WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

2020
DNP

The pandemic kept Nicolas out of action.  BA rated him 17th in the Marlins’ system after the season.

2021
A+:  3-2-0, 5.28 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 59.2 IP, 3.6 BB/9, 13.0 K/9
AA:  3-2-0, 2.52 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 39.1 IP, 5.7 BB/9, 11.4 K/9

The Marlins assigned Nicolas aggressively to High-A, where he made a dozen starts and one relief appearance.  He had a very high K rate there, but had severe gopher ball problems, allowing 13, or one every four and a half innings.  Five of those home runs came in two bad outings in July.  In his next outing, though, Nicolas fanned ten over six, three-hit innings and Miami moved him up to AA.  He dominated in five starts there before seemingly running out of gas in his last three.  Control was obviously a problem in AA, but opponents batted only .167 and he gave up just three home runs.

2022
AA:  2-4-0, 3.97 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 90.2 IP, 4.7 BB/9, 10.0 K/9

Nicolas spent the season as a starter at Altoona.  Seeing as how he spent a third of the 2021 season in AA, that’s disappointing.  He didn’t throw a lot of innings, averaging just under four per start after averaging just under five in 2021 in AA.  As you’d expect, the shorter starts went with high pitch counts and walk totals.  Nicolas had a solid season overall, but didn’t really improve over the course of the season, which probably played a role in the lack of a promotion to AAA.  He had a fairly large platoon split, allowing an OPS of .740 to left-handed batters and .625 to right-handed batters.

The 2022 season was more a step sideways than forward for Nicolas.  He should try AAA in 2023.