Miami Marlins’ rotation, ‘Stott’s Tots,’ appreciate guidance from their pitching coach

The comment caught Mel Stottlemyre Jr. off guard.

“Nice shirt,” a Miami Marlins relief pitcher said as Stottlemyre made his way to watch Sandy Alcantara throw a bullpen session on Monday with the team at Phoenix’s Chase Field to face the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“I kind of looked at myself,” Stottlemyre said. “Like, ‘This is how I dress every day. What do you mean?’”

As Alcantara threw his bullpen session, the Marlins’ usually stone-faced ace was smiling pitch after pitch — wearing a “[expletive]-eating grin,” as Stottlemyre preferred to call it — hoping his coach would notice.

It took Alcantara puffing his chest out at Stottlemyre for the realization to sink in.

On the front of Alcantara’s black shirt, in big blue letters, were two words in all caps: “Stott’s Tots,” a play on words from an episode of the TV show “The Office.” Underneath were the first names of all five starts of the Marlins’ rotation: “Sandy. Pablo. Trevor. Elieser. Jesus.”

Stottlemyre then turned around. The other starting pitchers were all there wearing a matching shirt.

“What an honor,” said Stottlemyre, who is in his fourth year with the Marlins. “That was cool. They’re all my babies.”

The feeling is reciprocated among his “tots.” Ask any of the five, and they’ll speak of a man they view as a father figure as much as they view him as a coach. The mutual respect is apparent. The love is real.

“He’s been the greatest role model and pitching coach I could have asked for,” said Pablo Lopez, whose 1.57 ERA ranks third in MLB among qualified pitchers entering Saturday. “He’s helped me in a lot of ways, not only pitching but in life — how to be a teammate, a person, a competitor, a friend, everything. ... He’s been a father figure.”

The mastermind behind the shirts is actually Lopez’s wife, Kaylee. Making custom shirts is a hobby of hers, and she has made a variety of them to wear when attending Marlins games. One of those shirts had the names of the five members of the Marlins’ starting rotation. Lopez pointed out that she was missing a name: Stottlemyre.

Sure enough, Kaylee wore the shirt to the ballpark a few days later and Stottlemyre approached her.

“I feel like you’re missing a name,” Stottlemyre said to her in what he referred to as his joking, “typical smart ass fashion.”

But Kaylee nevertheless got to work, collaborating with Stottlemyre’s wife Lisa to create the new shirt that featured Stottlemyre prominently.

About a week and a half later, the shirts arrived in Phoenix. The rotation — Alcantara, Lopez, Trevor Rogers, Elieser Hernandez and Jesus Luzardo — wasted little time adorning them to give external recognition to the coach who has helped all of them make significant strides as MLB pitchers. Through games played Saturday, Marlins starting pitchers collectively rank 12th in the league with a 3.51 ERA, fifth with a .217 batting average against and seventh with 8.94 strikeouts per nine innings.

Stottlemyre hasn’t worn his shirt yet. It’s hanging in his locker.

“It’s special,” Stottlemyre said. “I’ve never had anybody really do that and I’ve been close with a lot of my pitchers. To put something on a shirt that they all wear, that’s cool.”

Each pitcher points to different facets of how Stottlemyre has helped them on the field.

Alcantara points to the first conversation they had after Stottlemyre was hired prior to the 2019 season. Alcantara’s MLB career was just beginning at that point, the righty still far away from becoming the high-end pitcher he is today. Stottlemyre saw Alcantara had the right mix of aggressiveness and quality pitches to become an ace if he improved his command and confidence.

The result: Alcantara has become one of MLB’s most reliable pitchers. He was Miami’s All-Star in 2019 and his 495 2/3 innings thrown since the start of the 2019 are the fifth-most in baseball. His 3.38 ERA is also the fifth-best among 19 pitchers who have thrown at least 450 innings in that span.

“He trusted me and I him, and you can see it in the way we are with each other,” Alcantara said. “I’ve earned his respect with the work I’ve put in. He knows I’m the ace and that’s a role he helped me earn.”

Rogers, who was the runner-up for the National League Rookie of the Year last season in his first season in the big leagues, appreciates Stottlemyre’s firm-but-fair approach to coaching. The lefty has needed that this season after getting off to a rocky start, with a 5.20 ERA through eight starts.

“He’ll pat you on the back when you need it,” Rogers said, “and he’ll kind of rip into you when you need it, too. He’s that good in between.”

Luzardo has been here the shortest among the group having joined the Marlins last season at the trade deadline, but

“It’s crazy how you can see the relationships that he builds with every one of us,” Luzardo said. “That goes a long way.”

And it’s not just when things are going positive that the respect is seen.

Hernandez, for example, is maneuvering through what he calls “the biggest low of his career” (5.59 ERA and 11 home runs allowed in 38 2/3 innings through eight starts). Stottlemyre’s presence has given him a sense of comfort as he makes his corrections.

“He always maintains positivity,” Hernandez said. “I know we can fix things and he makes you believe that and believe you can have success.”

It’s all a sign of admiration from “Stott’s Tots.”

“You try to make him proud,” Lopez said, “because he cares a lot.”