Brian Ellington shows promise for Miami Marlins despite struggles

Miami Marlins didn’t waste any time getting recently recalled pitcher Brian Ellington in the game. One day after joining the club, Ellington struggled with his command, but showed promise.

The Miami Marlins likely would have preferred to have Brian Ellington‘s first appearance take place later in the game. Starting pitcher Adam Conley lasted only 3 2/3 innings before bench coach Tim Wallach was forced to take the long walk to the mound from the dugout. Manager Don Mattingly had already been ejected by the second inning for arguing balls and strikes.

Conley’s struggles included seven earned runs and three walks, and the Marlins were dipping into the bullpen early again.

Ellington was brought up from the minor leagues in place of Odrisamer Despaigne, who failed to impress in his one start against the Mets. Ellington has made it to the pro club before, and struggled with command over his pitches. It was more of the same on Monday night; though he only issued one walk over his 2 1/3 innings of work.

Ellington surrendered two unearned runs as a result of a J.T. Realmuto error. He was effective mixing his pitches, and relied heavily on his upper-90’s fastball. Command issues flared up again though, and most the outs Ellington was able to record were on balls that were batted into play. Of the 50 pitches Ellington threw, only 27 were strikes.

Effectively wild

Despite performing well when being called to the Major League level, Ellington often runs up high pitch counts while on the mound. This indicates that the 26 year old right-hander is still doing a lot of throwing, rather than pitching. His 2.54 career ERA, coupled with his career 1.28 WHIP, suggests that he his working his way out of a lot of jams.

Ellington is doing too much grinding. Last night was proof that pitching to contact will produce excellent results, and likely keep him in the big leagues for good. As with any high velocity pitcher, the strikeouts will come. They certainly did last season. In 33 innings last year, Ellington fanned 32 batters.

Miami Marlins fans to search for positives last night, and Ellington was certainly one. The question moving forward will be consistency. Attacking the zone will produce better results for him, and the Marlins. If he is able to do that, the Fish have an elite arm with several years of team control remaining.

Next: Braxton Garrett impressive in MiLB debut

The rest of the bullpen showed off last night as well. In a combined 5.1 innings, the pen allowed no earned runs, on four hits, two walks and four strikeouts.