Marlins sign veteran outfielder Granderson
Looking to add leadership and experience to their young roster, the Miami Marlins are adding a 15-year veteran to the mix.
Miami signed outfielder Curtis Granderson to a minor-league contract with an invitation to major league spring training.
Granderson, 37, split last season with the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers, hitting .242/.351/.431 with 13 home runs and 22 doubles in 123 games. The veteran made 70 starts last season, mainly in the corner spots.
A three-time All-Star, Granderson will have a chance to compete for playing time in the Marlins outfield. Lewis Brinson is likely the only player guaranteed a starting spot in the outfield next season. Brian Anderson will either start at third base or right field.
If Granderson makes the Marlins roster, he’ll earn $1.75 million next season, according to The Athletic.
The outfielder has appeared in 1,919 games during his 15-year career, notching 1,742 hits and 332 home runs with the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Blue Jays and Brewers. His 332 career home runs are the sixth-most among active players.
Off the field, Granderson has received a number of prestigious awards. The outfielder is a three-time MLBPA Marvin Miller Man of the Year recipient and won both the Roberto Clemente Award and Lou Gehrig Award in 2016. The Marlins have signed 15-year MLB veteran Curtis Granderson to a minor-league contract.
Having watched new Miami Marlins pitcher Jordan Milbrath throw for a decade now, Tim Huber has seen the 6-foot-6 pitcher’s development up close.
As the baseball coach at Augustana University — a top Division II program in Sioux Falls, South Dakota — Huber recruited Milbrath as a high school prospect out of Minnesota, eventually landing the talented pitcher.
After being selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 35th round of the 2013 MLB draft, Milbrath continued to work out with Huber and the Augustana team during the next few offseasons.
Following six years in the Cleveland organization — with a brief pit stop in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ spring training last year as a Rule 5 selection — Milbrath is now the newest pitcher in the Marlins organization after being acquired Monday in a trade for Nick Wittgren.
“Jordan probably is the guy you always look at and say, ‘Not there yet, but the potential is there,’ ” said Huber, who led Augustana to a Division II national championship last season. “I think even to this day, that’s what everyone says when they see Jordan pitch.
“Even back to high school and his first time on campus — you could always see the huge, huge, huge ceiling, who didn’t quite figure it out yet.”
A 27-year-old reliever with a fastball that hovers in the mid-90s, Milbrath split last year between Double-A and Triple-A, posting a 3.96 ERA and .227 opposing batting average.
While the right-hander has spent six years in the minors, he’s not your typical 27-year-old prospect — thanks in part to an ultimatum delivered to him by the Indians two years ago.
“They said, ‘You need to try something different [with your delivery] or essentially we’ll give you your release,’ ” Huber recounted. “So they dropped him [from over-the-top windup] to true sidearm.
“I talked to him because he was so mad and I said, ‘Jordan, this may be a good thing. You’re a guy who’s never been a location-type guy. You’re successful because your velocity spiked in the mid-upper 90s. Think about it this way — what if all of a sudden you’re throwing 92-93 mph and you have a ton of movement on the baseball and you don’t have to locate it as well? You just let the movement work.’
“I think the expectation from both him and me was that he’d lose a few ticks on his velocity, but he goes through a full season of minor league baseball and his velocity stays exactly the same as where it was the previous year, which is just unheard of. It doesn’t happen.”
Since the change, his fastball has continued to hover around 95 mph, while peaking in the upper 90s. Huber said the right-hander, who also utilizes a slider, is still adjusting to the nuances of pitching sidearm and should continue to improve.
“He’s really starting to figure that out,” Huber said. “That’s the uniqueness. Yeah, he’s been in the minor leagues for six years now, but he’s only been throwing from a different arm slot — and a drastically different one — for two years and that’s it. To some extent, he’s kind of been thrown to the wolves in trying to say, ‘Hey, just go figure this out.’
“I think the intriguing thing is he’s still a power arm, but he’s still kind of learning a little bit how to pitch from a different arm angle. That’s what’s intriguing if he can figure that out — and hopefully it clicks.”