Miami Marlins Season Review: Catcher B.J. Lopez

B.J. Lopez will begin the 2019 season as a non-roster invitee to Miami Marlins major league Spring Training.

Throughout the 2018/2019 offseason, Marlin Maniac will devote one article each for every player who appeared in the Miami Marlins system for the 2018 season. Every. Single. Player. This is Part 194 of 286. For the first 100, click here.

Ernesto Lopez is a 5’9″, 185 lb. right-handed hitting and throwing catcher from Moca, Dominican Republic. The town of Moca has produced seven major leaguers to date, most recently Freddy Peralta.

Lopez was born on September 29th, 1994, and went undrafted out of Grand Street HS in Brooklyn, New York. After graduation, he signed a free agent deal to play for the Arizona Diamondbacks. His first professional look, with the 2012 rookie-level Arizona-based AZL Diamondbacks, in the Arizona League, would see Lopez go one-for-14 in nine contests.

Clearly, more work was needed, so Lopez rejoined AZL for the 2013 campaign. In 31 contests, he slashed .255/.381/.319, drawing 18 walks in only 113 plate appearances.

2014 would see Lopez split the season between the rookie-level Missoula Osprey in the Pioneer League and the single-A South Bend Silverhawks in the Midwest League. Between the two affiliates, Lopez slashed .231/.289/.255, with a .993 fielding percentage and a 35.4 percent kill-rate on runners trying to steal.

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Injuries took their toll on Lopez over the next three seasons, during which he only appeared in 79 games across several levels of Arizona’s system. On December 14th, 2017, Lopez joined the Miami Marlins in the triple-A phase of the rule 5 draft.

Lopez split his 2018 campaign between two Miami Marlins affiliates. He started the season with the single-A Greensboro Grasshoppers in the South Atlantic League and later joined the high-A Jupiter Hammerheads in the Florida State League. Between the two teams, he slashed .185/.269/.206 in 60 games, while gunning down 33-of-71 baserunners, a 46.5 percent CS rate. Lopez only had eight multi-hit games through the season between the two affiliates.

Lopez will begin the 2019 campaign as a non-roster invitee with the major league Spring Training for the Miami Marlins. He will probably end up joining the double-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp in the Southern League when it concludes. Lopez will be a depth option for the Miami Marlins, and will probably end up with the triple-A New Orleans Baby Cakes in the Pacific Coast League at some point during the year.

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