the start of the year.

Snelling’s path to a spot in Miami’s season-opening rotation spot evaporated following the addition of Chris Paddack earlier this spring but he still looked sharp in a handful of Grapefruit League outings. It’ll come down to either Braxton Garrett or Janson Junk for the final spot in the rotation. The 22-year-old southpaw is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and should be fantasy relevant once he arrives in the big leagues given his strikeout upside and pitcher-friendly home ballpark. He’s a name to keep on early-season watch lists, especially in deeper mixed leagues.