ARLINGTON -- For the most part, it was a typical start day for the Marlins’ battery of Janson Junk and Liam Hicks.
The pair, along with pitching coaches Daniel Moskos and Alon Leichman, held their usual pregame meeting to gameplan. In between frames, they offered feedback about what was -- or wasn’t -- working on the mound during Friday night’s 6-4 victory over the Rangers in 12 innings at Globe Life Field.
Totally normal, right?
Except for one minor difference: Leichman, the club’s assistant pitching coach, called pitches from inside the dugout by delivering signs to Hicks, who would then check his wristband and use PitchCom to relay the offering to his pitcher.
“I think it was just a good blend, I would say. It went seamlessly today,” said Junk, who went a career-high-tying seven innings and struck out five while allowing just one run. “Everything was good. There was no hiccups. It didn't feel like I was waiting for anything when I was out there. [Alon] did a great job tonight. I know he was a little bit nervous about doing it and not messing up, but I thought he did a great job tonight. And Hicksy, too, behind the plate, getting it in time and giving me the opportunity to go through my normal routine. That was big-time.”
Miami’s unorthodox strategy didn’t come as a surprise, as manager Clayton McCullough discussed it during his pregame scrum. While this is a new concept in the Majors, it has been an organization-wide strategy across the Marlins’ Minor League affiliates in 2025.
The Marlins, who haven’t shied away from innovation, had been having internal conversations about bringing it to the MLB club for months, and finally decided to go ahead with it, informing the pitching group last Sunday. The plan was to get reps earlier this week in Colorado, which they did, and then implement it during Friday’s series opener. McCullough assured the decision wasn’t made because of a lack of faith in either of the club’s rookie catchers, Hicks or Agustín Ramírez. The inexperienced roster also wasn’t a driving force.
“We kept coming back to, we think our pitchers, over time, will perform better if that's the delivery system we use coming from the dugout,” McCullough said. “And we kept saying the answer was yes, and I felt like this was the right time to do it. We have some season left, we feel like this is the time that I'm comfortable for us to do it.”
Junk, who pitched with this game-calling strategy a few times at Triple-A Jacksonville, and Hicks, who had never done so before, were the guinea pigs.
Things ran rather smoothly, as Junk limited Texas to one run -- on a slow roller that stayed fair down the third-base line -- and three hits. After that RBI, Junk retired the next 12 Rangers in a row. He leaned a bit more on his breaking pitches rather than his changeup while facing a right-handed-heavy lineup.
“I didn't shake at all,” Junk said. “There's a few times where I kind of thought about it, the [Joc] Pederson first AB, when he got the double down the line, I think we went three fastballs in a row, and [after going] 2-0 I was like, ‘I kind of want to go with a different pitch right here.’ Ultimately, I didn't shake. And we talked about that, and I was like, ‘Hey, I was feeling this.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I kind of thought that, too.’
“The scouting report says one thing, but what we're feeling, what we're seeing, is another story. So that was kind of like a good learning moment of just kind of reading the game, rather than just going off his little card or whatever.”
Added Hicks: “There's certain situations, obviously, they can see. They’ve got heat maps, they’ve got certain things on the bench that you might not see, that you might not have access to in real time in the game. And then, there's also times where I see things that maybe they don't see. So I think that's why the communication between innings is huge. But yeah, it's definitely good to come into the dugout and talk and say, ‘Why'd you think that pitch? Why'd you choose that one?’ So it's good.”
After Junk, Miami ran out righty Lake Bachar (eighth), lefty Cade Gibson (ninth) and righties Michael Petersen (10th) and George Soriano (11th and 12th), and catcher Brian Navarreto for the final three innings. Different faces, same strategy.
“Anticipate that this is how we do it going forward. But like anything else, to completely close the door on anything is probably not a great way to go about it, right?” McCullough said. “The more flexibility and optionality you leave yourself down the road. But we see this as how we would like our game calling to go the rest of the season and moving forward. Our catchers need to be able to spend their bandwidth and their time and other aspects of things than the preparation part of it on that side.”