Is Jakob Marsee the Marlins Center Fielder of the Future?
For years, the Marlins have tried to find a long-term solution in center field. In Jakob Marsee, they may have finally found their guy.
| | 
The new era of Miami Marlins baseball has been fun to watch since the very beginning of the season. With expectations at what was seemingly an all-time low, they have continued to scrap and claw their way throughout, and have brought the spark that the team had seemed to be missing for some time. In this new era, we have begun to see the returns of the moves that shipped out established Major Leaguers for prospects that many hoped would make an impact for them.
First, Rule 5 selection Liam Hicks started to look like he was ready to take the everyday catcher’s job from the incumbent Nick Fortes. Then came the arrival of the main piece from the Jazz Chisholm Jr. trade last year, Agustin Ramirez. Sprinkled throughout, we have seen outfielder Heriberto Hernandez continue to make an impact in this lineup, delivering big hit after big hit. Now, we are living in the Jakob Marsee experience, who made his way to Miami via the Luis Arraez deal last May.
I am near having to use two hands when I continue to count how many pieces I have put together about Marlins young players making an impact as soon as they arrive, and if they are going to be mainstays on the roster as their re-tool nears its end.
Stats pulled on Wednesday, August 27
The Jakob Marsee Era Is Upon Us
After being selected in the sixth round of the 2022 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres, Marsee began his professional career hitting .240 with a .839 OPS across two levels in the Padres system. Then, in his first full season in professional baseball, he slashed .274/.413/.428, ranking ninth in all of Minor League Baseball with 103 runs scored, 46 stolen bases, 16 home runs, all while striking out at nearly the exact rate he was walking (17.1% K% / 17.3% BB%).
While the overall numbers since he has been in the Marlins organization do not stand out, it’s what he was doing in the two months before his call-up that made the decision to bring him to Miami justifiable. Since the beginning of June, Marsee was hitting .289 with 11 home runs, 14 stolen bases, and a .977 OPS in 46 games played. What truly stands out about Marsee’s profile is the impressive contact rates that he has been able to keep consistent during his professional career.
His contact percentage has never been below 80% during a full season in the minors. All this while limiting the chase percentage as well. While the contact rate has fallen a bit since his debut in Miami, which is expected, he has still been able to limit his chase rate to just over 14%, which is a testament to his overall IQ at the plate and above-average swing decision, which is something we have heard the Marlins prioritize multiple times since the offseason.
Dating back to the draft process, Marsee was lauded for his ability to make consistent contact no matter the situation and provide the top-of-the-order potential that every team looks for. This is something that his spray chart so far can surely attest to.
The biggest boost to the Marlins, however, could come defensively. It has been quite the experiment in South Florida to figure out who could emerge as the “savior” for their center field woes they’ve seemingly always had. They’ve had the Marcell Ozuna experiment for a couple of years, a season of Christian Yelich before they traded him, and he was replaced by the main piece in the return of that trade in Lewis Brinson. Starling Marte proved to be serviceable before he was also moved. We can’t forget the clunkiness that Jesús Sanchez brought with him in 2022. All to be rounded up by Jazz’s transition from the infield to the outfield before he was then traded.
Needless to say, they desperately needed someone like Marsee to emerge.
In his short time in Miami, Marsee has already accumulated 4 Outs Above Average, with his arm strength ranking in the 90th percentile. In an outfield as spacious as the one in loanDepot, someone with the range of Marsee is going to cover enough ground to make up for what may be lacking in either of the corners.
It isn’t just what he is doing at the plate or on the field, but it is what he provides the ballclub on the base paths.
Since his first full season in the minor leagues in 2024, he has always been a high-efficiency base stealer. Across Double-A and Triple-A that year, he was 51-for-58 in the stolen base department, which was an 88% efficiency across 137 games played. In 98 games played this year in Triple-A, Marsee stole 47 of 60 bases, a 78% efficiency, averaging nearly half a stolen base a game.
Consistent speed in the lineup is something that the Marlins haven’t had since Dee Strange-Gordon was playing second base for them.
Now, is what he is doing now sustainable long-term, or is this just a flash in the pan?
When you consider his quality of contact, you would quickly assume that someone of his profile can play at the Major League level. While his average currently sits well-above .300 in his stint with the Fish, he was hitting just .246 overall in the minor leagues this year, with a career .258 xBA in his MiLB career.
His quality of contact is going to keep his bat relevant at any level he plays at, as will the average barrel rate currently sitting near 12%, compared to the league average of 7.1% this season. The average exit velocity is where the issue likely comes up, which sat below 90 mph in minor league career.
Is Marsee in the Future Plans?
The restructuring of this franchise by Peter Bendix has truly been astonishing.
From the surface, some of the moves he has made were head-scratchers that had a lot of people questioning if he was way above his head, especially after he supplanted Kim Ng, who was moved on from after making the postseason the year before. The Arraez trade that brought over Marsee was the last straw for a lot of Marlins fans.
If you were to accumulate a list of some of the better talent evaluators in baseball, AJ Preller is surely going to be at, or near, the top of the list. Bendix has shown that he should not be far behind.
As mentioned previously, Marsee possesses everything that the Marlins have been looking for, not just from their center field position, but the profile of the player overall. The bat-to-ball skills that play anywhere in the lineup he is penciled in to, the speed he shows on the base path, the defense he provides at a premium position, and even the occasional game power he has shown at times already.
The Marlins have the makings of what seems to be one of the formidable outfields in baseball. The emergence of All-Star Kyle Stowers, Griffin Conine was one of the team’s hottest hitters before he went down with an injury, and now Jakob Marsee making an impact in the big leagues surely leaves a lot of optimism for the organization going forward.
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…