Prospect Watch: Stone Garrett

A look at the Miami Marlins minor league prospect and Jupiter Hammerhead, Stone Garrett

Stone Garrett is the 9^th rated prospect for the Miami Marlins according to Baseball America. The 21-year-old out of Sugar Land Texas was drafted by the Fish in the 8^th round of the 2014 amateur draft.

Garrett is a starting outfielder for the Jupiter Hammerheads of High-A.

He primarily plays in left, however, has seen action in right as well. One of the biggest transitions a high school kid has to make when going into the minors is using a wood bat.

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Along with that, he is also being confronted with better pitching. So the first couple years have been a struggle, as expected. Boasting only a .244 average so far in three seasons in the minors.

Garrett’s BB/K ratio is also disastrous at 0.22 walks per strikeout. These stats are representative of the transition he’s been making. Only a few, elite players can make this transition look easy.

The obvious example of that is Bryce Harper. Garrett just needs to find his groove before he’ll be lighting it up with the bat. The flip-side of that is, so far, Garrett has been exceptional with the glove.

Holding a respectable .975 fielding % so far through the minors. Garrett can be an important part of the Miami Marlins future.

The Future

As the second highest rated outfielder prospect in their farm system, he could hold value. The Marlins already have franchise players in Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton.

However, there is a huge question surrounding Marcell Ozuna. Ozuna is transforming into the player the Marlins hoped he’d become. The Fish though, will be reluctant to give Ozuna a huge contract extension.

An option would be to trade him for more prospects to avoid the new contract. Or, extend him for only a couple more years. A plan that would be more favorable for the Marlins is a three or four year extension. Working with agent Scott Boras, however, may not allow that.

That would give Garrett some time to grow and improve as a player which then could give the Marlins some serious options. They could trade Ozuna.

Or they could trade Garrett. Trading Garrett in the future would be a trade deadline type of move. These options are strongly contingent of the production of Ozuna and Garrett in the upcoming years.

Next: Miami Marlins Prospect Watch: Brian Anderson

The hope is that Garrett will become the player that the Marlins and scouts around baseball think he’ll become. A Major League starting outfielder.