On Sunday, Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill confirmed -- via Craig Davis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel -- that first base prospect Josh Naylor cut with a knife the thumb of outfield prospect Stone Garrett at an apartment in North Carolina. Hill described the incident as a “prank gone bad” as opposed to a fight.
Garrett will undergo surgery to repair his thumb and will be out an undetermined amount of time.
Garrett is represented by Reynolds Sports Management, who issued a statement on his behalf on Tuesday:
It’s particularly interesting that Reynolds chose to explicitly say that Garrett was “not a willing participant” and the injury wasn’t a result of “horseplay of any kind,” He emphasized that the two players aren’t roommates, which was what had been reported at the time. This calls into question Hill’s classification of the incident as a “prank gone bad.”
Naylor, 18, was selected in the first round (12th overall) by the Marlins in last year’s draft. Garrett, 20, was picked in the eighth round of the 2014 draft. Both were playing for Single-A Greenboro.