Marlins focused on adding talent in MLB Draft. After that, development needs to be the emphasis

When the Miami Marlins are on the clock Sunday with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, their focus, in the words of Marlins senior director of amateur scouting DJ Svilhik said, is to “get players that are going to show up and be good.”

Regardless of the selection — whether it’s a college bat such as Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada, Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee, Campbell University (and Miami Coral Park alum) shortstop Zach Neto or LSU third baseman/outfielder Jacob Berry; a top high school hitter such as IMG Academy outfielder Elijah Green or Atlanta Mays High middle infielder Tremarr Johnson; or if they reach for one of the draft’s top pitchers not expected to go until later in the round — the Marlins are poised once again to add a marquee player into their farm system with their top pick and hope to find more talent throughout the rest of the 20-round draft.

Rounds 1 and 2 will take place on Sunday starting at 7 p.m., with Rounds 3-10 on Monday at 2 p.m. and Rounds 11-20 on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

“All I try to do is provide the resources to [general manager Kim Ng] and her staff to try to put together a great team,” Svihlik said.

But drafting talent is merely the first step. Developing them to the point where they become MLB-caliber players, the ones who can help the team be sustainable and perennial contenders as the Marlins claim is their goal, becomes paramount after that.

That hasn’t fully happened yet.

While 18 of the Marlins’ top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline have been selected during the past three draft cycles that Svihlik has overseen, they are just now about to see their first player from that group make his MLB debut when right-handed pitcher and 2020 first-round pick Max Meyer starts on Saturday against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Meyer will join catcher Nick Fortes, Miami’s fourth-round pick in 2018, as the only players drafted under the new ownership group on the Marlins’ active roster. Meyer will be the 105th player drafted between 2018 and 2020 to make his MLB debut.

This includes 77 players from the 2018 draft including 18 players selected in the first round. Miami’s first-round pick from that draft, 13th overall pick Connor Scott, was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason in a package for catcher Jacob Stallings.

(Marlins 17th-round pick Alex Vesia also briefly made his MLB debut in 2020 before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dylan Floro ahead of 2021 spring training.)

It also includes 22 players from the 2019 draft, including 12 first-round picks and everyone in top seven except for Marlins outfielder and No. 4 overall selection JJ Bleday, who is currently playing in Triple A.

Meyer is the sixth player from the five-round 2020 draft class to get called up.

Svihlik noted that the Marlins’ position-player prospects in the organization as a whole are “probably a little further behind” development-wise when compared to Miami’s pitchers.

“It’s a longer story about why or why not,” Svihlik said. “Sometimes the picks don’t work out like you think they’re gonna work out. Sometimes players just don’t play as well as you think they’re going to play. Still trying to work off some of the [setbacks] from the 2020 shutdown season. You look industry wide and there’s still some of that happening. ... We’re hoping that some of our better players at the top step up and do what they’re supposed to do.”

They will have another player whose name will be among the top of the organization’s talent pool soon enough as well.

Here’s what you need to know about the draft.

How much money do the Marlins have in their bonus pool?

The Marlins have a bonus pool of $10,486,000, the ninth-largest pool this draft and a little more than $1 million above the league average of $9,323,353.

Each team’s bonus pool is determined by the slot values of each pick in the first 10 rounds of the draft. For example, the Marlins’ No. 6 overall pick comes with a slot value of $6,034,300. That’s the signing bonus value MLB gives to a player taken with that pick. Teams are allowed to give a player a signing bonus larger or smaller than the slot value, but the team can’t spend more than 5 percent above its bonus pool — so, for the Marlins, $11,010,300 in total — or else they will lose future draft picks. Also, if a player in the top-10 rounds does not sign, his pick’s value is subtracted from the team’s bonus pool total.

Teams are able to spend up to $125,000 on draft picks in the 11th through 20th rounds without it counting toward their bonus allotment. However, any signing bonus above $125,000 for those selections comes out of the team’s bonus allotment.

Also, as of 2020, non-drafted free agents are limited to $20,000 bonuses.

The Marlins’ draft approach

As Svihlik enters his fourth year as the Marlins’ head man on the amateur scouting side, he said the biggest point of emphasis when it comes to drafting is to “adjust to whatever the market’s providing.”

“You don’t want to reach for something that’s not there,” Svihlik said. “If the market’s providing pitching, you take pitching. If the market’s providing really good college bats, then you try to exhaust that. There’s a lot of conversations that happen where you’re looking at a pocket of players high on the board and you’re trying to ask ‘Does that player exist somewhere else?’ If so, we can go into that pocket of players. So strategy is always a big part of it. Taking the best player available will always be an overarching theme no matter the situation.”

Which players have mock drafts linked to the Marlins?

▪ The Athletic: LSU third baseman/outfielder Jacob Berry

The explanation: “Before the season, the talk was that the Marlins wanted Johnson, Green or [Buford (Georgia) right-handed pitcher Dylan] Lesko. Now it sounds like they’ve soured just enough on Green that they would pass on him, and Lesko got hurt — although I don’t think that precludes an underslot deal here — so if Johnson is gone, they’d be looking at Berry or [Virginia Tech outfielder Gavin] Cross, or a deal with a prep arm like Brandon Barriera.”

▪ ESPN: Atlanta Mays High School middle infielder Tremarr Johnson

The explanation: “Here’s where Termarr lands in this projection, with the Marlins benefiting again from a number of teams passing on a superlative talent like they did with Kahlil Watson last summer. I think this is Johnson’s floor, but if it isn’t then the Cubs at the next pick would be. If Johnson goes No. 1 overall, I think Parada (20 percent) then Berry (25 percent) would be the preference among players who would make it to this pick.”

Baseball America: Johnson

The explanation: “The best pure hitter in the class has a few potential landing spots in this range on the board and in this mock we have the Marlins scooping up a talent that could have easily gone sooner—similar to a year ago with Kahlil Watson, though the two are very different players.”

MLB.com’s Jim Callis: Jacob Berry

The explanation: “The Marlins are mostly tied to college bats: Berry, [Georgia Tech catcher Kevin] Parada, [Cal Poly shortstop Brooks] Lee and Virginia Tech outfielder Gavin Cross. Don’t rule out Johnson or a discount deal so they can go big in later rounds.”

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo: Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee

The explanation: “It’s still mostly college bats we’re hearing here. In this scenario, that means Lee or someone like Jacob Berry, with Lee getting the edge.”