Marlins to call up pitcher for MLB debut

The Marlins are going to bring up right-hander Roddery Munoz as the 27th man for Saturday's doubleheader, per Isaac Azout of Fish on First. The righty will be making his major league debut, starting one of the two games of the twin bill.

It’s a belated birthday present for Munoz, who just turned 24 on Sunday. The righty hasn’t been a Marlin for very long, as he came up as a prospect in Atlanta’s system, but since July of last year, he bounced to the Nationals, Pirates and Marlins via waiver claims or cash deals.

The righty had a bit of a breakout in 2022. He made 19 starts at the High-A level that year, with a 4.03 earned run average in his 89 1/3 innings. He struck out 26.9 percent of batters faced while giving out walks at a 9.5 percent clip and getting grounders on 45.6 percent of balls in play. 

He was promoted to Double-A for three starts at the end of the year and allowed 12 earned runs in 11 innings, but the peripheral stats were pretty similar to his High-A work.

Going into 2023, Atlanta put him on its 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America also ranked him the No. 22 prospect in that club’s system. But his results backed up a bit last year, which led to his aforementioned journey around the league’s DFA carousel. He eventually tossed 78 innings at his various stops throughout the year, with a 5.42 ERA in that time. His 23 percent strikeout rate was solid but his 15.1 percent walk rate was quite high.

The Marlins nonetheless took a shot on him and have since seen their starting pitching depth get thinned out. Sandy Alcantara required Tommy John surgery last year and was already known to be unavailable in 2024, but Eury Perez has since followed him down that path. Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett also started the season on the injured list due to injuries, though Cabrera has now returned.

The rotation currently consists of Cabrera, A.J. Puk, Jesus Luzardo, Trevor Rogers and Ryan Weathers, but Thursday's game was rained out, leading to Saturday's doubleheader. 

Since they need a sixth starter to get through this stretch, with no off-day until Thursday, the circumstances will allow Munoz to make his debut. He has tossed 10 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level so far this year but has shown significant control problems, issuing 12 walks to just seven strikeouts.

That perhaps suggests this was mostly an emergency decision. The club also has Max Meyer and Darren McCaughan on the 40-man roster, but Meyer was just optioned to monitor his workload after he missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. 

McCaughan just pitched on Wednesday and would be pitching on short rest if recalled this weekend. Munoz may be in for just one outing before being optioned back to the minors, but it’s undoubtedly an exciting day for him regardless.