The Mesa brothers will have the attention of the baseball world Friday.
But will Marlins Park and the city of Miami capture theirs?
The highly touted Cuban siblings, Victor Victor Mesa and Victor Mesa Jr., who each recently became free agents, are set to work out in a showcase open to all 30 major-league clubs, along with fellow Cuban pitcher Sandy Gaston, at the Marlins’ home stadium.
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It’s a first for the Marlins, who have made it a priority to fortify their presence in the international market by dedicating more of the organization’s resources to the acquisition of talent, both in terms of adding experienced scouts and international pool money.
“It’s a big goal for us to obtain as much talent as we can around the world,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said Wednesday. “The game is 30 percent international, so if there’s an opportunity to sign talent from that market, we’re going to do everything we can to do so.”
The Marlins are open to the possibility of hosting events like Friday’s in the future.
That could help them maximize the team’s geographical advantage — its proximity to Latin America — in years to come.
Although Hill told reporters he didn’t think the Marlins had any advantage, being only one of 30 clubs that will have access to the Mesa’s event, a chance to show off their ballpark and being the host city for the prospects, who arrived on Sunday in Miami, could improve the odds a little.
Victor Victor Mesa tweeted a short video looking at the window of their plane as they landed in Miami on Sunday afternoon and wrote in Spanish: “305!! What’s up! We’re here!”
“We’re the Miami Marlins, and our stadium is in Little Havana, and Miami is the gateway to the Americas, so it just made so much sense to everyone to host this workout,” Hill said. “We want the most talented players in baseball to be a part of what we’re building. Friday, hopefully, is the start of a productive offseason for us where we get better in every aspect and put ourselves in a position to be in the playoffs and bring a championship to South Florida.”
Victor Victor Mesa (5-11, 195 pounds) is rated the top international prospect in this year’s class by MLB Pipeline. The 22-year-old right-handed outfielder hit .354 with seven home runs and stole 40 bases in 70 games (290 plate appearances) in his last full season (2016-17) playing in Cuba.
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Mesa has been praised for his speed and defense in the outfield, drawing a comparison from Baseball America to Washington Nationals prospect Victor Robles.
If he were to live up to the billing, such a player would represent a level of talent the Marlins have yet to acquire despite having added depth to their farm system in their first season under new owners Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman.
“We believe he’s a player that we can help succeed in our organization,” Hill said. “We think he has all the tools necessary to be successful at the major-league level.”
Less is known about Mesa, Jr., who just turned 17 and excelled on the Cuban Under-18 national team as a switch-hitting outfielder who Hill said has shown proficiency when hitting lefty.
The Marlins already have one promising pitcher named Sandy on their roster.
They could add another for the future if they land Gaston, who is also very young at 16. Gaston has a power arm with a fastball in the 96-97 mph range. Gaston will need to fine-tune his command and secondary pitches — something the Marlins are confident their development staff would be able to help him with should they get the opportunity to sign him.
Could the Marlins land all three or at least a packaged deal with the Mesa brothers?
It’s an ambitious goal, but maybe not impossible.
The Marlins have $4.3 million in international pool money – the most they’ve ever had available at one time, which they added to in trades such as the deal with Seattle for outfielder Cameron Maybin just before this year’s non-waiver deadline. Miami has the second-most under the $6.5 million belonging to the Baltimore Orioles, who are considered favorites to land the Mesas.
With their status as free agents cleared up, it’s conceivable a signing could happen quickly after Friday’s workout.
Regardless of the outcome, the Marlins’ change in philosophy when it comes to the international market is evident.
“Ideally you want to be active in every way possible to acquire talent and if you’re not you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage,” Hill said. “In the past, our international budgets weren’t where they needed to be. We didn’t maximize that area of talent acquisition. It’s something our new ownership understands, that all talent is important in order to build a championship organization.”
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Marlins vice president of player development and scouting Gary Denbo recently told The Athletic that the Marlins are making efforts to make their presence stronger around the world and plan to hire scouts in the Pacific rim in countries such as South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and have already hired scouts in several South American countries.
The Marlins added three more veteran scouts to their staff Wednesday, former Philadelphia Phillies scouting director Marti Wolever as a senior advisor; Mike Soper, a 14-year veteran scout with the Cleveland Indians, as a regional supervisor; and T.R. Lewis, a scout the past 11 years for the Arizona Diamondbacks, as a special assignment scout.
Jeter also recently mentioned the Marlins are planning to make upgrades to their academy in the Dominican Republic.
The club, which just concluded its instructional league games this week, will also hold a Dominican Republic-based instructional league for the first time in franchise history that will run six weeks beginning later this month until late November.
“We’re positioning ourselves to be among the teams that will be able to go after those types of players that are at the top of the international market every year,” Denbo said. “We’ve hired people that have a track record of being able to go out and find players that will enable us to make deals to get them in our organization. Our presence throughout the world is going to get better. We’re doing a much better job of covering teams than we had in the past, and I have a good feeling it’s going to help us identify not just players that are at the top of the market, but some undervalued players that other teams don’t see.”
(Top photo of Victor Victor Mesa by Matt Roberts / Getty Images)