DENVER -- After winning four of their last five games with a largely depleted dugout, the Marlins hit Coors Field with extra fortification as four players returned to the active roster for Tuesday’s series opener.
Right-handed reliever Tyler Phillips is back from paternity leave, and outfielder Dane Myers and infielders Connor Norby and Graham Pauley all returned from rehab assignments with Triple-A Jacksonville and were reinstated from the 10-day IL. Norby and Myers were both in the lineup Tuesday.
“Connor was playing very well, and then, unfortunately, just got nicked up with the quad a little bit to miss some time,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “Graham was playing at a very high level on both sides of the ball before he got injured. With all three of them, it’s nice that they were able to get back and have some season left to continue on and hopefully finish strong. They [can] finish a Major League season healthy, able to go into the off-season with that behind them, in preparation for ’26.”
Norby echoed his manager’s sentiments about the chance to finish the season and is ready to show he can make an impact on the field with his return.
“I feel like I can contribute,” Norby said Tuesday, before starting at third base against the Rockies. “The goal is obviously to win as many games from now -- that’s always the goal. Help teams win. Finish strong, take the off-season [to] hopefully put this year behind me. We all continue to grow as individuals and as a team. That's the goal.”
Norby played three rehab games with Jacksonville, going 2-for-10 with a run scored and two RBIs. It was his third time on the IL this season, starting with a left oblique strain that caused him to miss the first 17 games of the year. He had surgery on his hamate bone on July 16, and after returning on Aug. 29, he went back on the IL on Sept. 4 with a left quad strain.
“I’m taking care of my body a little bit better, eating a little bit better,” Norby said of what he’s taken away from this injury-plagued campaign. “I've been switching something up in the weight room, whether it's routine-based for my day or in the cage, whatever it may be, taking more pride in that, putting a little bit more emphasis on that.”
McCullough is eager for the chance to do some further evaluation of the players in the final weeks of the season, and with Norby returning to third, where Pauley had filled in for him, he expects to get a sense for Pauley’s versatility.
“We’re not going to run either one of them over a lot of days in a row, especially early on,” McCullough said. “There'll be chances for Pauley to play third, and also, I think we'll see him at first base tomorrow as a way to give him some chances offensively, to keep going with the momentum he had built.
“[We’re] wanting to ensure that we’re able to get the most out of them for the amount of games that we have left here, and of being cognizant that three days here in Colorado wears on you more than other places. We'll get them all in there, and don't need to red-line anybody as they come back.”
In corresponding moves, the Marlins optioned infielders Maximo Acosta and Jack Winkler, along with outfielders Christian Roa and Victor Mesa Jr., to Triple-A Jacksonville.
“I'm going to give the playing time to those guys that are coming back and the ones that we currently have on the roster, so it's better to go down to Jacksonville, finish out the regular season, and they have a playoff run ahead of them, instead of sitting here and idly watching games,” McCullough said. “They did a good job. Got their feet wet, and things can happen quickly.”