Sunday brings semi-historic showdown for Miami Marlins

The 2025 Miami Marlins might not have the look of a team that will make much history, at least of a kind that will draw a smile from their fans.

But they are poised to do just that in Sunday's series finale, when the Pittsburgh Pirates send Andrew Heaney out to face Miami's Max Meyer.

If you're a Miami Marlins fan familiar with my work, you're probably the kind of baseball nerd that has already clocked the significance of this matchup. Yet for those of that you that are either less Marlins obsessive, or those of you that are just Gen Alpha, I'll go ahead and break the news:

For the second time ever, two former Miami Marlins first round draft picks will go head to head in a showdown of starting pitchers.

Alright, is it the coolest of pitcher showdowns in Marlins history? No, that was probably that Opening Day 2004 pitcher's duel of Marlins World Series MVPs between Josh Beckett and Livan Hernandez.

Is this really obscure? Absolutely. All I can tell you is that in a season where the Marlins will be lucky to win as many games as there are states in the union, you'd best get comfortable celebrating obscure baseball history early on in the campaign.

Heaney vs Meyer provides just such an opportunity as the club's 2012 and 2020 top picks square off.

Heaney's greatest Marlins contribution, besides signing a baseball for me once, comes from being part of the trade package that brought Dee Strange-Gordon and Miguel Rojas to Miami. Heaney only appeared in seven games with the team that drafted him before being sent off, and it was one of those selections that brings a good deal of what-if head shaking with it. Of the 31 players selected in the official first round of the 2012 MLB draft, 11 made an All-Star appearance. Among the notable names going shortly after Heaney? How about Lucas Giolito, Corey Seager, and Marcus Stroman?

Just go ahead and plug Seager or Stroman into the 2016-2017 Marlins roster. Even if you just went right to trade value return, feel free to resume reading when your tears stop. I'll wait.

Meyer hopefully will be far more productive on the field during a hopefully much longer Marlins tenure. Recent changes to his arsenal and a strong spring training have provided amble grounds for hope that he can finally break through as an above average option every fifth day for a team badly in need of good options behind staff ace Sandy Alcantara. If nothing else, Meyer's 2020 MLB Draft class members have thus far failed to bring anywhere near the same level of buyer's remorse- with the glaring exception of Garrett Crochet going eight picks later. No other All Stars as of yet from that official first round group though, and all of the other promising talent from that group come with as many questions as answers in terms of their ability to be a big league difference maker. Plus none of those names were even remotely seen as options at No. 3 at the time.

Anyway, why bring up the second time something has happened?

Well for one, the second time is still at least a little impressive, especially when you're talking about a 2 out of 5,016 sample size. This is rare, Marlins fans!

More importantly though, many of you might have missed the first. It came just last season, and what's more, it once again featured Andrew Heaney. That time, 2017 first round pick Trevor Rogers took the hill for Miami. That round went to Heaney, who tossed six shutout innings with 7 Ks against his former club. Rogers did hang around for six innings himself, but also took the loss with a much more regrettable 4 ER. 2 BB, 3 K line.

Seeing as how this happened in the third month of a lost season, after the Luis Arraez trade and during a Stanley Cup run by the Florida Panthers, I just figured even many of you Miami Marlins diehards might have already changed the channel. At least until players traded for started showing up in games in August anyway.

At any rate, let's hope the Marlins are victorious this time around. Go get 'em Max.