Don’t be fooled by the baby face and small stature.
Marlins No. 14 prospect Javier Sanoja proved he belongs in The Show by recording an RBI in his Major League debut on Saturday, then followed up with two hits in his first start on Sunday.
No. 3 prospect Connor Norby had his first career multi-homer game, while Griffin Conine contributed three hits, as rookies powered the Marlins to a 10-1 victory over the Phillies at loanDepot park.
“I was like, ‘Who is this little guy? He mashes, he just rakes, he hits everybody and everything,’” Norby said about Sanoja. “I’m glad he’s up here. I said when he got here, ‘This kid might be our best hitter in our lineup.’ And that’s not to discredit [Jake] Burger, [Xavier Edwards], [Griffin Conine], or [Jonah Bride]. But he rakes, and you guys saw a little bit of that today.”
According to MLB Pipeline’s scouting report, the 5-foot-7 Sanoja consistently puts the ball in play to all fields with a simple right-handed swing, and he demonstrated that in Sunday’s game.
Sanoja, who turned 22 on Tuesday, crushed Phillies No. 15 prospect Seth Johnson’s hanging slider for a leadoff double in the second. In the seven-run fourth, with runners at the corners and one out, Sanoja pulled Johnson’s two-strike changeup for an RBI single (105.3 mph exit velocity). When Nick Fortes doubled, Sanoja sprinted from first to score at 28.9 ft/sec (average is 27 ft/sec, elite is 30 ft/sec).
“He doesn’t punch out,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “You can tell when it was two strikes that he was digging in even deeper. He was going to force [Johnson] to come inside the strike zone. He wasn’t going to go outside the strike zone. For a young player to do that, it’s pretty special. He made it up here quick. He was in the Dominican Summer League just three years ago. Honestly, he still looks like he could be in the DSL how young he is, but it’s pretty cool to see him up here.”
It’s been a whirlwind 2024 for Sanoja, who signed out of Maracay, Venezuela as an international free agent five years ago but didn’t make his professional debut until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A non-roster invitee at big league camp this season, Sanoja was promoted to Triple-A Jacksonville after starting the season at Double-A Pensacola. With the Jumbo Shrimp, he had a slash line of .291/.354/.431, recording more walks (44) than strikeouts (30) in 111 games.
“I’m also surprised,” Sanoja said pregame Saturday via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “It was very, very fast, but I will say a lot of improvement thanks to winter ball. Venezuelan baseball is very deep. I received a lot of help from veterans, which provided me with new knowledge that I was able to apply when I came into this camp, and here we are now.”
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