Who is Nic Enright? A look at the Miami Marlins’ Rule 5 Draft selection

The Miami Marlins on Wednesday selected right-handed relief pitcher Nic Enright from the Cleveland Guardians organization in the MLB phase of the Rule 5 Draft, the final major event of the league’s annual Winter Meetings.

As a Rule 5 selection, Enright has to stay on Miami’s big-league roster for the entirety of the 2023 season. He can’t be optioned to the minor leagues.

Enright, 25, was the Guardians’ 20th-round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft out of Virginia Tech and finished the 2022 season with Cleveland’s Triple A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. In 37 innings over 29 appearances with the Clippers, Enright posted a 2.68 ERA with 50 strikeouts against just six walks while holding opponents to a .216 batting average.

For his career, he has pitched 141 2/3 innings in the minors and has a 2.80 ERA with 201 strikeouts against 35 walks.

Baseball America called Enright “one of the most polished available relievers in this year’s Rule 5 class” and called him “a relatively low-risk addition to a big league bullpen as a Rule 5 pick.”

He is a fastball-slider pitcher. His fastball while only having a velocity in the low-90s has “some of the best carry in the minors, which makes it a bat-misser that he can dot the zone with,” according to Baseball America. As for his slider, it “generates plenty of swings and misses as well, and serves as an excellent chase pitch when he gets ahead in counts.”

This marks the fifth consecutive season in which the MLB phase of the Rule 5 Draft has occurred (it was skipped in 2021 due to the league lockout) that the Marlins have selected a pitcher in the Rule 5 Draft.

The others, all right-handed pitchers: Elieser Hernandez in 2017, Riley Ferrell in 2018, Sterling Sharp in 2019 and Paul Campbell in 2020. The team also traded for right-handed pitcher Zach Pop immediately following the 2020 Rule 5 Draft.

Miami also took three players in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft: Third baseman Dane Myers as well as right-handed relief pitchers Austin Robets and Christian Charle.

Myers, 26, was the Detroit Tigers’ sixth-round pick in 2017 and has a career .815 OPS but has played in just 169 games. He spent all of 2022 in Double A, posting a .268/.316/.506 slash line with 25 home runs, 72 RBI and 59 runs scored in 107 games.

Roberts and Charle, both from the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, will help the Marlins reload their relief pitcher depth after they added four relievers (Sean Reynolds, Josh Simpson, Eli Villalobos and George Soriano) to the 40-man roster with the possibility of at least some of them helping the big-league club in 2023.