Miami Marlins go pitching over hitting in first round of MLB Draft, pick Noble Meyer
DJ Svihlik couldn’t help but smile.
“Threw a little bit of a curveball at everyone tonight,” the Miami Marlins’ senior director of amateur scouting said Sunday.
Yes, yes he did.
As Svihlik outlined just a couple days earlier, the Marlins’ plan from the outset with their first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft was simple: Select the best hitter possible to infuse another bat into a minor-league system that needs hitting.
However, there was one pitcher the organization was high on and was considering taking if he was available.
His name was still on the board when the Marlins were on the clock, and they pounced.
So with the No. 10 overall pick on Sunday, the Marlins drafted Jesuit (Oregon) right-handed pitcher Noble Meyer. He is the first high school pitcher the Marlins have chosen in the first round since taking Braxton Garrett and Trevor Rogers in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017.
The signing bonus slot value for the No. 10 overall pick is $5,475,300.
Meyer checked in as the consensus top high school pitcher prospect in the draft. Baseball America ranks him No. 7, MLB Pipeline No. 8 and ESPN No. 9.
“He was clearly the best high school pitcher in the country,” Svihlik said. “We didn’t expect him to fall all the way to us. When you have the opportunity to select something that you’re very confident in and that you’ve done a really good job in and that our evaluations put up a lot in that position on the board, it’s very hard to pass up. Really excited to select Noble.”
The 18-year-old Meyer, a University of Oregon commit, stands 6-5 and has a fastball that touched 97-98 mph to go along with a mid-80s slider, changeup and curveball. Meyer said his slider is his best pitch and that improving his fastball command is his top priority for his first season of professional baseball.
“Meyer comes at hitters with a bit of a three-quarters arm slot, showing good, whippy arm action, and while there is a little crossfire in his delivery, he has a good feel for the strike zone,” MLB Pipeline wrote in its scouting report, adding that he has “all the ingredients to be a future frontline starter.”
He posted a 0.33 ERA and struck out 128 batters over 31 games during his senior year and was named the 2022-2023 Gatorade Oregon Baseball Player of the Year.
“I threw four complete games in high school,” Meyer said. “I don’t think people wanted me to, but I didn’t want to lose. I think that speaks a lot about me.”
It spoke loud and clear to the Marlins. Svilhik said they were at all of his starts this season, something he stressed as vital if the team was going to take a high school pitcher at No. 10. There wasn’t one specific outing that locked Meyer in as an option in the first round. Instead, according to Svihlik, it was Meyer’s overall body of work, his work ethic and his personality that swayed the Marlins to pick him.
“When you’re a high school pitcher, we’re asking for strikes and we’re asking for consistency,” Svihlik said. “There were a lot of pitchers on the board that have plenty of stuff. The thing that separated Noble was just his ability to use his stuff to pitch, to throw strikes, and to do it on just a consistent basis. ... We were really buttoned up on Noble. We felt really good about it at the finish line.”
The first nine picks of the draft: LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes to the Pittsburgh Pirates at No. 1, LSU outfielder Dylan Crews to the Washington Nationals at No. 2, Franklin (Indiana) Community High outfielder Max Clark to the Detroit Tigers at No. 3, Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford to the Texas Rangers at No. 4, South Brunswisk (North Carolina) High outfielder Walker Jenkins to the Minnesota Twins at No. 5, Grand Canyon shortstop Jacob Wilson to the Oakland Athletics at No. 6, Wake Forest right-handed pitcher Rhett Lowder to the Cincinnati Reds at No. 7, Sinton (Texas) High catcher Blake Mitchell to the Kansas City Royals at No. 8 and Tennessee right-handed pitcher Chase Dollander to the Colorado Rockies at No. 9.
The rest of the Marlins’ Day 1 picks
▪ Competitive Balance A, No. 35 — Andover (Mass.) left-handed pitcher Thomas White: The 18-year-old White is a 6-5 lefty viewed as the second-best high school pitcher in the draft behind only Meyer. His fastball hits 96-97 mph and he couples that with an above-average curveball with high spin rates. He also has a low-80s changeup that he is developing.
White was named the Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year each of the past two years, combining to pitch 75 innings in his junior and senior seasons with 165 strikeouts.
▪ Round 2, No. 47 — Ole Miss outfielder Kemp Alderman: He had a breakout junior season for the Rebels, posting a .376 average/.440 on-base percentage/.709 slugging slash line with 19 home runs, 61 RBI, 44 runs scored.
From his MLB Pipeline scouting report: “His plus-plus raw power plays to all parts of the park and he’s doing a better job of understanding that home runs will come naturally even if he doesn’t swing for the fences. He’s keeping his stroke more compact and making more contact as a junior, though strikeouts always will be a byproduct of his pop.”
Svihlik said the Marlins will likely start Alderman out in the corner outfields but could potentially move him to catcher, where he played in spots both in high school and at Ole Miss.
