Now a face of the Marlins, Norby still working as hard as ever

JUPITER, Fla. -- Connor Norby. Sandy Alcantara. Dan Marino.

Those are the three people featured in promotional material for Marlins Opening Day festivities. In the span of six months, Norby has gone from a Baltimore prospect to a Miami building block.

¡°As a player, that's what you want,¡± Norby said. ¡°It's definitely cool. ¡­ I don't even feel like I'm going to make the team out of camp. That's just how I think I've always been. I've always had a chip on my shoulder, and I think I'll always have it. I need to play well and do my job here, and we'll see what happens.

¡°How I think, how I train, my desire to be the best I can be -- and I have super high expectations for myself -- and I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get there. As a player, that's really cool to think about, but if you're ever wondering if I'm complacent or if it's something that gets to my head, no.¡±

Miami acquired Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers ahead of the 2024 Trade Deadline for left-hander Trevor Rogers. Despite the fact that Norby was up with the Orioles¡¯ big league club at the time of the deal, the Marlins sent him to Triple-A Jacksonville for 14 games. A natural second baseman, he evenly split his time between that position and third base -- a position he hadn¡¯t played during his professional career -- before being recalled.

It¡¯s one thing to learn a new position. It¡¯s another to do so on the fly at the Major League level. Norby understandably experienced growing pains, committing seven errors in 267 innings there. Five of those were throwing errors.

So over the offseason, the 24-year-old Norby worked on throwing from different arm slots and replicating his arm action. He practiced making different reads.

¡°The ability is there,¡± said manager Clayton McCullough, who shares East Carolina University as an alma mater with Norby. ¡°He's an exceptional athlete. There's enough arm, there's enough skill, and now it's getting out and just kind of learning the nuances of playing third and having this chance in the offseason and during Spring Training.

¡°Tyler Smarslok is going to be our infield coach, going to do some great things. Connor's very eager and excited to get out there and get better. So that's fine. Everyone needs to improve. It's our job to try to create an environment that fosters that and challenges them in a game-like situation. Connor is going to get better. Connor is committed to getting better.¡±

That much is certain. Norby¡¯s work ethic and personality endeared him to teammates, the then-coaching staff and the front office alike.

During his initial 36-game stint in Miami, Norby opened with a 10-game hitting streak and would go on to produce a .760 OPS with eight doubles and seven homers. At 5-foot-10, 180 pounds, the right-handed-hitting Norby sent seven of his extra-base hits as a Marlin to straightaway center or right field.

¡°He can really hit,¡± president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. ¡°He's got power. He's got opposite-field power, which is hard to find. He is a grinder. He's got a fantastic mentality. He is always trying to get better. He's got a chip on his shoulder to prove to everybody that he can be great.

¡°And that's exactly the type of player that we're looking for. He needs to get better defensively. He knows that. That's going to be a key to exactly how good he ends up is the defense. He doesn't need to be a Gold Glove-caliber defender in order to be a superstar, and we're going to do everything we can to get him better defensively.¡±

When Norby wasn¡¯t working on his defense, he was cleaning up his bat path -- being a bit flatter and creating more length in the zone. Norby is eyeing 30 homers this season, but rest assured he won¡¯t be swinging for the fences.

¡°It's definitely different,¡± Norby said of being at Spring Training after making his MLB debut. ¡°I've been so looking forward to getting there, and then it finally happens. So it's nice to have it under my belt a little bit and have a little bit of experience. But it's the same. I'm here to prove that I want to be one of the best players in the league, and I think I can do that, and that's what it's about -- and helping the team win games. If I'm helping the team win games, probably I'm playing pretty well, too. So that's the main focus.¡±