Marsee finding groove at top of Marlins' order in 4-hit showing

CINCINNATI -- The Marlins have had a rotating cast atop their lineup this season, with Jakob Marsee, Xavier Edwards and the since-traded Liam Hicks having spent the most time batting leadoff.

If there's a chance for one player to secure it outright, consider Marsee to have made his case on Saturday.

The second-year center fielder put together his best game of 2026 in the Marlins' 8-4 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park as he homered in a 4-for-4 performance. It's a nice capper on a 20-game stretch in which he's slashing .321/.406/.518 with two roundtrippers.

"Marsee's been getting it going," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. "We felt that he's been stringing some hits together, he's back getting on base, it feels like, a couple of times a night. Tonight, the homer and then the one he rifled to right field as well on a really good fastball. Terrific to see his best offensive game of the season and not a better time to get him going and doing this. It could be a really big thing for us."

It wasn't just his tangibles that stood out. Marsee also made a heads-up play in the fifth inning, sprinting to first on a single and taking second when Reds right fielder Noelvi Marte couldn't come up with the hard roller. He was able to move to third on Edwards' squeeze bunt and score on Heriberto Hernández's grounder through the left side.

Marsee tattooed all four balls he hit -- singles at 97.4, 103.9 and 103.2 mph and a Statcast-projected 386-foot homer at 100.3 mph.

He would have had a chance to drive in the go-ahead run in the eighth, but McCullough pinch-hit for him when Reds lefty Sam Moll came in, which led to a two-run single from Hernández and an RBI knock for Griffin Conine.

The 25-year-old was certainly happy to pick up his first four-hit game of the season after doing so twice during his rookie year in 2025. But Marsee tries not to evaluate himself on whether balls land safely, instead trying to keep things simple and stay within his approach.

"I have a good idea of what the strike zone is, so just making sure I'm swinging at good pitches to hit and hitting the ball hard," Marsee said. "Honestly, for me, even if I mishit it, if my direction's good and I'm not pulling off the ball, just stuff like that. I'm just trying to beat the pitcher and not the scoreboard."

Staying on time for fastballs has also been key for the lefty-swinger, which he did in spades on Saturday. He jumped on high fastballs on all three singles and crushed an up-and-in cutter on his homer off Reds starter Brady Singer.

That hasn't been the case for much of 2026, as he has just a .292 wOBA against heaters, which puts him 240th out of 249 batters who have seen at least 1,000 pitches this season.

Despite struggles overall this season -- he's slashing .212/.326/.320 after posting a .292/.363/.478 line last year -- Marsee is turning a corner and has plenty of traits that match a classic leadoff man. He rarely whiffs or chases and will take a walk, and he has enough speed to nab 20-plus bags. He's shown flashes of sustained success, too, having finished eighth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2025 and winning Arizona Fall League MVP honors in 2023.

McCullough plans to continue to mix and match atop the lineup, depending on a myriad of factors like the current roster, starter handedness and what the other team's bullpen looks like. But Marsee also doesn't want his lineup spot to change how he approaches the game.

"In the past, I haven't done a good enough job of just treating at-bats the same, and in reality it doesn't really matter," Marsee said. "I lead off innings during the game when I'm not leading off and things like that. So I'm just trying to keep the same version of the game, and I think I've been doing a better job of that lately."