PHOENIX — The timing made sense. The Miami Marlins needed a pitcher to start Wednesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. Right-handed pitcher Cody Poteet, the Marlins’ fourth-round pick in 2015 who impressed at the alternate site over the past month and in his first Triple A start, was available and on regular rest.
“Our guys thought,” Mattingly said, “that he deserved at least a shot.”
Poteet made the most of that shot in the Marlins’ 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks, a victory that snapped Miami’s four-game losing streak.
The 26-year-old right-handed pitcher threw five strong innings in his MLB debut, holding Arizona (17-20) to two runs on four hits. He struck out six and didn’t issue a walk.
He became just the third starting pitcher in Marlins history to pitch at least five innings and not allow a walk in his MLB debut. Anibal Sanchez (June 25, 2006) and Sixto Sanchez (Aug. 22, 2020) are the others.
While Poteet is not currently one of the Marlins’ top prospects, he was one of their better prospects when he was drafted and has been on the club’s radar as a potential call-up lately.
Poteet has a career 3.84 ERA over 99 minor-league games (95 starts), with 400 strikeouts over 510 2/3 innings.
He dominated in his first start of the season with the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, giving up just one earned run on three hits and two walks over 5 2/3 innings while striking out 10 batters.
“Cody Poteet was averaging 96 miles an hour in his first start — in a start,” Marlins assistant general manager Dan Greenlee told the Miami Herald last weekend, “and his curveball has always been a good weapon.”
For comparison, Poteet’s fastball generally sat between 90 and 92 mph when he was drafted out of UCLA in 2015.
The fastball was his go-to pitch on Wednesday. He threw it 41 times, topping out at 96.8 mph, and recorded four of his six strikeouts with the pitch. The other two strikeouts came on a slider.
“We liked what we saw in spring,” Mattingly said. “We felt like he was a guy that had a pretty good mix, had a good idea of what he wanted to do, locates the ball well and threw the ball well in his first [minor-league] outing.”
The Marlins (16-20) are still searching for consistency in their starting pitcher rotation beyond the main three of Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and Trevor Rogers with Elieser Hernandez (right biceps) and Sixto Sanchez (right shoulder) sidelined with injuries.
Daniel Castano and Nick Neidert both struggled in their initial attempts and are now playing in Triple-A. Jordan Holloway, after a strong start to the season out of the bullpen, made his first MLB start on Monday with mixed results. The Marlins have also used their share of bullpen days early in the season.
“You don’t know what to expect from guys that weren’t really considered to make your club,” Mattingly said, “but you did think they would pitch better and more consistently. I guess probably a little frustrating for us but still knowing those guys are capable of doing that and we need to count on the depth in the organization, of having those guys, because you’re not always going to be injury free. Things aren’t always going to work out perfectly. You’re going to need depth in your organization. Those starts have not been what we wanted for the most part, but we’ve got to believe that they’re going to get better and their starts are going to get better and we’re also going to get some guys back.”
Now, Poteet is the next player with a chance to lock down a spot.
He impressed with his command and mixed in just enough of his other pitches — 13 changeups, 10 curveballs, nine sliders and four two-seam fastballs — to keep his four-seam fastball effective.
He preserved the early lead given to him by a pair of home runs from Jesus Aguilar in the first and Sandy Leon in the second.
He gave up a run in the first when a David Peralta chopper deflected off Jon Berti’s glove and bounced into left field for a double. He gave up a second on a solo home run in the fifth to pinch-hitter Andrew Young. In between, he retired 13 of 14 batters he faced — including striking out four consecutive batters at one point.
“He has good control, consistently works down in the zone and keeps the ball in the park,” reads MLB Pipeline’s scouting report on Poteet. “Poteet’s mature arsenal and pitchability bode well for him becoming a big league starter. Should that not pan out, though, the fastball-slider combo should make him an effective reliever, one capable of working multiple frames.”
Baseball America in 2017 wrote that Poteet “profiles as a back-end starter and has been compared to Tom Koehler, albeit with less velocity, and Mike Leake.”
Greenlee, who joined the Marlins’ front office prior to the 2018 season as their director of player personnel, credited former Marlins amateur scouting director Stan Meek for finding Poteet and convincing the Marlins to draft him. Greenlee noted that Meek “was always just fantastic at pitcher evaluation.” Other pitchers the Marlins drafted when Meek was in charge between 2002 and 2018 included Rogers, Jose Fernandez, Braxton Garrett, Chris Paddack and Brad Hand.
“He had the report on Cody Poteet. He was the high guy and kind of holding on to that one,” Greenlee said. “It always makes you think when Stan’s high on somebody because he’s just so gifted at projecting pitching and projecting stuff. To see Cody excelling I guess through that lens is not entirely surprising because he’s one of many pitching products from Stan Meek that has blossomed into really talented players.”
Poteet is the second Marlins pitcher to make his MLB debut this road trip. Luis Madero threw three combined innings on Monday and Tuesday against the Diamondbacks. Madero, who the Marlins signed to a minor-league deal this offseason before calling him up on Sunday, threw two scoreless innings in Monday’s 5-2 loss but gave up five runs in an inning during Tuesday’s 11-3 loss.
Madero was designated for assignment to make room for Poteet on the 40-man roster.
_________
