Owen Caissie is ready for 2026, but will Marlins ownership delay his breakout? Miami has no excuse to keep him off the Opening Day roster.
Cristian Crespo of Just Baseball wants you to believe 2026 is Owen Caissie’s year. He’s not wrong. But he’s also underselling the obvious.
This isn’t some long-term projection piece about what Caissie might become. This is about what he already is.
The Marlins didn’t trade Edward Cabrera for a lottery ticket. They targeted Caissie. They wanted the bat. They wanted the upside. And they wanted it now.
Crespo lays out the resume: former Top 100 prospect, elite exit velocities, plus bat speed from the left side, consistent leverage, and 35-plus home-run potential. Even with strikeout rates hovering around 28–30 percent in the minors, Caissie has never posted a full-season wRC+ under 100. In fact, outside of a tiny 2021 sample, he hasn’t dipped below 113.
That’s not raw potential. That’s sustained production.
Yes, the swing can get long. Yes, he can chase inside velocity. And yes, his 27 MLB plate appearances with the Cubs were ugly. A 41-percent strikeout rate in a sporadic role isn’t ideal.
But 27 plate appearances is not a referendum. It’s noise.
If we’re being honest, the more interesting question isn’t whether Caissie is ready.
It’s whether ownership will let him be ready.
Because from a baseball standpoint, he should break camp as the Opening Day right fielder. The roster fit is clean. The timeline matches the club’s youth movement. The developmental infrastructure under Clayton McCullough has already turned Kyle Stowers from strikeout concern into All-Star.
The Marlins are preaching growth. They’re preaching upside. They’re preaching internal development.
Don’t stash Caissie in Triple-A to manipulate service time. Don’t slow-play him because of budget considerations down the road. If this organization truly believes in its hitting development, if it believes 2025 wasn’t a fluke, then it should want those reps happening in Miami, not in Jacksonville.
Caissie fits this lineup. A left-handed power bat with patience and damage potential alongside Stowers and Jakob Marsee isn’t just intriguing, it’s dangerous.
And here’s the reality: rebuilding teams don’t suppress talent. They showcase it.
If 2026 is “Caissie’s year,” as Crespo argues, then it needs to start on March 26, not in May after a financial calculus is satisfied.
The only thing that should stop Owen Caissie from making the Opening Day roster is performance.
Anything else would say more about ownership than it does about the player.
And that would be a mistake the Marlins can’t afford to make.
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