The Miami Marlins' scouting department has traveled the country over the past year in preparation for this moment. Hundreds of high school seniors and college baseball players have been reviewed, graded and placed on a list.
All of their work will come down to these next three days.
The three-day 2019 MLB draft begins at 7 p.m. Monday, and for a rebuilding Marlins organization, making the right selections in the wildly uncertain draft will be critical for them to get back to a competitive level with the rest of MLB.
The Marlins have the No. 4 overall pick and three of the top 46 picks overall _ pick No. 35 in the first competitive balance round and pick No. 46 in the second round.
And while success in the early portion of the draft is key, finding diamonds in the rough later on is just as valuable.
"It's our expectation to reshape part of our organization," Marlins amateur scouting director DJ Svihlik said. "Every draft is important. Every pick is important. Not just the first round. We want to win the whole thing. Expectations are high every year regardless of where we pick."
Nevertheless, the Marlins are in a prime spot to pick up a quality player at No. 4. Vanderbilt outfielder JJ Bleday and Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn are the top college position players likely to be available at No. 4 with Arizona State outfielder Hunter Bishop also an option if the Marlins want to take a player they could potentially sign for a lower signing bonus. Georgia-based shortstop CJ Abrams, Oviedo, Fla., outfielder Riley Greene and Seattle-based outfielder Corbin Carroll are the likely contenders among prep players.
The Marlins are open to picking either a college player or a prep player with their first pick.
"Usually the guys you start talking about in any draft, the collegiate players that move toward the top of the draft, they're usually guys that you consider to be pretty fast movers," Svihilik said, "but that's not to short change the high schoolers. You look at some of the best high school players in the game and they move just as fast a lot of times."
From there, the Marlins plan to take a "best player available" approach for the remainder of the draft. Rounds 1 and 2 are on Monday, with Rounds 3-10 taking place on Tuesday and Rounds 11-40 closing out the draft on Wednesday.
"We put in a lot of thought, time and effort into it with the guys that are here. A lot of work. A lot of detail," Marlins part owner and CEO Derek Jeter said. "When you talk about the draft, that's your opportunity to infuse the organization with a lot of talent, so with a lot of these decisions, we have to make sure we get them right. There are mistakes along the way. Every organization makes mistakes, but you want to have as much information as possible to limit those mistakes."
And with more than a year of work going into setting up this draft, the Marlins are hoping for more hits than misses.
"DJ and his staff have done a tremendous job and scouted the entire country," Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. "We have a pretty good idea of what we like, but as you know there are three clubs that pick in front of us. When our time is ready to select, we'll be ready to add our next Marlin."
