Owen

Caissie

While it’s not yet confirmed, it’s expected that this will end the 24-year-old outfielder’s 2026 campaign. Xavier Edwards was activated from the injured list in a corresponding move on Sunday.

Esteury Ruiz replaced him against the Dodgers. Caissie walked and scored a run in his lone plate appearance before leaving.

The Marlins are using a pretty strict platoon lineup these days. Ramírez will DH and hit third, while Ruiz will play right field and bat fifth, and Serna will play second base and hit eighth. Kyle Stowers will shift to the bench for this one, as will Owen Caissie and Graham Pauley, who all play primarily versus righties.

Caissie missed time earlier this week with neck spasms, but has been available off the bench. The 24-year-old is in right field and hitting sixth against his former team in Miami on Saturday afternoon.

It was the only run they’d score and one of just three hits they found against Ashcraft, it was a 402-foot shot to right-center. Caissie is hitting .175/.244/.400 in his last 15 games with 17 strikeouts in 40 at-bats, but he’s getting more runway of late with Liam Hicks traded and Kyle Stowers on the injured list.

There was some expectation that this would happen after Liam Hicks was traded to Tampa Bay, but it’s still a bit of a surprise. Hicks was being used primarily as a designated hitter with Joe Mack entrenched as the catcher, so Ramírez will either be a short-side platoon at catcher or the designated hitter, or a little bit of both. The consequence of that would be that one of Griffin Conine, Heriberto Hernandez, or Owen Caissie will no longer be penciled in as the full-time designated hitter in the wake of Hicks’ trade.

Caissie has been a borderline mixed-league relevant fantasy outfielder, delivering top-75 range value in his Marlins debut, hitting .239/.297/.459 with 12 homers, 50 RBI and four steals across 246 plate appearances. The 24-year-old former top prospect homered twice during a three-game minor league rehab assignment and had left the yard three times in his final seven games prior to hitting the shelf with a calf strain back in early July. He was never been a huge power threat as a prospect, but he’s probably going to reach 20 round-trippers in his first extended opportunity at the highest level. That’ll work for fantasy managers.

It’s great to see the power from Caissie, but we know he possesses that in spades. Seeing him come back from his injury and command the strike zone the way he did is really nice to see. He was used as the DH in this game, so we’ll likely need to see him play the outfield at least once before he could be an option to be activated from the injured list.

Caissie is expected to play three games at Triple-A and then be evaluated from there, so he might return to the Marlins this weekend. In his last 20 games before getting hurt, Caissie was hitting .320/.368/.720 with six home runs, 11 runs scored, 15 RBI and one steal. He did still have a 21/4 K/BB ratio, and strikeouts might always be an issue for him, but he was making the most of his contact and could continue to provide power for the Marlins and fantasy teams down the stretch.

Caissie had been swinging in the cage without an issue but has now progressed to on-field batting practice. The next step would presumably be facing live pitching before potentially beginning a rehab assignment. Those rehab games could start as soon as next week, and he could be back in Miami by the middle of August if all goes well.