The Marlins got a rough update on one young arm Wednesday, while another rotation piece is still on track to help them before the season is over.
Manager Clayton McCullough said right-hander William Kempner will undergo elbow surgery. The team didn’t offer specifics, and Marlins.tv host Craig Mish suggested the recovery could take 12 to 14 months.
If that timeline holds, it would probably indicate a UCL-related procedure. In some cases, doctors don’t know whether a full reconstruction or a less extensive internal brace is needed until they get a closer look once surgery begins.
Miami is expected to share more when it has them.
For Kempner, it’s a brutal setback. The 25-year-old debuted in the majors earlier this season and worked 12 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, allowing four runs for a 2.92 ERA.
He gave up eight hits and four walks while striking out 14 of the 50 hitters he faced. Kempner has been using a four-seam/sinker/cutter/slider mix, with a changeup appearing only very rarely at 2.5%.
His four-seamer sits at 95.5 mph, his two-seamer at 94 mph, and his slider comes in around 81.5 mph.
The stuff has played in the upper minors, too. Kempner posted a 3.51 ERA and a huge 36.2% strikeout rate across parts of two Triple-A seasons, and for a while he looked like a possible long-term bullpen piece for McCullough.
Control has been the sticking point, with a 14% walk rate last year and a 15% mark in Triple-A this season. In the majors, though, he walked just four of 50 opponents, an 8% rate.
Kempner’s path to Miami has already had some twists. The Giants took him in the third round in 2022, then sent him to the Marlins in a Jan. 2025 trade that returned international bonus space to San Francisco.
That bonus room helped the Giants complete that year’s class, including a significant bonus for then-amateur infielder Josuar Gonzalez, who now sits atop their system and is viewed as a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport. Miami got an arm with upside, though Kempner had already missed the previous season because of a fractured foot.
Now he’s headed for another long absence, but this one comes with a silver lining: he’ll collect a full year or more of major league service time, along with the pay that comes with it. Miami can shift him to the 60-day injured list whenever it needs a 40-man roster opening, and he’ll also be eligible to move back to the 60-day IL for all of the 2027 season.
There was at least better news on the pitching front with Max Meyer. The right-hander, who has been sidelined for nearly a month with a neck strain, received a cortisone injection, according to McCullough. The club is hopeful that will let him start throwing again soon, and the Marlins still expect him back at some point this season.
Meyer has been one of Miami’s biggest bright spots. The No. 3 overall pick in 2020, the former University of Minnesota standout has thrown 111 innings with a 2.68 ERA, striking out 26.2% of batters faced against an 8.9% walk rate. He’s also induced grounders at a 41% clip and has allowed fewer than one home run per nine innings, sitting at 0.89.
Along with Eury Pérez and Sandy Alcantara, Meyer gives the Marlins a rotation core that looks strong heading toward 2027. Miami still controls him for three more seasons, though he has already reached arbitration as a Super Two player. He’s making $980K this year and has three more arbitration raises ahead, with this next one likely to be a substantial jump after the season he’s put together.
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