There was never a doubt Blue Wahoos catcher Joe Mack would be elevated at some point this season.
It’s happening sooner than expected.
Injuries to a pair of Miami Marlins catchers led to a call-up and successful debut Monday night of touted prospect Augustin Ramirez behind the plate in his Major League debut.
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Now, Mack is heading to Triple-A where he was expected make his first appearance at that level Tuesday when the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp faced the Gwinnett (Ga.) Stripers, the Atlanta Braves’ Triple-A affiliate. Mack will fill the role Ramirez had as the team’s top catcher.
Once an organization searching for catching talent, the Marlins now have Ramirez and Mack on the rise. Both are rated among the Marlins Top 10 prospects. Mack was the Double-A Player of the Year in the Marlins’ system and winner of a Rawlings Gold Glove award.
Mack’s departure opens the door for Sam Praytor, the former Alabama Crimson Tide star, to become the Blue Wahoos’ mainstay catcher. It’s a role that will start Tuesday when the Blue Wahoos begin a six-game series against the Knoxville Smokies, the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A affiliate. Also departing to Jacksonville was Blue Wahoos second baseman Harrison Spohn.
Mack, meanwhile, was a big part of why the Blue Wahoos (11-4) have the best record in the Southern League and tied for the best start among all Double-A teams across three leagues. He entered this season with high expectations and his start has fulfilled that perception.
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In 13 games with the Blue Wahoos, he was batting .318 with three homers, five RBIs, a .614 slugging percentage and whopping 1.078 OPS (on-base, plus slugging percentage).
“I believe I improved on both sides of the plate, hitting and catching,” said Mack, 22, a Western New York native, speaking before the season began. “I’ve been working a lot on my receiving, my blocking and my throwing. All that stuff has not stopped since the offseason, and my hitting has just improved off of last year.
“I didn’t change anything. I didn’t go in and try and tweak everything. We just kept it the same and just upped the work and made it more challenging. Able to kind of dig within myself and understand my own limits.”
How long Mack remains in Jacksonville will depend on a variety of factors. But he’s on a trajectory to eventually get to the big leagues.
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“Joe has a chance to be a special player at that position, on both sides of the ball,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said, speaking to Marlins.com.
“Left-handed with some power, but there’s some real hit ability, too, in Joe,” McCullough said. “And then on the defensive side, he can really throw. He’s handled himself well, catching a lot of our Major League arms. So (I) hope this has been a great experience.”
This week’s series for the Blue Wahoos against Knoxville matches the two division leaders in the Southern League.
For the past 25 years, the team was known as the Tennessee Smokies and played at Smokies Stadium in Kodak, Tennessee, which is located 23 miles west of Knoxville and about 15 miles from Pigeon Forge and the base of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
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This is the only time the Smokies will play in Pensacola this season.
Last week, Knoxville opened their new $114-million stadium, Covenant Health Park, which has a capacity of 6,355 and can host baseball and soccer located in downtown Knoxville’s Old City and not far from the University of Tennessee campus.
LOOK BACK
The Blue Wahoos’ first road trip was a historic one. They helped open Synovus Park, the home of the new Columbus (Ga.) Clingstones, the Atlanta Braves’ Double-A affiliate. The team was formerly the Mississippi Braves in Pearl, Mississippi, near Jackson, playing there for 20 years.
Synovus Park was formerly Golden Park, which opened in 1926. It was remolded with $50 million renovation and renamed.
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After the hoopla of the opening night, the Blue Wahoos took four of the five remaining games of the series.
A recap:
TUESDAY – Columbus 3, Blue Wahoos 0 – In front of an sellout crowd of 5,041 fans, the Clingstones held the Blue Wahoos to just four hits and the first shutout loss of the season. Blake Burkhalter struck out eight Blue Wahoos batters over 5 2/3 innings and leaving six runners on base to squander early threats.
Nine-time MLB All-Star reliever Craig Kimbrel, who began his career with the Atlanta Braves and is now trying for a comeback, struck out a pair in a scoreless eighth.
WEDNESDAY – Blue Wahoos 4, Columbus 1 – Robby Snelling (2-0) pitched 6 scoreless innings of one-run ball, striking out six and walking only one, to earn his second win. He outdueled fellow ace Drue Hackenberg, the Atlanta Braves top pitching prospect, who worked 5 2/3 solid innings for the Clingstones.
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The Blue Wahoos got their first run when Nathan Martorella drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third base on a pickoff throwing error and wild pitch. Jake Thompson drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
A similar progression followed in the fourth inning, as Joe Mack coaxed a leadoff walk from Hackenberg before scoring on a Josh Zamora sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
THURSDAY – Blue Wahoos 4, Columbus 3 (10 innings) – In their first extra inning game of the season, the Blue Wahoos lost a 2-0 lead late, then scored a pair of runs in the top of the 10th and held on. Closer Josh Eckness walked a tight rope. He gave up a run in the bottom of the 10th, then struck out three consecutive batters with runners on first and third to seal the win.
FRIDAY – Columbus 2, Blue Wahoos 1 (10 innings) – The Clingstones’ Ethan Workinger advanced on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch to score the winning run in the bottom of the 10th. Nathan Martorella gave the Blue Wahoos a 1-0 lead in the ninth inning, breaking a scoreless tie with the first home run in the remolded stadium. But Columbus tied the game on a couple errors and a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.
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SATURDAY – Blue Wahoos 2, Columbus 1 – Joe Mack homered in the first inning, and Jared Serna had an RBI single in the second as the Blue Wahoos held on with great pitching for the win. Four Blue Wahoos pitchers, beginning with starter Dax Fulton, who had his best outing, combined for a two-hitter to keep the Clingstones (6-7) from erasing the early deficit.
SUNDAY – Blue Wahoos 5, Columbus 3 – Trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, the Blue Wahoos’ bats finally came to life. Facing righthander Jorge Juan (L, 0-1), center fielder Mark Coley II and Joe Mack each drew walks to put two aboard with nobody out. Second baseman Jared Serna then hit a 3-0 pitch into right field, scoring Coley from second before Ethan Workinger’s error allowed Mack to score from first. After a pitching change, Pensacola tacked on another run when Serna’s steal attempt of second provoked an errant throw by Columbus catcher Adam Zebrowski. The second Clingstones’ error of the inning allowed Serna to score and give the Wahoos a 4-2 lead heading to the bottom of the eighth.
THIS WEEK
Most of the Chicago Cubs highest rated prospects are playing in Triple-A this season with the Des Moines (Iowa) Cubs.
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In fact, the Cubs’ top six-rated prospects and seven of the top eight, according to MLB Pipleline – guys that played against the Blue Wahoos last season – are all in Triple-A.
That group is led by No. 1 rated prospect, infielder Matt Shaw and righthanded pitcher Cade Horton at No. 2.
Knoxville’s highest-rated prospect is third baseman Pedro Ramirez, rated No. 18 by MLB Pipeline. He is a switch-hitter, who batted .284 with 48 RBI for the South Bend (Ind.) Cubs in the Midwest League.
The other top 30 prospect for Knoxville is catcher Pablo Aliendo (No. 27 ranked), who missed two months of last season with a broken wrist, but hit 10 homers in 58 games.
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Infielder BJ Murray is off to a good start with five homers and 11 RBI in 13 games. He’s part of a returning infield that includes second baseman Hayden Cantrelle and first baseman-designated hitter Haydn McGeary.
The pitching staff is led by Will Sanders, the opening-night starter, who is 0-1 in three starts with a 4.05 ERA.
The Blue Wahoos play the Smokies in just two, six-game series. The other one is July 22-27 in Knoxville.
But the teams have recent playoff history, of course. The Blue Wahoos won their first outright Southern League title against the Smokies in 2022. The following year, the Smokies won their first league title in 45 years against the Blue Wahoos in the championship series.
WANT TO GO?
WHAT: Blue Wahoos Baseball Homestand
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WHO: Knoxville Smokies vs. Blue Wahoos
WHEN: Tuesday through Sunday
WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium
GAMETIMES: The games on Tuesday through Saturday will have a 6:05 p.m. start. Sunday’s game will start at 1:05 p.m.
PROMOTIONS: Tuesday is a combination of “Doggone Tuesday and One Price Tuesday.” All tickets are $18 and offer best available seating plus a hot dog, soda and chips that are available at the Publix Party Porch in a promotion sponsored by Circle K. Fans can also bring their beloved dogs to the ballpark, provided they are on a leash.
Thursday is Mullet Thursday. The team takes on its alter identity as the Pensacola Mullets, complete with uniforms and there are drink specials for those of legal age throughout the game, beginning with $1 draft beer from 5-6 p.m. and $2 from 6-7 p.m., plus other drink specials.
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Friday is Giveaway Friday. This week, the giveway item is a Blue Wahoos “Fanny Pack” to the first 1,000 fans sponsored by CPC Office Technologies. The Blue Wahoos will also be wearing their Pensacola Pok-Ta-Pok uniforms on this night.
Saturday is Fireworks Saturday, sponsored this time by Navy Federal and featuring a post-game display.
Sunday is Family Sunday with children ages 12-and-under able to run the bases following the game and families permitted to catch soft baseballs in the outfield for 30 minutes in promotion sponsored by WKRG-News 5. In addition, the first 100 retired or active military can receive a free standing room only ticket when visiting the stadium box office.
TV: The games on Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday’s game will be available on YurView (Cox Communications subscribers only). The Friday and Saturday games are available on BLAB-TV.
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LIVESTREAM AUDIO: Listen to Blue Wahoos broadcast through www.bluewahoos.com/radio or the MiLB App.
LIVESTREAM VIDEO: Available on the Bally Live app or MLB.TV
TICKETS: Available at www.bluewahoos.com or at the stadium box office which reopens Tuesday during normal business hours.
Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Wahoos Weekly: Pensacola slated to play Smokies in battle of top teams in league
