MIAMI -- Life is a journey of self-discovery, and baseball players are no different.
Nearly four years ago, Marlins right-hander Janson Junk made his Major League debut with the Angels. Since then, he has pitched for four other organizations and has yet to find his footing in The Show … until now.
Junk carried over his dominant relief work into his first start of the season, going five solid innings to earn the win in Friday night’s 6-2 victory over the Braves at loanDepot park. Batterymate Agustín Ramírez backed him up with a career-high-tying four RBIs.
“The biggest thing is I kind of just understand what I'm good at,” Junk said. “Before, it was a lot of searching, and I think over even the end of last year, I saw hints of it like, ‘Oh, this is what I should be doing,’ even though the results weren't the best in some cases. I fell back to trying to be someone who I'm not. And then having the offseason and coming in here, I just leaned on what I've been good at and have seen success, and just leaned on that.”
The 29-year-old Junk allowed one run on five hits with five strikeouts and no walks, striking out three of the first four batters, including Ronald Acuña Jr., to open the game. He didn’t allow a hit until Acuña’s leadoff single in the fourth. Atlanta would score a run that inning on Matt Olson’s RBI single, but Junk limited the damage by stranding runners on the corners.
Overall, Junk threw 79 pitches (61 strikes) in his eighth career start -- his first since 2023 with the Brewers -- and 21st career outing. His 77.2 percent strike rate was the highest by a Marlins starter this year (min. 50 pitches thrown), and that capability is the primary reason for his success. If Junk ever wanted to be a starter and go deep into games, he had to be effective in the zone and attack hitters. It’s a realization he grasped with time.
It also doesn’t hurt to possess Junk’s hard slider and slow sweeper, the former of which he added in 2024 and the latter of which he brought back this spring. They change the eye levels of batters and complement his mid-90s four-seamer.
“He's got a lot of command,” said Ramírez, who crushed a three-run homer in the third. “The slider, big [sweeper]. He's really good.”
When his contract was selected from Triple-A Jacksonville on May 24, Junk had been starting for the Jumbo Shrimp. In nine games (eight starts), he had a 2.78 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP, tallying six starts of two earned runs or fewer.
With the big league club, however, Junk piggybacked veteran righty Cal Quantrill's next three starts, giving up two earned runs over 13 innings -- just one-third of a frame less than Quantrill during that stretch. Junk experienced his first hiccup on June 9 in Pittsburgh, where he gave up five runs over four innings as the bulk reliever for Eury Pérez's return from Tommy John surgery. Last Saturday in Washington, Junk returned to form by going a season-high 5 2/3 scoreless frames in a bullpen game.
“We've just seen the same today as what he had shown in the other roles he had been used in up to this point,” manager Clayton McCullough said on Friday. “It was quality stuff, the ability to mix pitches, get miss, pound the strike zone. We expect Janson -- this being a start compared to coming out of the bullpen -- that he would be equally as prepared and would be able to go out there and throw like he has.
“Janson's a good pitcher. We continue to see the high-quality nature of the stuff and the ability to again mix and keep guys off balance, get a punchout. So another very effective appearance and outing from Janson for us today.
Junk, who became the 12th different starting pitcher for Miami this season, would be in line for Thursday’s series finale in San Francisco. The Marlins could turn to an opener before handing Junk the bulk work like in D.C.
“I think we'll just approach each of those with the ability to be nimble there and what we think gives us the best chance to win depending on who we're playing,” McCullough said.
Whatever the decision, Junk will take it in stride.
“Every time I go out there, starting, relieving, doing what I did before, it's all the same,” Junk said. “I'm just trying to go and execute how I was doing before."