Meet The Marlins New Catcher Jorge Alfaro

Jorge Alfaro will be behind the plate for the Miami Marlins this upcoming season.

The 25 year old second year player came off a solid rookie season. As a catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies he hit .262 with 10 homers and 37 RBI in 344 plate appearances. He hopes to get even better in his first season with the Miami Marlins.

Although the Miami Marlins lost J.T Realmuto, who is arguably the best catcher in major league baseball, they acquired Jorge Alfaro, who is no slouch. Alfaro and Realmuto are similar in that both are very fast and athletic. Alfaro is the type of player the Marlins are looking for – young and talented. Everyone has been talking about Sixto Sanchez, but Alfaro can help the Marlins offense grow right now. 

Alfaro possesses many tools that are desirable to be a solid major league hitter. Amazing power and solid contact – for a catcher he’s really fast. Some people would argue that he had help all around him in the Phillies lineup and to expect a fall off for when he plays for the Marlins.

Although the Marlins are in a heavy rebuild mode right now, Alfaro will bring a major league-level bat into the Marlins line-up. I think he’ll be able to help bring protection to someone like Brian Anderson or Lewis Brinson. Alfaro was also highly touted as a prospect, reaching the MLB’s Top 100.

Alfaro has a tremendous amount of potential and no one has doubted it. His talent has been noticed by organizations across the MLB. He was ranked as a top three prospect in the Texas Rangers and the Philadelphia Phillies respective farm systems. He still needs to refine some tools and, work on his defense as he had 14 passed balls and 52 bases stolen on him. Alfaro does have a rocket arm, although he has only caught 24.6 percent of runners trying to steal. The bat is there for Jorge, and now the cornerstones are there for the Marlins offense.

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The two most consistent hitters now on the Marlins are Brian Anderson, who hit .273 with 11 homers and 65 RBI and Starlin Castro, who turned in a .278 average with 12 round-trippers and 54 RBI. Jorge Alfaro soon hopes to belong in the same conversation. Alfaro and Anderson were both rookies last year, and both put up really good numbers despite being just 25-years-old. Starlin will most likely be traded for more young talent before this season’s trading deadline.

Worst case scenario, Alfaro is a place holder until Miami Marlins prospect Will Banfield is major league ready. I believe Alfaro can become a very good catcher. After looking at most of the different projections from different sources,  I think you can expect Jorge Alfaro to hit .240 with around 14 homers and 50 RBI. By no means a finished product, Alfaro has some growing to do – but the Marlins have nothing but time.

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