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The Marlins announced that outfielder Jesús Sánchez has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. He had suffered a left oblique strain during spring training. In a corresponding move, infielder Jonah Bride has been designated for assignment.
It’s a somewhat surprising decision. Bride seemed to have a decent breakout with the Fish last year. Acquired from the A’s in February of 2024, he spent much of the first half getting shuttled to Triple-A and back but was in the majors for most of the second half of the season. He eventually got into 71 big league games and stepped to the plate 272 times. He hit 11 home runs and drew walks at a solid 11% clip, while keeping his strikeouts down to a 20.2% level.
That wasn’t a massive sample size but Bride also had a decent minor league numbers. From 2021 to 2024, he hit .289/.421/.489 on the farm for a 137 wRC+. His 17.1% walk rate was better than his 16% strikeout rate. He didn’t perform well when he first got to the majors with Oakland in 2022 and 2023 but seemed to turn a bit of a corner with Miami last year. He also provided a bit of defensive versatility, playing all three non-shortstop infield positions last year.
There’s no denying that he’s out to an awful start this year. Through 12 games, he has been punched out in 15 of his 45 plate appearances and has a line of .100/.200/.100. That’s obviously not great but it’s a tiny sample and the Fish didn’t need to open up a 40-man roster spot today. They could have simply optioned a player to the minor leagues to make room for Sánchez, while keeping Bride around to see if he could get back on track.
More to come.
