While the COVID-19 surge that shut down the Miami Marlins for more
than a week was a devastating blow for Don Mattingly's young team it has proven
to be a fortunate break for two former Independent Baseball pitchers and could
help still others.
Hard-throwing James Hoyt and southpaw Brian Moran have new
baseball lives with the Marlins organization that may well not have happened
without the pandemic which stopped nearly 20 Miami players in their tracks.
In these fluid times in the major leagues hardly a day goes by
without transactions that involve those who have been in Indy leagues at some
time, with intriguing recent stories involving Caleb Thielbar's first major
league opportunity in five years and United League/Pecos League find Yermin
Mercedes debut, if only for a day.
Hoyt, who started his professional career in the North American
League and American Association back in 2012, did not make Cleveland's Opening
Day roster and shortly after was designated for assignment by the Indians. He seems to have gotten a break in that he was sold to Miami and is on the
Marlins' active roster. Moran, who has
pitched in the Atlantic League (Bridgeport), had a similar fate after opening
the season with Toronto. He has not been
added to Miami's active roster as yet, but he is on the team's 40-man roster
and at the alternate training site and seems likely to get the opportunity.
Thielbar, now 33, has had a long career jumping back and forth
between the American Association's St. Paul Saints and the Minnesota Twins, and
the left-hander was promoted from the American League team's alternate training
site team to the parent club Monday. He
appeared in 109 games for Minnesota during the period 2013-15 (5-3, 2.74), but
has been back with the Saints since ('16-'17) as well as spending time in the
Detroit and Atlanta farm systems.
The Mercedes story is one of the rare ones in that the catcher
started out with three seasons in the Dominican Summer League followed by 2014
in lower level Independent leagues (United and Pecos). He earned three seasons in the Baltimore farm
system and joined the Chicago White Sox chain in '18, but he did not even reach
Triple-A until last season. The White
Sox had him on the 40-man roster and with their alternate training team until
Sunday when the 5-foot-11, 235-pound hopeful finally got a call to the
majors. Mercedes got one time at bat,
then was sent back to the alternate group.
Hopefully, more opportunities will come along.
Some Other Moves
Boston called up Chris Mazza (Southern Maryland, Atlantic League,
and San Rafael, Pacific Association) to join its struggling mound corps and
another right-hander, Justin Topa (Rockland, Can-Am League), has been promoted
to Milwaukee's alternate training team.
Pitcher Wilmer Font (Ottawa, Can-Am) has been activated from the injured
list by Toronto while catcher Rene Rivera (Camden, Atlantic) and lefty Rich
Hill (Long Island, Atlantic) have gone on 10-day lists of the New York Mets and
Minnesota, respectively.
Two players who were in the newly-created Constellation Energy
League in Sugar Land, TX, have been obtained by major league organizations.
Veteran major league reliever Fernando Rodney has joined Houston's alternate
training team and pitcher-outfielder Brett Eibner has done the same with
Miami. Eibner, who has played the
outfield for three major league teams, was a two-way player for Texas of the
American Association and the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League last
season.
Tampa Bay dropped hurler Trevor Richards (Gateway, Frontier
League) from its active roster, sending him to the alternate training squad.
Stay tuned. More moves are inevitable.
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