This prospect duo is living up to the billing

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MIAMI -- When considering who was the first-half MVP of the Marlins’ farm system, director of player development Rachel Balkovec couldn’t decide between right-hander Noble Meyer and lefty Thomas White.

Who could blame her?

“I will give it a straight tie between Noble and Thomas,” Balkovec said. “From their intangibles, it's really incredible. No surprise that they're both really humble, mature. They're very cerebral and wanting to dive into every little metric and number that they can get to get better. They're wanting to learn about their bodies. They're just really cerebral, inquisitive people.”

Selected 10th and 35th overall in the 2023 MLB Draft, Meyer (Marlins' No. 1 prospect, No. 40 overall, according to MLB Pipeline) and White (Miami's No. 2 prospect, No. 57 overall) have lived up to the billing and more in their first full professional season.

After helping Single-A Jupiter capture its first Florida State League title last fall, Meyer and White began 2024 with the Hammerheads before being promoted to High-A Beloit on May 28.

Meyer -- who had hoped to reach Beloit by the All-Star break -- and White made the 19 1/2-hour drive from Jupiter, Fla., to Beloit, Wis., in one day, stopping only for gas. They talked about baseball. They watched episodes of “The Blacklist” on Netflix and listened to Linkin Park.

“Thomas and I were kind of keeping track of, ‘How's Beloit doing?’” said Meyer, who struck out a career-high 11 batters in his Single-A finale on May 25. “We both realized we were doing really well and that sooner or later, we kind of forced their hand. 'You've got to move us up.' [We were] putting up numbers that for lack of better words -- it might sound a little egotistical -- but we were too good to be Low-A at that point.”

Their numbers back up that statement. Meyer posted a 2.65 ERA, a 1.18 WHIP and an 11.4 K/9 rate in eight starts with Jupiter. White compiled a 3.18 ERA, a 1.59 WHIP and an 11.6 K/9 rate in eight starts. If there was anything to nitpick, it was Meyer and White's BB/9 rates (6.1 and 4.5). Meyer (4.4 BB/9) and White (4.0) have each improved on that front with Beloit.

Meyer and Thomas, who have known each other since the 2023 MLB Draft Combine, are both driven to be the best version of themselves. They often bounce ideas off each other and try to build off the other’s success

Despite dominating in Spring Breakout in March, White decided to tinker with his slurve to improve his arsenal. He said the high-70s offering was grading out at just 44 on the 20-80 scouting scale. With Meyer's help, White changed his hand positioning when releasing the pitch, making it more of a true slider (83-85 mph). White debuted it in a game on May 10, and it recorded a 70 grade. In turn, Meyer asked White for advice on his fastball. Meyer is trying to reach the upper-90s, like he did as a preps star.

“I think it just makes everything a little bit easier,” White said. “We’re the only two high school [guys]. [We've] got college guys behind us, so you can also pick their brains, but we also want somebody who's at the same level, pretty much going through the exact same thing.”

Meyer (five scoreless innings) and White (four innings, one unearned run) had solid debuts for High-A Beloit. After his June 8 outing, Meyer missed a couple of starts as a precaution for his back before returning on June 27. Before the first half ended, White recorded a 2.50 ERA in his first four starts with the Sky Carp, striking out 27 batters in 18 innings while allowing no extra-base hits.

For their efforts, they will represent the Marlins at Saturday’s All-Star Futures Game in Arlington. If Meyer and White continue on this track, they might achieve their goal of reaching Double-A Pensacola before the season ends.

“We're flying for that,” White said. “We said we'd never do it again.”

Triple-A Jacksonville: INF Javier Sanoja (No. 17 prospect)
Facing competition oftentimes more than five years older, the 21-year-old Sanoja batted .316/.375/.447 with 13 doubles, four triples and two homers in 53 first-half games for the Jumbo Shrimp. Sanoja walked (22) more than he struck out (11) while seeing action at second base, shortstop and center field.

“He really sticks out for me personally,” Balkovec said. “Just from a young age and kind of -- I don't want to say surprise -- but when we sent him there, we were not sure if he was ready. And he definitely has proven to everyone that he belongs there, so I think that he comes to mind for me.”

Double-A Pensacola: C Joe Mack (No. 26 prospect)
The Marlins promoted the 21-year-old Mack to Pensacola on April 21, after his hot start to the season with Beloit (1.038 OPS in 13 games). In 53 first-half games for the Blue Wahoos, he hit .238/.308/.485 with 14 doubles and 12 homers. Mack has gone deep twice since then and ranks second in the Southern League with 14 homers.

“For anyone at that age to perform at the Double-A level -- from a mentality standpoint, from an energy standpoint, from a clubhouse guy standpoint -- he just really kills it,” Balkovec said. “I think he still has growing to do, of course, just like anyone at that age, but he's really shown up and been able to handle it really well.

"The intangible pieces are there, obviously, and then also credit to him. He got to Double-A and struggled a little bit and handled failure well. ‘Hey, let's train this and let's work on this.’ I think he's still adjusting to breaking balls in Double-A a little bit, but frankly, that hasn't really slowed him down.”

Single-A Jupiter: C Ryan Ignoffo
The 23-year-old converted catcher recorded a slash line of .333/.416/.462 with 14 steals in 50 games during the first half. His .878 OPS was more than 200 points higher than the Florida State League average (.668), and he had more walks (25) than strikeouts (21). Entering Sunday, Ignoffo ranked second in the FSL this season in on-base percentage (.398), third in average (.324), slugging percentage (.460) and OPS (.858), and fourth in hits (69).

According to director of Minor League operations Hector Crespo, Ignoffo grades out as an average receiver with above-average pop time (1.92 seconds).