Keith Law Ranks Miami Marlins System 24th In MLB

Starting Monday, I’ll start counting down my top 20 prospects for the Miami Marlins farm system. With that started, I’ll start covering the minor league side of the Marlins franchise more than I have in the past.

On Tuesday, ESPN.com’s Keith Law (Insider Subscription Required) released his system rankings, with the Miami Marlins farm system coming in as the 24th best in the major leagues, 5 spots down from their #19 ranking from a year ago.

"24. Miami MarlinsTheir system rarely ranks high because they promote players to big league roles so quickly, but there’s a solid group of very young arms in the system that will be on the list for a while, as well as a teenage position player or two with some real upside. There’s very little in near-term talent here, however."

In the past three seasons, the Marlins have graduated names like Jose Fernandez, Christian Yelich, and Marcell Ozuna. They have also traded top prospects like Andrew Heaney, Colin Moran, Jake Marisnick, and Anthony DeSclafani, so it’s hard not to see why the farm system wouldn’t take a hit.

As Law mentions, the Marlins are more aggressive than other franchises when it comes to promoting players when they feel they are ready. This is a good reason we should expect to see two of the top pitching prospects, Justin Nicolino and Jose Urena, make their debuts some time in 2015.

More from Marlins Prospects

• Miami Marlins: Checking in on prospects from the 2022 Arizona Fall League
• Miami Marlins: How top 2022 MLB Draft picks performed this season
• What’s wrong with Kahlil Watson?
• Miami Marlins: Farm System rankings part 2
• Miami Marlins: Farm System rankings part 1

However, as Keith Law also points out, a good majority of the Marlins’ system value lies in the lower parts of the minor leagues, including 2014 first round pick Tyler Kolek. Kolek, whom many in the Marlins organization compare to Josh Beckett, is at least 3-4 years away from the majors, but could be also moved rapidly up if he progresses well, much like Jose Fernandez.

J.T. Realmuto will more than likely be the top Marlins hitting prospect in most prospect lists that come out.

Law will release his individual team rankings for the AL on Thursday and the NL on Friday. That’s when we’ll get a better sense of what he thinks about the players in the Marlins organization. Hopefully we’ll also get a prospect list from John Sickels of Minor League Ball in the coming days as well.

With those two lists coming out the next few days and us starting our prospect coverage Monday, we’ll have plenty of articles to keep you up to date with everything happening both in the majors and the minors for the Marlins franchise.

Next: Ichiro Press Conference set for Tonight