Jupiter, Florida- The Miami Marlins are entering their third week of this season’s Spring Training and are in full swing in their Grapefruit League schedule. Miami once again took on their longtime Roger Dean Stadium neighbor, St. Louis Cardinals, in a Sunday matinee. Edward Cabrera took the mound for Miami in his second outing this spring and looked to rebound from a rough outing against the Nationals surrendering three runs in one inning of work.
This season will be an important one for the 26-year-old. Entering his fifth season in the big leagues, Cabrera looks to surpass 20 starts in a season after his last two seasons have been cut short due to injury recording just 20 starts in each.
Can this be the year he puts it all together? The velocity is there combined with his arsenal of pitches including a devastating change up that touches 96 mph. Cabrera has the stature and the “stuff” that was compared to Sandy Alcantara in the past, and he sure needs to pitch close to it this season since Miami’s rotation has lost some pieces, is young, and inexperienced at the MLB level.
Brought the camera to Jupiter today 📸 @LemonCityLive pic.twitter.com/GuXJgJb94d
— Alex “Milo” Aguirre (@aguirrethecap33) March 2, 2025
Cabrera Commanding the Zone
Other than injuries hindering Cabrera’s growth, when healthy on the mound, his control has been inconsistent. The right-hander has shown flashes of being a top of the rotation arm but also has outings that have been derailed by walks and lack of command. With spring training the time to adjust and make improvements, attacking the strike zone has been a top priority for Cabrera.
“I think pitchers have to make that adjustment constantly, said Cabrera postgame. But for me, was mostly my physique, my body, and then working my mental game as well. So you got to combine both so you can have some success.”
It looked like that approach in the bullpen has been paying off for Cabrera as it showed today against St. Louis. In the top of the first, Cabrera retired the firs two batters including a strikeout against Masyn Winn. He gave up a ground rule double to Lars Nootbaar, but worked around the runner in scoring positing by getting Nolan Arenado to fly out.
In the top of the second, Cabrera induced a flyout for the first out of the frame but Nolan Gorman followed that up with a double to left-center field. Gorman advanced on a wild pitch and eventually scored on Jordan Walker’s sacrifice fly. Cabrera bounced back and Luken Baker flew out to end the inning and
In his two innings of work today, Cabrera threw 24 pitches, 18 for strikes. He attacked the strike zone and was able to avoid or limit the damage when runners reached on base. Marlins Manager Clayton McCullough was pleased to see Cabrera’s approach in this bounce-back performance and how he attacked the strize zone.
“It was a really, really nice outing for Edward, said Clayton McCullough postgame. I think he was in the zone, really quick, efficient first inning, for him. He spun the breaking ball in the strike zone, expanded some. Those two innings, that’s a really good work day for Edward, and a good step going into the next one.”
Edward Cabrera's second spring start:
2 IP, 2 H, ER, K
24 pitches (18 strikes)
Max velo: 98.5 mphMore importantly: Look how often he was in the strike zone.#Marlins pic.twitter.com/8XmeNjn08S
— Christina De Nicola (@CDeNicola13) March 2, 2025
A Spark From an Unlikely Source
Jared Serna got the nod as the starting second baseman today and took full advantage of it. The 22-year-old prospect got the Marlins’ offense going and on the board in the bottom of the third when he flashed some pop with the bat.
Against veteran southpaw, Steven Matz, Serna launched his first home run of the spring over the left center field wall to tie the game 1-1. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth when Serna worked a one-out walk that ignited a game deciding rally.
Serna goes 395 ft 💥 pic.twitter.com/TvG9x9GUQ5
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) March 2, 2025
After Serna walked to give Miami runners on first and second, Connor Norby singled to left field brining in Javier Sanoja. Serna advanced to third on the base hit and scored on Jesus Sanchez‘s sacrifice fly that gave Miami a 3-1 lead and finished the day going 2-2 with an RBI and run scored.
“Great day for Serna, said Clayton McCullough. He’s a scrappy player, he’s got some ability, really nice rangy play to his left, diving, and then the line drive that he jumped up and caught against Arenado in the first inning, showed some athleticism. And then his at bats today were outstanding, other than the home run, he was in his at bats, work counts, the ability he had with the hole open on the right side to shoot a ball that way. So I think was a really good glimpse of the things that Serna is capable of doing.”
Jonah Bride kept the inning alive with two outs singling to center field. Kyle Stowers followed up and capped off the rally with a line drive single to center field plating Norby. The Marlins now led 4-1 entering the late innings and the bullpen stepped up backing up the offense.
Cabrera Setting the Tone for the Bullpen
After Cabrera’s two-inning outing to start the game, Miami’s bullpen was lights out from the third to the sixth inning. In that span, Calvin Faucher, Ronny Henriquez, George Soriano, and John Rooney threw a scoreless inning each and did not give up a base hit.
“Calvin has the pitches, the stuff to handle both sides and pitch in leverage. He’s definitely one of those guys in the mix for us that will be counted on to come into big moments in games, later in the game, or it could be earlier. He’s going to come into some tense spots because we will trust and believe in the stuff that he has.”
Calvin Faucher so far:
3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 64.3 S%
Not a big results in Spring kind of guy, but good to see from one of the Marlins best relievers in 2024 pic.twitter.com/QxXgSKdkNR
— Louis Addeo-Weiss (@addeo_louis00) March 2, 2025
The Cardinals finally broke trough Miami’s bullpen in the top of the seventh against Austin Roberts. The 26-year-old right hander only gave up one hit but it was a big one. Iván Herrera led off the inning drawing a walk. Roberts then struck out Nolan Gorman and got Jordan Walker to fly out to left field.
He wasn’t out of it yet and unfortunately did not continue the bullpen’s scoreless inning streak. With two outs, Luken Baker blasted a two-run home run of to cut Miami’s lead one run, 4-3.
In this limited video, #STLCards slugger Luken Baker puts a good swing on this pitch drove it out to deep right field and the wind did the rest for a two-run HR. The ball left Baker's bat at 102.6 mph.#Marlins 4, #STLCards 3 pic.twitter.com/DVcgX3y6te
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) March 2, 2025
Will Schomberg kept the Cardinals off the board in the top of the eighth and Miami added a much needed insurance run in the bottom half of the inning thanks to Fenwick Trimble‘s single brining in Jack Winkler. Nigel Belgrave locked down the ninth inning and earned his first save of spring training, retiring the side in order including two strikeouts.
Miami improves to 3-4-1 this spring as they prepare for a double-header. The team will split as one half will play in the afternoon at 1:10 p.m. against the Houston Astros in Roger Dean Stadium and the other half of the squad will travel to Port St. Lucie to take on the New York Mets at Clover Park. The first pitch for that game is scheduled for 6:1o p.m.
More pics from today’s #Marlins practice before their game against the Cardinals. @LemonCityLive pic.twitter.com/j1PvYe7PXS
— Alex “Milo” Aguirre (@aguirrethecap33) March 2, 2025
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