The Marlins on Thursday placed right-hander Tommy Nance on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain and selected the contract of lefty Jake Fishman in his place, tweets Payton Titus of the Miami Herald. Outfielder/designated hitter Jorge Soler was transferred from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man move.
It’s the third time this season the Fishman, 27, has been selected to the Marlins’ big league roster. The longtime Blue Jays farmhand has pitched 4 1/3 innings with Miami this season, yielding a run on six hits and no walks (but with two hit batters) and one strikeout in 4 1/3 innings. He’s twice been designated for assignment and passed through waivers unclaimed despite a strong year in Triple-A Jacksonville. In 56 innings with the Marlins’ top affiliate, Fishman carries a 2.25 ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 54.2% ground-ball rate.
As for Soler, the move to the 60-day IL doesn’t formally close the book on his season, as that 60-day minimum dates back to his original placement on the IL, on July 23. Still, Soler himself said earlier this week that he does not expect to return to the field this season as he continues to battle a back injury.
Signed to a three-year, $36MM deal over the winter, Soler has fallen well shy of expectations in his first year with the Fish. Through 72 games and 306 plate appearances, Soler has mustered just a .207/.295/.400 batting line with a 29.4% strikeout rate — his worst in a 162-game season since 2017.
It’s a far cry from the 2021 momentum that Soler carried into free agency this past winter. A change-of-scenery trade that shipped Soler from Kansas City to Atlanta at the 2021 deadline set the stage for a mammoth second-half showing: .269/.358/.524, 14 home runs in 255 plate appearances. Postseason heroics ensued, as Soler went 6-for-20 with three homers and three walks en route to World Series MVP honors. The Marlins will hope that in 2023-24, a healthier Soler will get back to that form and provide some much-needed power to a typically light-hitting lineup, but it increasingly looks as though the book on his first Miami campaign is drawing to a close.
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