Sometimes, prospects end up being better trade chips than actual players. That might be the case with Owen Caissie who has already been part of two prominent trades but has yet to find his footing in the major leagues.
After being selected by the Padres in the second round of the 2020 draft, Owen Caissie was soon shipped to the Cubs as part of their trade for Victor Caratini and Yu Darvish. Once in the Cubs system. he quickly rose the ranks and established himself as a top 50 prospect, being chosen for the Futures Game in both 2024 and 2025.
After dominating AAA in 2025, he was called up to the Cubs in August but struggled in a twelve-game cameo. The Cubs were apparently not overly impressed since they sent him back down and then sent him to the Marlins as part of the deal for Edward Cabrera.
Marlins fans got excited because Maissie played for Team Canada in the WBC and batted .412 with a home run.
The Marlins installed him as their regular right fielder, and his season got off to a promising start when he hit a walk off home run in the third game of the season.
The good times did not continue as he went into a slump shortly after that. After showing some signs of life in May, he’s struggled in June with only two hits in the month so far.
Player development is rarely linear, so Maissie could well turn things around quickly. But as of now, he’s been far more valuable in the transaction column than on the field.
Hating on the Marlins
Would you look at that? The Marlins are at .500 thanks to a group of young players that have showed some promise. Shall we guess how this is ultimately going to end?
That young core might put it together and make the playoffs in the near future. And just as people think the team is ready to be an actual contender, management will start to ship off some of those players because they’ve begun to, or about to get more expensive.
There’s a debate about why the Marlins have been such a failure of a franchise, minus two insanely fluky World Series runs. Does ownership not spend money because the fans don’t support the team, or do the fans not support the team because ownership never spends enough money to sustain success?
It’s likely a little of both, but between the Marlins and Rays, we have a lot of evidence that Florida fans don’t pack the stadium even when the teams are good. The Marlins have had a few owners over the years, and while some of them have been among the worst to ever own a major league team, every one of them has come to the conclusion that its simply not worth spending a ton of money on the team.
Back in 2020, a bunch of their fans got all in my mentions because the Marlins were better than the Phillies in the short season, and they thought they had stolen a future star in Sixto Sanchez. They’ve been quiet ever since.
If MLB ever tried contraction, the Marlins would likely be one of the first teams on the list, and only a handful of people would actually miss them.
Remembering a guy who played for both teams
Billy McMillon
In 1997, the moribund Phillies traded Darren Daulton to the Marlins, so he could finish out his career with a contender. In return, they got outfielder Billy McMillon. I attended “Billy Mac’s” first game with the Phillies, and to my delight, he launched a grand slam in the third inning as the Phillies romped over the Giants.
I was convinced the Phillies had a future star on their hands. They did not.
He would only hit one other home run as a member of the Phillies, but I appreciate the symmetry in that he hit it in his last game with the team.
I don’t know why McMillon spent the entire 1998 and 1999 seasons in the minors – it’s not like those Phillies teams were overflowing with talent – but he never returned to the majors before becoming a free agent after 1999. He spent a few seasons as a quad-A player getting brief stints with the Tigers and A’s before moving on to a minor league coaching career.
Additional thought about the series
The Phillies’ offense had a tough time of it against the Brewers’ top pitchers, but hopefully they can start to hit better against a far less imposing trio of starters in this series:
- Ryan Gusto is a quad-A caliber player with a 6.00 ERA
- Former Phillie Tyler Phillips has recently switched from the bullpen to the rotation with mixed results.
- Sandy Alcantara has improved in his second post-Tommy John season, but he’s far closer to league average than Cy Young winner at this point.
Then again, it isn’t hard to imagine the Phillies’ struggling to score runs against these guys. Apparently, there’s a rule that at least two – if not more – players on the team have to be in a miserable slump at any given time. In the month of June, Trea Turner and Justin Crawford both have sub-.500 OPS while J.T. Realmuto is plodding along with a .167 batting average.
Players are going to go through slumps during a long season, but is too much to ask that the slumps not be so drastic and maybe they could do it one at a time? It’s hard to win games when you’ve got three or four automatic outs in the lineup at any given time.
