There’s no straight line for development in minor league baseball. And it doesn’t matter where you’re drafted. Just look at Joe Mack’s 2024 season.
The former Williamsville East star has been on a wild ride since March in the Miami Marlins organization. It started when he batted .347 in 13 games of his second season at Class A Beloit in Wisconsin, and earned his first promotion to the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos in the Southern League. The trip to the Florida Panhandle has been eventful.
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Joe Mack had a huge month in June at Double-A Pensacola but has found the going much rougher in July.
Mack batted .230 in May for the Blue Wahoos – before exploding to hit .297 in June with 10 home runs. But things have gone the other way in July, as the catcher is batting just .138 with only two longballs. To his credit, Mack, 21, doesn’t feel he got too content with his performance in June, and also isn’t getting dragged down by his struggles in July.
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“This has been a great experience for me,” Mack told The Buffalo News by phone last week prior to a game in Pensacola. “Earlier in the season, being in Beloit and playing with those guys was definitely fun to compete and go out and do the absolute best you can. Then being moved up so early was a surprise. The organization knew that I was ready and needed to be challenged a little bit.
“Then getting up here definitely was a little bit of an adjustment, but mixing in with the guys and the coaching staff and getting to know them more and more made me feel comfortable. And then you start to really work at succeeding at this level.”
Mack went 0-for-3 with a walk Sunday in Pensacola’s 6-1 loss in its series finale against Biloxi after he homered for the first time in 10 games in Saturday’s 8-4 loss to the Milwaukee affiliate. Since joining the Blue Wahoos, Mack is batting .224 in 79 games with 16 homers and 46 RBIs. Pensacola is 14-13 in the second half (three games out of first place), and its 52-43 overall mark is the second best in the league.
While Mack’s average is far lower than he wants, and his 85 strikeouts are 12th in the league, he has some notable positive numbers: The home run total is second in the league and Mack is fourth in doubles (19) and tied for fifth in RBIs. He is also ninth in slugging (.444).
Mack became the first Southern League player this season to homer in four straight games when he went deep June 5-8 against the Mississippi Braves, and the first Pensacola batter to do that since 2015.
“These last couple of weeks, I’m probably just trying to do too much, a little bit out of sync with my body,” said Mack, who is 3-for-39 over the last 10 games. “But I’m not worried because I know this is only going to help me. I know that I’m just learning from each and every struggle that I’m having.”
A key offseason
Mack was taken 31st overall by the Marlins in 2021, a Competitive Balance round choice that made him Western New York’s first top-round pick since the Yankees tabbed Williamsville South’s Matt Winters in 1978. Mack signed a $2.5 million bonus and preceded to play just 63 combined games in 2021 and 2022 due to a hamstring injury. He was fully healthy in 2023, but hit just .218 with six homers and 36 RBIs in 120 games in Beloit.
Lancellotti finished the 1979 season with 41 home runs, earning a tie for the Eastern League record that he still holds and winning the league's MVP award. The total remains third all-time on the Bisons' franchise list dating to 1877, surpassed only by Ollie Carnegie (45 in 1938) and Bill Kelly (44 in 1926).
He returned home to do his offseason work at Hot Corner Athletics in Lockport, and there were the requisite physical adjustments to his stride and swing. As well as plenty of soul searching.
“The whole entire game is based on failures and adjustments, so it was about figuring out why he was struggling,” said Ron Bernick, Mack’s personal coach and the Hot Corner founder/CEO. “Unfortunately, as a first-round draft pick, people always assume that you’re just going to go through the minor leagues and dominate. But there’s a learning curve.
“For Joe, it wasn’t the skill part of the game that was the issue. Joe is one of the most naturally skilled, gifted athletes I’ve ever seen in my life. But it was more about handling failures, handling expectations. First, it was getting him to understand how really good he was and to embrace that, rather than shy away from it. Then, it was, ‘How are we going to adjust the way that teams are getting you out, to be able to basically fight back against that?’”
Bisons radio analyst Duke McGuire on Hall of Famer Jim Leyland, his manager with the 1973 Clinton Pilots: "He did it the hard way, up each level. You have to respect that. Nothing was handed to him."
Bernick said Mack had become so used to dominating in high school and amateur travel ball play that he was often unable to deal with adversity last year at Beloit. Reinstilling his belief system was as important as any physical adjustment.
“It’s all about trust in everything,” Mack said. “And it’s not just baseball. It’s about trust in the work you’re doing, trust in God, trust in your faith. You can’t lose your faith in yourself, no matter how you’re doing.”
“You don’t have a good season by being perfect every night,” Bernick said. “You have a good season by having a good day, and then seeing good pitches and it turns into a good week, and that turns into a good month.”
Mack learned to accept the plus side of 2023, largely the fact that he stayed healthy for the first time as a pro, and built off that.
“You want to take positives from last year and be ready to make changes, and the mental side was definitely a huge part of that,” he said. “I didn’t really understand what it meant that the game is 90% mental and 10% physical. We really hammered down on that this offseason.”
That June feeling
Mack doesn’t go to the plate looking for home runs, but he wants to replicate the feeling he had at the plate in June, when he had a .681 slugging percentage and a 1.054 OPS.
The Bisons hit the break at 42-50 overall and will likely continue their playoff drought that stretches to 2005, but you can't complain too much about their offense. They're sixth in the 20-team league in runs scored at 503 and averaging 5.5 runs per game.
“You’re just trying to put a barrel on the ball, and then you see what happens,” he said. “I think that’s when you start to see success happening. Just hard hits, hard contact. Put a good swing on and be present in every moment. It feels easy. It’s the time where it’s dipping down where you really need to focus and get back to the roots and the reasons things were working during the hot streak.”
“For him, it’s just swing decisions ... probably what a lot of young hitters need to work on,” Rachel Balkovec, the Marlins’ player development director, told MLB.com earlier this year. “But basically knowing and having a great plan when he gets up to the plate and being able to execute on that.
“He’s done a great job, and he’s willing to continue to hone in on that as he climbs levels. As pitchers get smarter, they have better plans themselves. They’re going to attack him exactly where they think he’s not going to be successful, and he’s going to have to be able to work on those weaknesses and have a fantastic plan for combating that.”
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Joe Mack has a polished style behind the plate and his personal coach Ron Bernick says, “He’s ready to catch major league arms. I think defensively, he’s ready to play in the big leagues right now.”
The complicated nature of catching can be taxing on young players, but Mack remains strong defensively. He has thrown out 13 runners trying to steal, which is 29% of the total against him. For perspective, only four MLB catchers have more than 10 caught stealing over 30%.
“He’s ready to catch major league arms. I think, defensively, he’s ready to play in the big leagues right now,” Bernick said. “The catch-and-throw ability that he has ... he’s gotten significantly better defensively. I think maturity-wise, that’s where he’s gotten the best at as a pro. It’s a real arm. It’s a real transfer. He’s athletic. And his ability to call a game and be able to manage a pitching staff is something that he’s gotten a lot better at.”
The Marlins are going young and have put weight on their prospects as they go through a sudden rebuild now that Peter Bendix has taken over as general manager for Kim Ng. It’s reasonable to think Mack will get time in Triple-A Jacksonville next season and could only be a couple of years away from Miami.
But he’s being where his feet are, at the picturesque Blue Wahoos Stadium with views of Pensacola Bay beyond the outfield wall and sellout crowds of just over 5,000 fans common for weekend games.
“It’s awesome, definitely a new environment, and I love it,” he said. “The crowd, the people, the cheering. The stadium itself is gorgeous. The scenery is nice. Sun is always shining, a little breeze. It’s a very nice place to be right now.”