Most of the baseball world has their attention currently fixed on Truist Park — the site of this week’s All-Star festivities. Meanwhile, the Marlins’ brass were directly across the street at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre in Atlanta on Sunday night, adding the team’s newest prospects at the MLB Draft.
With their highest pick, No. 7, the Marlins selected Aiva Arquette, a shortstop from Oregon State University.
“Excited to continue playing the game I love and continue my development,” Arquette said. “I can’t wait to get back on the field.”
With their later picks, Miami selected a trio of college outfielders: Cam Cannarella from Clemson with the No. 43 pick, Brandon Compton from Arizona State at No. 46 and Max Williams from Florida State at No. 78.
Miami also owns the fourth pick in rounds four through 20 on Monday.
“If you’re excited about them, you should draft those players when you have the chance,” said Marlins’ director of amateur scouting Frank Piliere. “Aiva is somebody that presents upside and size playing a premium position; real, really hard players to find. So I think you should always be excited when that opportunity comes across your plate.”
Arquette joins the Marlins’ organization coming off a junior season at Oregon State in which he batted .354 and tallied 19 homers on his way to being named a Second Team All-American by Baseball America and Perfect Game.
Prior to that, he played two seasons at the University of Washington, where he led the team and ranked 11th in the Pac-12 in batting average (.325) and slugging percentage (.574) as a sophomore in 2024, being named First Team All-Conference.
This is the second time Arquette, 21, has been drafted, after being selected in the 18th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2022 before opting to enroll at Washington.
“I think it’s probably the combination of physicality and athleticism,” Piliere said of the 6-foot-5 Arquette. “Players who can move that well at the size and also, of course, impact the baseball are a rare combination, and it’s the types of players that you see are stars in the major leagues that are those rare combinations.”
Their selections on Sunday night breaks from the last draft’s trend of this Marlins’ regime using their top picks on high schoolers. In 2024 — president of baseball operations Peter Bendix’s first draft in Miami — the Marlins used their top two picks on a pair of prep stars: center fielder PJ Morlando at No. 16 and shortstop Carter Johnson at No. 56.
But an unexpected first six picks this year led them to choosing Arquette.
“It was unpredictable year,” said Piliere. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen ahead of us. I think we were able to play out some more scenarios last year, and our projections might have been up; we kind of nailed it. We didn’t know what was going to happen this year, so it feels different in that way.
Miami had previously made it clear that they’ll take a “best player available” approach to the draft, and the selection of Arquette appears to follow that philosophy. The MLB’s prospect rankings had Arquette as the sixth-ranked player in the draft, while Kiley McDaniel of ESPN had him as the ninth-ranked prospect in the draft class.
“We’re going to keep taking the best player available,” Piliere said. “Keep on taking the best one.”
With their later picks, that led them to the three outfielders.
Cannarella played three seasons at Clemson, where he hit .353 as a junior this past season for five home runs and a career-high 22 doubles. Meanwhile, at Arizona State, Compton had a breakout 2024 season when he was named a Freshman All-American by Baseball America. But he cooled off in 2025, hitting .271 for nine homers, down from .354 and 14 the year before. Williams led Florida State with 19 homers this past season while batting .321 for 53 RBI.
