Owen Caissie’s Big Shot Should Come on the 2026 Marlins
After being acquired for Edward Cabrera earlier in the offseason, Owen Caissie could be the Marlins' next success story in 2026.
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Calling it a roller coaster of a career so far would probably be putting it lightly when referencing Owen Caissie’s professional career to this point.
After being selected 45th overall by the San Diego Padres back in 2020, Caissie was involved in the seven-player deal that sent Yu Darvish to San Diego right before the calendar turned from 2020 to 2021.
It was set from early on that Caissie has long been considered a top prospect in baseball, as he was often featured on Top 100 Prospects lists across the industry.
Now, almost six years since he started his professional career, Caissie might finally be getting his best opportunity to showcase why he has been highly regarded since becoming a professional.
The Trade That Sent Owen Caissie to Miami
Despite what may have seemed like a logjam at the position, the Miami Marlins had been keen on acquiring the left-handed-hitting outfielder in any deal between them and the Cubs.
This stems back to the initial conversations between the two ball clubs back when the Marlins were shopping Jesus Luzardo before ultimately trading him to Philadelphia after reported issues with physicals.
After a bit of a delay following the breaking news of the trade, the two teams finally made a deal which had the Cubs nab the starter they had been long searching for and had the Marlins finally catching their Canadian White Whale.
The full trade details were the Marlins sending right-handed starter Edward Cabrera to the Chicago Cubs for Just Baseball’s No. 41 prospect, Owen Caissie, infielder Cristian Hernandez, and infielder Edgardo De Leon.
Now, come 2026, Caissie looks to be the next beneficiary of being able to use Miami’s newfound development success and follow in similar footsteps to those of first-time All-Star Kyle Stowers in his first full season with the Fish.
Why 2026 Could Be the Year for Owen Caissie
As I stated a few times, Caissie had been well-liked across multiple platforms since he was drafted in 2020.
At still just 23 years old heading into the 2026 season, Caissie looks to be the starting right fielder for the Marlins when they take the field against the Colorado Rockies on Opening Day on March 27.
Even entering professional baseball at such a young age, Caissie’s exit velocities have always ranked amongst the best in the game. His plus bat speed from the left side, continued projectable strength, and consistent leverage in his swing are the reasons why many project for him to be able to hit north of 35, maybe even 40, home runs per season in his career.
The one deficiency in his game, like Kyle Stowers, is that his swing can get a little long, causing him to expand the zone, miss pitches inside, and have that strikeout rate stay as high as it has throughout his career thus far.
As an 18-year-old at the Complex League, Caissie was already producing a punchout rate near 30%. His lowest strikeout rate to date would actually be in the 99-game sample he had in Triple-A Iowa last season at 27.9%.
Despite the high strikeout numbers, the offensive production has always been there. There has not been one season to date where Caissie has had a wRC+ under 100.
In fact, I’ll do you one better.
Aside from a 90-PA sample in 2021, his wRC+ has not been lower than 113, which was in 2023, when he spent the full season in Double-A Tennessee for the first time in his career.
There have been quite a few times where it felt as if Caissie was going to make his debut before ultimately doing so this past season for the Cubs.
Even then, he drew the short end of the stick and was only given 27 plate appearances in 12 games with the big-league club before getting sent back down.
His debut was not anything to hold his hat on as he struggled mightily, striking out at nearly a 41% rate in those 27 plate appearances. Given the up-and-down nature of his playing time, he was never able to find a groove to be able to prove himself amongst the Cubs faithful who just wanted to see the team make a run into the postseason for the first time in quite some time.
Despite well overperforming their preseason expectations in 2024, Marlins fans are just excited to see where this ball club is going to go next, and they are hoping that Caissie is a big part of that.
Tapping Into Owen Caissie’s Potential
Caissie joins an all left-handed hitting starting outfield alongside Stowers and breakout rookie Jakob Marsee. Not only is he joining those two, but he now finds himself in a lineup that has a projected Opening Day average age of 26.1 years old as of today.
Caissie should have no issues at all fitting into the new culture that Clayton McCullough established in just his first year as a big-league manager. In an interview that Caissie did with MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato, he even made it a point to mention the youth of the team. He stated, “Really, it’s just [about] getting to know [the] guys, and us being the same age is going to be a lot of fun.”
There may not be a better player for Caissie to learn from than Stowers in his first year with the Marlins. Not that Caissie was necessarily cast aside the same way that Stowers was seemingly done in Baltimore, but in a way that he can sell what the Marlins’ hitting development team helped him unlock in order for him to reach his first All-Star game last season.
Like Caissie, Stowers was a victim of large strikeout numbers that ultimately left a sour taste in the mouths of Orioles fans. That and inconsistent playing time essentially became the writing on the wall that a change of scenery was necessary for both parties.
Sound familiar, doesn’t it?
Granted, I am not saying that Cubs fans wanted Caissie gone. Quite the contrary, actually.
When the news broke that Caissie was going to be involved in this trade, there were a lot of Cubs fans who were displeased about him being shipped out, even if he hadn’t performed for them down the stretch. The timing of this move is the ultimate head scratcher.
Even though Kyle Tucker had yet to sign his new deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, it had all but been a formality that he would not be returning to the Cubs. Tucker ultimately moving on, combined with the fact that Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are entering the last years of their deal, should have finally given Caissie the opportunity he needed to see every day at-bats.
Nonetheless, while the adjective is not a representation of Caissie’s abilities, the saying does go, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and Peter Bendix has done a heck of a job in identifying players to target in trades.
An Opportunity to Make an Immediate Impact
Caissie is going to have access to every resource that the Marlins have to offer in order for him to succeed and develop as a hitter.
Going back to the Stowers connection, one person he credited a lot for his turnaround is Marlins new full-time hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, who was promoted for the upcoming season after serving as the assistant under Derek Shomon in 2025. Shomon has gone on to join the Chicago White Sox in a similar role for the upcoming season.
Like Stowers, Caissie has trouble catching up with pitches thrown on the inside part of the plate, and the tendency of his swing getting a little long causes him to expand out of the zone. In an article I wrote back in August on Stowers, I highlight the changes that he made that allowed for him to adjust to those pitches inside in order to begin punishing opposing pitchers on a more consistent basis.
Those adjustments also cut down his overall strikeout rate throughout the season. Improving his patience allowed him to be more selective at the plate.
All of this made Kyle Stowers a finalist for the NL Silver Slugger Award in the outfield, which is not far-fetched to say Caissie can also attain, given the pedigree that he comes with.
The thought of the Marlins adding another youthful and impactful bat to a lineup that was already exciting to begin with can only further grow the excitement that has been busting at the seams since last season ended.
The Miami Marlins are going to look to prove that the 2025 season was not a fluke. The addition of Owen Caissie only further builds on the hope that they will be able to capitalize on the growth they showed just one season ago.
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Written by
Cristian has been at Just Baseball since 2021, when he first started writing about prospects. He spent eight years working in Major League Baseball with the…