Max Meyer stepped onto the mound Saturday at loanDepot park feeling “a little bit jittery, a little anxious.” He threw his pregame warmup pitches to T.I.’s “What You Know” and did his best to remain even-keeled as his Major League Baseball debut commenced.
He walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the loanDepot park crowd, his first start with the Miami Marlins over with one out in the sixth inning. He spent a short amount of time after the game taking pictures with family, friends and coaches who made their way to Miami — close to 20 people, Meyer estimated — to watch his dream come true.
The No. 3 overall pick from the 2020 MLB Draft, the No. 21 overall prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, showed a lot of promise in his outing against the Philadelphia Phillies. He was generally in the strike zone with all three of his pitches — a fastball that sits between 92 and 95 mph, a wipeout slider and a developing changeup.
He also showed he’s far from a finished product.
Meyer’s final line in the Marlins’ 10-0 blowout loss to the Phillies that drops Miami to 43-47: Five earned runs allowed on seven hits and one walk with five strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. He threw 79 pitches, 53 of which went for strikes.
“He’s like all young pitchers,” Marlins pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said Friday. “He’s going to have to go through it and get to a point where he can figure out where his adjustments are. Every guy I’ve ever had has gone through that process. I love his stuff. I love the competitive nature. This guy wants the ball in big moments. ... He’ll figure things out when he makes mistakes and gets himself in bad counts and bad parts of the zone. [Hitters are] going to let him know, and we’ll go back like we do with all young guys and take a look at that stuff and talk about where our adjustments are. I expect those adjustments to come quick.”
Meyer cruised early and didn’t take long to settle into his rhythm. His first pitch was a 94.7 mph fastball to Kyle Schwarber that landed for a called strike. He struck out his second batter, Rhys Hoskins, after a 10-pitch at-bat, and worked around a one-out Nick Castellanos double by getting Darik Hall to ground out to Jesus Aguilar at first base.
He allowed just two hits the first time against through the Phillies’ lineup and had struck out four of the first 10 batters overall.
And then, with two outs in the fourth inning, he went through his first rough patch as a big leaguer.
A Hall single on a fastball over the heart of the plate. A J.T. Realmuto two-run home run on a fastball over the heart of the plate. A Bryson Stott double on a low changeup. All of a sudden, the Marlins were down 2-0.
“They can definitely hit mistakes better [than in the minor leagues],” Meyer said. “Just have to clean up location.”
Hoskins then added a solo home run on a slider low in the strike zone to lead off the sixth before issuing his first and only walk of the game to Castellanos and a one-out double to Realmuto to end his time on the mound.
Both Castellanos and Realmuto scored when Didi Gregorious hit a two-out single to center field off reliever Richard Bleier. The Phillies (48-43) then scored five more runs in the eighth against Cody Poteet. Miami’s offense, meanwhile, logged just five hits in its seventh shutout loss of the season.
“The fact is the pitches up here, the weight of those and the after-effects of recovering and having to go through the lineups that they have to go here, it’s not a forgiving league,” Stottlemyre said. “We had to let that process kind of run its course down there, too. He’s going to have enough innings to be able to pitch in our rotation and to put himself and the ballclub in a position to try to win games. He’s here to help us win ballgames. We’re going to continue to develop him, and he’s going to learn all that part. But he’s earned it, too. He’s done enough there. He needs another challenge.”
His next challenge: Making the adjustments the next time he takes the mound after the All-Star Break.
And the Marlins still remain optimistic about Meyer’s potential.
The 23-year-old has a career 2.77 ERA in 35 starts in the minor leagues over the past two seasons with 199 strikeouts over 172 innings. He was sidelined for about a month this season while dealing with right ulnar nerve irritation, but has posted a 1.96 ERA (four earned runs allowed in 18 1/3 innings) with 21 strikeouts against five walks in his four starts since returned to Jacksonville following the injury.
But it’s his compete level that most intrigues the coaching staff and his teammates. Even when he faltered on Saturday, he didn’t let the mistakes faze him. He just went back to the mound with a no-nonsense demeanor and focused on the next pitch.
“He’s a good kid,” said catcher Jacob Stallings, who compared Meyer to the San Diego Padres’ Joe Musgrove. “He’s tough, even-keeled, super competitive.”
That will be key as Meyer prepares for Start No. 2.
“Your dream is to get here,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, “and he’s reaching that. ... But there are nerves of how is it going to go? Because you don’t quite know this level. No matter what you’ve been through or what you think you are, you’ve got to deal with this level. That’s always something different. That’s the unknown.”
Meyer got his first taste of the unknown on Saturday.
This story was originally published July 16, 2022 7:06 PM.
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