Cabrera Is 99th Ex-Wahoos Star For MLB Debut; Marlins Climb To No. 3 In System Ranking

His five starts with the Blue Wahoos this season helped pitcher Edward Cabrera convince he was ready for a grander stage.

The Miami Marlins provided the opportunity Wednesday night.

Cabrera, 23, became the 99th former Blue Wahoos player to make his major league debut when he started for the Marlins and worked into the seventh inning of their eventual 4-3 walkoff win against the Washington Nationals.

The 6-foot-5 righthander threw six scoreless innings, before allowing back-to-back home runs in the seventh that reversed a 2-0 lead into a 3-2 deficit. After he exited, the Marlins tied the game and then broke an eight-game losing streak with a walkoff win in the 10th inning.

“Edward was really, really composed for his first outing,” said Marlins manager Don Mattingly, during a post-game press conference with media at the game Wednesday night. “He got the strike zone. The pitch count was down. He attacked all night.”

Cabrera, rated the Marlins’ No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline, made two starts at Blue Wahoos Stadium. The latter occurred on June 30 in win against Biloxi.

Just as he did that day in Pensacola, Cabrera exited Wednesday night by giving a quick sign of the cross and pointed skyward. He completed a long journey since his arrival in 2015 from the Dominican Republic.

His MLB debut gave the same impression Cabrera left from his first start in Double-A on June 19 with the Blue Wahoos. He effortless threw fastballs approaching 100 mph through the game.

“I woke up this morning with a lot of confidence,” Cabrera said via an interpreter in a media press conference afterward. “I had in my mind just like, 'You're here. Let's see what's going to happen now. God willing, everything will come out correctly.' And that's what happened.

“But I've got to be honest. Last night I was thinking a lot about the dream.”

Cabrera was the second Blue Wahoos player this season to make an MLB debut with Miami. The other was reliever Sean Gunther, who made his debut Aug. 4 and has worked in five games, all in relief with no saves.

The hope in Miami is that Cabrera can join Sixto Sanchez, currently sidelined this season with an injury, along with current Blue Wahoos pitchers Max Meyer, Jake Eder, Kyle Nicolas and Zach McCambley to eventually join in a formidable pitching staff.

The Marlins future was enhanced Wednesday by updated minor league system ratings by MLB Pipeline. The Marlins ranked No. 3 among the 30 Major League teams. Only the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners had higher-rated minor league systems.

“The Marlins went from one of baseball’s worst farm systems at the end of 2017 to one of its best by mid-2019, and they’ve kept adding to it ever since,” said MLB Pipleine in its published report. “Several of their best farmhands should arrive in the big leagues over the next couple of years.”

The Blue Wahoos have seen much of that organizational talent on display this season in Pensacola. Along with the strong pitching, which includes the Blue Wahoos pitchers, there is Pensacola’s outfield trio of J.J. Bleday, Peyton Burdick and Griffin Conine.

All are projected to reach the major leagues one day.

Meyer, Bleday and Eder are all ranked among baseball’s top 100 prospects according to MLB Pipeline. Cabrera is the only player among Miami’s six top 100 prospects who has been in the organization longer than three years. Everyone else is a draft pick or acquired within the last couple years.

Cabrera’s debut ended with one out in the seventh inning Wednesday night. He finished allowing four hits, three earned runs on the two homers, three walks and two strikeouts.

After throwing just 66 pitches in the first six innings, the Marlins opted to send him back out in the seventh. But two of his changeups hung in the strike zone and Washington’s Josh Bell and Yadiel Hernandez blasted both of those pitches out of LoanDepot Park in Miami.

All three of Cabrera’s walks came in the sixth and seventh.

“I made my debut,” Cabrera said,” and I’m ready to continue to work.”