Guzman offers glimpse at Miami's future
Prospect obtained for Stanton to play in Futures Game.
WASHINGTON — Still wondering if the Marlins got anything worthwhile in the Giancarlo Stanton trade beyond second baseman Starlin Castro?
Fans will get a nother chance to see the club’s potential pitching future during the All-Star break.
Jorge Guzman, the Marlins’ No. 3 overall prospect according to MLBPipeline. com, will compete in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game at 4 p.m. July 15 at Nationals Park in Washington. The game, which pits Team USA vs. the World Team, will be carried live on MLB Network.
Guzman, a 22-year old right - ha n der from the Dominican Republic who has a 100 mph fastball, will represent the World Team as the Marlins’ lone representative.
The Marlins picked up Guz- man along with Castro and middle infield prospect Jose Devers in the deal with the New York Yankees in December for Stanton.
Guzman, who has drawn comparisons to Aroldis Chap- man for his powerful fast- ball, has shown improve- ment after a slow start this season Guzman and pitched at has Class 59 made innings A 13 Jupiter. starts for the Hammerheads this year. He’s compiled a 3.05 ERA with 56 strikeouts and 35 walks.
After starting the season a little late due to a lat issue, Guzman has kept his veloc- ity consistently in the high 90s and exceeded 100 several times while improving his command and off-speed arsenal. Guzman’s strike-out-to-walk ratio has improved over his past six starts. Guzman has 34 strikeouts and 12 walks during that span. Over his first seven starts, he walked 23 and struck out 22. Guzman is one of several pitching prospects the Marlins have acquired over the past year either through the offseason deals for Stanton,
Marcell Ozuna, Christian Yelich and Dee Gordon or via the 2017 and 2018 drafts.
Sandy Alcantara (Marlins’ No. 2 prospect) and Pablo Lopez (Marlins’ No. 19 pros- pect) each recently made solid debuts, winning their first career starts.
Guzman still figures to be at least a year away from making a potential majorleague debut, but could make a quick impact as either a starter or reliever. Guz m an got hit by a line drive on his left wrist (non-throwing hand) during a start June 28 and exited the game after only 11/3 innings. Guzman returned to the mound Wednesday and pitched 32/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits, including a home run, and three walks. Devers, 18, is having a solid season playing shortstop for Class A Greensboro. Devers, a cousin of Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, is hitting .281 with 12 doubles, four triples and 18 RBIs with 10 stolen bases.
Devers could be in line to get a call-up to Jupiter in the near future.