MIAMI – The Marlins placed first baseman Christopher Morel on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to Wednesday) and recalled infield prospect Deyvison De Los Santos ahead of Saturday afternoon's 4-3 win over the Rockies at loanDepot park.
Morel, who was scratched from Friday night’s Opening Day lineup with a left oblique strain he sustained during his last swings of batting practice, was expected to get the majority of the first-base reps after inking a one-year deal with Miami as its lone Major League position player signing. Instead, Morel will miss 4-6 weeks.
"It was frustrating," Morel said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. "This is a very important year for me. I've been working a lot to do great things this year, and just for this to happen, a couple hours before the game, it was extremely frustrating."
Miami's season-opening 2-1 win over Colorado hinted toward its blueprint of what's to come during Morel's absence.
Connor Norby, originally serving as the designated hitter, replaced Morel at first base and moved from sixth to Morel’s fifth spot in the lineup. Like Morel, Norby had never appeared at first base until Grapefruit League games on March 14 and 17. Rookie Owen Caissie (Marlins' No. 3 prospect, No. 42 overall) replaced Norby as the DH and batted eighth.
"Moving forward at first base, we have Deyvison up here from Triple-A, so congrats to him, and he'll get a start tomorrow versus the lefty, and probably that's where his opportunity starting will come from is versus left, whether that's at first or DHing," manager Clayton McCullough said. "And we'll see Norby continue to get reps at first base, see Liam [Hicks] also get some time at first base. As I sit here right now, Norby probably takes down the bulk of the starts over there."
On Friday, Norby went 2-for-3 and also recorded the first two outs of the top of the fifth inning. It wasn't until the middle of batting practice that he found out he would be moving over to first.
"I caught every ball, had a ground ball, caught a popup, thought it was pretty good overall," Norby said. "I know there are going to be some growing pains, could happen at any point. But I've been working hard the last couple days, and obviously I'm going to continue to work hard over there and get more comfortable, and comfortability comes with reps. But I thought it was a good first night."
Caissie, meanwhile, knocked an RBI double to open the scoring in the second inning in his first at-bat as a Marlin. Despite the lefty/lefty matchup, Caissie felt prepared against Kyle Freeland because he did his own scouting report on Thursday night to be ready.
"Whenever you join a new team, you want to show that what you can do, especially in the season," Caissie said. "Spring Training is Spring Training. To get that out of the way was great. It's good to get a run across for the boys."
Morel is the latest Marlin to go down with an injury, joining outfielders Kyle Stowers (Grade 1 right hamstring strain) and Esteury Ruiz (high-grade left oblique strain) as well as infielder Maximo Acosta (Grade 1 left oblique strain). That trio began the season on the 10-day injured list.
As a result, the Marlins didn't have many healthy 40-man position-player options available to round out the Major League roster: De Los Santos, middle infielder Jared Serna and catcher Joe Mack (Marlins' No. 5 prospect, MLB Pipeline's No. 62 overall prospect), all of whom were at Triple-A Jacksonville.
De Los Santos, who was the main return in the A.J. Puk trade with the D-backs in July 2024, paced all Minor Leaguers with 40 homers and 120 RBIs with three MiLB teams across two levels (Double-A and Triple-A) that season. But the corner infielder's numbers dropped across the board, especially in the power department (12 homers), as he fell off Miami's Top 30 prospects list, per MLB Pipeline.
Still just 22, De Los Santos appeared in seven Grapefruit League games this spring, going 4-for-14 with no extra-base hits. On March 8, the Marlins optioned him to Triple-A Jacksonville, where he went deep in the Jumbo Shrimp's season opener on Friday.
"They told me to stay developing the same things I've been doing," De Los Santos said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. "I'm a more mature player right now, and to keep up the good work, that I was going to be needed at some point. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to help the team win some games."