JUPITER, Fla. -- Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett knows Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium very well.
After being selected in the 2016 MLB Draft, the second stop in Garrett's professional career was with the Jupiter Hammerheads. He lives in the area. Every spring, he walked into the facility hearing that improvements would be made but never saw them come to fruition.
Garrett needed to get his bearings straight the first time he entered the newly renovated Marlins Jupiter Academy last Wednesday for the first pitchers and catchers workout.
“As I said, I've been here a while," Garrett said. "We've been waiting for this.”
Once 2025 Spring Training came to a close, the Marlins started getting into site planning and development without affecting Single-A Jupiter or the Florida Complex League Marlins too much, though both teams shared a space. When the Minor League season ended in September, the organization then had four months to transform the site.
In coordination with the state of Florida, Palm Beach County and the Abacoa community, almost 1,000 people -- from contractors to the Marlins' business operations department -- were involved in the $140 million project, which includes renovations to the Marlins' and Cardinals' complexes as well as the stadium.
"I think we're the only team that has in this seven-, eight-year period, created a brand new Jupiter Academy and major improvements we made at loanDepot [park]," principal owner Bruce Sherman said. "And this facility, which many of you have seen, is just incredible. The commitment of this ownership group to player development is truly extraordinary."
The updates stand out from the moment one enters the academy and sees the statement wall, an installation piece both picturesque and symbolic.
“For us, we chose the living wall intentionally here to showcase growth, evolution and sustainability, which really matches the vision that we have here,” chief brand officer Alex Parker said.
Added president of baseball operations Peter Bendix: "This is our statement piece, and I think it's only appropriate that it gives a statement about what we're all about with the Marlins, the investment from Bruce, from ownership. It's really what we are all about as the Marlins. The investment in our players continues to show up. This investment in our players is something that will help them get better."
Behind the wall are the batting cages, which still include four lanes but contain updated flooring, ceiling, track system and netting. It continues to house state-of-the-art technology and gadgets, like the Trajekt machine.
Down the pathway is the 40,000-square-foot building that contains the clubhouse, offices and staff meeting rooms.
In reimagining the clubhouse, the Marlins asked for feedback from players and coaches, which led to the installation of locks at each locker and power outlets for electronic devices. There is now a raised ceiling, featuring a large Marlins primary logo above the billiards table, to feel more open.
Since Spring Training consists of a group much larger than a 26-player roster, there are lockers on wheels in the middle of the clubhouse that can be cleared out to provide more room as camp cuts take place. When that happens, the popular ping pong table and Pop-A-Shot will be brought out.
Another request concerned the areas adjacent to the clubhouse: a players’ lounge and a video room.
“One of the things that was important for baseball operations was that synergy of being close to the video guys coming off the field, going into the room, grabbing their iPad, whatever it is, and coming right into the locker room,” senior vice president of facilities, projects & corporate services Tony Brasile said. “So when you talk about adjacencies and what's important, the locker room, video room and players’ lounge were kind of key focus areas.”
These spaces used to be the locations of the weight and training rooms, which have since been relocated across from a new 100-foot-by-100-foot agility field with similar turf to the one found at loanDepot park.
Everything was taken into consideration – from the color of the walls (iron ore) to the types of furniture (banquettes for work space and high tops for digestion). The lounge allows players and coaches alike to spend time away from the clubhouse or office.
The multipurpose meeting room, like much of the academy, was built with flexibility in mind. There is a dividable wall, so multiple meetings can happen at once. While there were rows of tables lined up for meetings on this day, they could be rolled out for another purpose -- say a yoga session.
“We wanted everyone to have a communal space for them to meet, and also a communal space where all Major and Minor [Leaguers] can cross paths,” director of clubhouse operations Simon Beloff said. “So that's why a lot of this space where a lot of our Minor League guys come here, but our Major League guys cross, they can kind of see each other more, more of a togetherness than it was as separated last year.”
Building on last year's emphasis on revamping the nutritional aspect of the organization, the Marlins also needed to convert the nook into a full commercial kitchen due to the demands: The cooking staff can feed up to 400 people for three meals a day, with plenty of storage space.
Players and staff can walk through the buffet and use real plates and silverware for sustainability. There is both indoor and outdoor sitting, where umbrellas provide shade from the sun and provide a nice view of the player development building.
The pièce de résistance, based on a quick poll of players, is said building. At 12,500-square feet holistically, the player development building is three times the size of the weight room in Miami.
Adjacent to the agility field, it consists of a weight room, one training room apiece for Major and Minor Leaguers, a hydro room, a recovery room and a sauna.
“We used to call the last weight room ‘Carpet Kingdom,’” Beloff said. “It was 1,500 square feet that we had to get Major League players in, and then we had to build a tent for the Minor League guys. So now everyone has a shared space. There's no major and minor anymore. They all work out together. Everything was thought through, as far as the garage door so they could still go out and have easy access, the turf, so they could push sleds, the fans, so that they could still get some air circulation, even though there's air conditioning on.”
But that's not all.
Phase 2 of the project will begin once players leave camp for their respective teams. It will include batting and pitching labs adjacent to the cages as well as reconceptualization of the backfields.
Ideally, the Marlins would like their players to use this as a year-round locale to train. After the Dominican Republic Academy opened in 2022, Sherman’s vision entails an academy approach of developing players throughout the organization.
“Just more resources," said Anthony Bender, who lives a mile from the academy and saw the construction develop all winter. "I feel like the offseason training is so in-tune with all the trainers people are working with, and they have all these new gadgets and whatnot. Now we have them all over here, so you can kind of roll straight from what you've been doing in the offseason and bring it right into camp, which is very nice.”
The academy was buzzing on Monday morning, as all 71 players arrived at big league camp for the first full-squad workout.
“This stacks right up there with the best,” said manager Clayton McCullough, who spent years in the Cactus League with the Dodgers. “Got a chance to go down there [to the DR Academy] in November and visit that for the first time, how modern it is, how player friendly that is. And now having this in Jupiter for us, we feel like again, continuing to lay a really great foundation for where we are now as an organization and moving forward. And a big part of development is having a facility that can really support that, and also that guys, when they wake up in the morning, they're excited to come into work and knowing that they'll have everything at their disposal to get better.”