JUPITER, Fla. – The Marlins’ Opening Day rotation is penciled in after optioning left-hander Braxton Garrett to Triple-A Jacksonville on Friday afternoon.
Right-handers Sandy Alcantara (Opening Day, March 27), Eury Pérez (March 28) and Max Meyer (March 29) will start the opening series against the Rockies at loanDepot park and Chris Paddack (March 30) and Janson Junk (March 31) will start the first two games of the White Sox series.
Junk won the fifth spot over Garrett, who returned from Tommy John surgery this spring.
“I will say this: It was very difficult, and in some ways, it's a good thing that it was so difficult,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “It means that a high number of our potential starters that came into this camp, outside of Adam [Mazur], have stayed healthy, and they've performed. We like where a lot of our guys are, and yeah, it was tough. Brax has worked his butt off to get back. He's put in a lot of time to get himself healthy. He was throwing the ball well this spring, and just felt like to start the year that we had five that I wanted to go with.
"There's a part of this looking out for the entire season. We're going to need depth, and we're going to need as many options as we can, and so Brax will start off in Triple-A and just continue to get built up and go pitch. He's a pro, and I know that when we do need him, which we will, he'll come up and help.”
At no point did the Marlins consider moving Garrett to the bullpen in order to make the Opening Day roster. Junk is without Minor League options, while Garrett had one remaining entering Friday.
After the Marlins’ Grapefruit League contest against the Nationals was rained out on Wednesday, Garrett pitched four innings of a simulated game on Thursday on the back fields. He made two starts this spring, giving up two runs in one frame in his debut on Feb. 26, and allowing one run over three innings on March 8.
The 28-year-old Garrett understood his spot in the rotation wasn’t guaranteed despite his resume. From 2022-23, he was one of Miami’s top pitchers with a 3.63 ERA in 48 games (47 starts), even serving as the club’s Game 2 starter in the 2023 National League Wild Card Series. But Garrett had an injury-filled 2024, eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery that December and missing the entirety of the ‘25 season.
Junk, 30, served as a starter and a long reliever for the Marlins during a career year in 2025. Before joining Miami, he had appeared in just 15 games (seven starts) with three organizations from 2021-24. In 21 games (16 starts) for the Marlins, he posted a 4.17 ERA and a 3.14 FIP.
Though Junk’s splits were better as a reliever (2.78 ERA in five games) compared to as a starter (4.53 ERA in 16 starts), he pitched into the sixth inning in seven of those starts and recorded five quality starts.
Despite Junk’s spring being delayed when he sustained a Grade 1 right ankle sprain early in camp, Saturday’s Spring Training game will be his fourth outing (second start). He tossed a scoreless frame on March 7, permitted one run over two innings on March 11 and surrendered four runs across two-plus frames on Monday, when his velocity maxed out at 96.3 mph. The plan is for Junk to take the mound again on Thursday in Miami to get his pitch count closer to the other guys in the rotation.
“I think Janson Junk has a chance to be a really good starting pitcher,” McCullough said. “I think Janson deserves a chance to be in our rotation to start the season, Max Meyer as well. This move today does probably add some clarity to where we're at with starting the year with Sandy, Eury, Max, Paddack and Janson in the rotation. If we get to a point where performance or things dictate that we pivot, then we will. That's how I've kind of seen this spring play out. So that was what mostly has gone into this.”
With Junk joining the rotation rather than the bullpen, that takes away a swingman option. This spring, the Marlins have built up righties Tyler Phillips, Lake Bachar and Michael Petersen to go 2-4 frames.
Garrett being optioned affects Triple-A Jacksonville's rotation, which should also feature Top 100 prospects Thomas White (No. 17 overall) and Robby Snelling (No. 39 overall). Fellow southpaw Dax Fulton and righties Bradley Blalock and Ryan Gusto were previously optioned, though McCullough hinted that some pitchers might be converted to bulk options but remain stretched out. Miami used 15 different starters in 2025, which included four openers.