MIAMI -- It’s not unusual for former college teammates to wind up crossing paths in the Majors. Look no further than Duke alumni Griffin Conine, Matt Mervis and Graham Pauley on the 2025 Marlins. Then there’s catching coach Joe Singley and left-handed reliever Anthony Veneziano, who were off-campus roommates at Coastal Carolina in 2019. “He's my age, which is so funny, right?” Veneziano said. “Being a coach at 27, and I'm a player at 27.” Singley transferred over from Indian River State College during Veneziano’s junior year in the Chanticleers’ program. The pitcher and catcher hit it off quickly, in large part because of an unfortunate bond they shared. “Ironically, both our fathers passed away, so we kind of hit it off right from the jump,” Singley said. “Both pretty neat, really driven and had one goal in mind: It was just baseball the whole time.” Veneziano fondly recalls finding out Singley was colorblind during their first week living together when the latter was ready to leave their place wearing a camo hat, a green shirt and red shorts. During hurricane season, they’d carpool out of harm’s way and stay at one of their childhood homes. They both cherish the memory of a night spent in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with Singley’s father before his terminal cancer diagnosis. |
Since Singley underwent four shoulder surgeries during his collegiate career, two of them during his time with Coastal Carolina, he became a de facto coach. When Singley was finally healthy, his father got sick. He had to step away from school to take care of him, and when his dad passed, Singley came back and was academically ineligible. That’s when his coaching career truly began. “I would catch him in a sling and just throw it back with the other hand, so that's kind of where all the catching stuff really manifested for me there,” Singley said. “I was studying biomechanics, and then studying catchers and helping them, and also caught every opportunity that I could even while hurt. So that's really where the birth of all this started.” Singley -- who was hired over the offseason to be the Marlins’ catching coach, assistant catching director and bullpen catcher -- had spent the previous three seasons with the Reds’ organization (2022-24) after Tyler Stephenson reached out to him seeking help. “It's cool,” Veneziano said. “Honestly, I kind of saw that coming. He had some injury struggles in college, so he was almost like a player-coach when I was there. So [him] being a catcher and me being a pitcher, it was perfect that we were roommates together, because his baseball knowledge is through the roof. He helped me a lot during my time at Coastal.” |
Despite their diverging paths, Singley and Veneziano kept in touch over the years and would lend a hand at their alma mater each offseason. Singley even plans to have Veneziano in his wedding one day. “Immediately I called him, hoping he was still here, and then it worked out that we're both here now,” Singley said of his hiring. “It's incredible. We still laugh about it, because we didn't really have any doubts that, one way or another, we'd both end up here [in the big leagues]. But it's just funny thinking about that like we are here. It's pretty cool.” |
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It would’ve been hard to believe right-hander Luarbert Arias would make his Major League debut during the season’s first week considering the way his Spring Training went. The 24-year-old Venezuelan, whose contract was selected on Nov. 4, struggled in his four Grapefruit League appearances. He gave up 10 runs (nine earned) on seven hits and six walks in 3 1/3 frames. His first big league camp was far removed from his 2024 success, when Arias posted a 3.04 ERA with a 1.19 WHIP, a 9.9 K/9 rate and four saves in 44 outings for Triple-A Jacksonville. “I had a conversation with the staff,” Arias said via interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. “They told me to keep working on my pitches. Of course, the results were not right there as we wanted, but I kept working on my pitches and now we're here. Mostly location [was the problem] in Spring Training. My fastball, I was struggling with location, command.” But after heavily relying on its bullpen, in particular during Saturday's 12-inning walk-off win over Pittsburgh, Miami recalled Arias on Monday to provide length. The Marlins would need it in a lopsided series-opening loss to the Mets. |
Arias closed out the 10-4 defeat that night with three perfect innings on 37 pitches (24 strikes), as Miami used just him, starter Cal Quantrill (four-plus IP) and righty George Soriano (43 pitches). Arias became the first Miami pitcher to have a perfect appearance of at least three frames in his MLB debut. “He was outstanding, and good for him,” McCullough said. “That was great, by the way. It was really big for us. … “Those outings will go a long way over the course of the season. One, for him to go out there and make his debut and pitch as well as he did, give us three innings in that game. It helped set us up very well for [Tuesday] and moving forward.” |
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