Marlins Pitching Prospect Named Southern League Pitcher of the Week

The Miami Marlins have built a farm system full of pitching. 

In MLB Pipeline’s newest Top 100 update, coming over the weekend, the Marlins placed three different hurlers in the top 100 prospects for all of baseball - RHPs Noble Meyer (#46) and Max Meyer (#84) and LHP Thomas White (#90). Max Meyer’s rise from #99 to #84, a total of fifteen spots, was the seventh-largest jump of any player on the list. 

But outside the top 100, there’s still plenty of promise and potential. Righthander M.D. Johnson, pitching for Double-A Pensacola, has been named the Southern League Pitcher of the Week for his efforts last week. 

With the Blue Wahoos taking on the Birmingham Barons (Chicago White Sox affiliate), Johnson made a quality start, holding Birmingham to just three hits in six innings and giving up one total run. He struck out six batters and did not allow a walk as Pensacola held on for a 3-1 win.   

The outing brought Johnson’s ERA down to 3.41 for the season. 

Johnson, 26, was a 6th-round pick by the Miami Marlins in the 2019 MLB Draft out of Dallas Baptist University. Across his five seasons in the Marlins minor league system, he’s gone 20-26 with a 3.98 ERA, making 69 starts and striking out 379 batters in 378 innings.   

Pensacola finished the week with wins in five of the six games against Birmingham, with only the series opener going the Barons' way. The Blue Wahoos start a six-game series tomorrow in Montgomery against the Biscuits, an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Game one is scheduled for Tuesday evening at 6:05 PM CT.