Marlins to designate Leo Jiménez for assignment, recall Deyvison De Los Santos

What happened

The Miami Marlins are set to designate infielder Leo Jiménez for assignment and recall Deyvison De Los Santos, per MLB.com beat reporter Christina De Nicola. The move had not been formally announced at the time of reporting.

A designation for assignment sets a clock in motion: under general league roster rules, a designated player must be traded, released, or placed on outright waivers within seven days, with waivers running 48 hours. Whether Jiménez clears that process and where he lands next is, for now, unresolved.

Why it matters

September is when rosters expand to 28 players, and clubs use that window to audition depth pieces, give prospects a look at the big-league level, and quietly sort out who belongs on the 40-man roster heading into the offseason. A designation for assignment is one of the more consequential tools in that sorting process — it removes a player from the 40-man entirely, opening a spot for whoever is coming up.

De Los Santos gets the call in that context, arriving as the Marlins work through a stretch of roster shuffling that has picked up pace over the past several days. Two days before this move, the club recalled Bradley Blalock and Pauley from Triple-A Jacksonville as part of the September expansion. And just two days prior to that, Xavier Edwards was placed on the injured list with a sprained left thumb, with infielder Serna recalled to fill the gap. The Jiménez designation and De Los Santos recall represent the latest turn in what has been a busy week of roster activity in Miami.

The numbers

Miami enters this stretch at 71-72 (.497), sitting third in the NL East and 14 games back of the division lead. The Wild Card picture is similarly steep: the Marlins rank sixth in the Wild Card standings, 4.0 games relative to the cut line. They have dropped three straight.

That combination — a losing record, a double-digit deficit in the division, and a Wild Card position that would require significant ground to make up — frames the September decisions differently than they might for a club in the thick of a race. The moves being made now are as much about evaluating the roster for next year as they are about winning in the immediate term.

Where the club stands

At 71-72, Miami is a club that has spent September expansion doing what clubs in their position tend to do: getting a longer look at players who might factor into future plans while managing a 40-man roster that needs to be in order before the offseason begins.

The schedule ahead offers no particular relief. On Thursday, September 3, Sandy Alcantara takes the mound against Michael Wacha when the Marlins visit Kauffman Stadium to face the Kansas City Royals. The club then returns home to loanDepot park for a two-game set against the Chicago Cubs, with Janson Junk lined up against Shota Imanaga on Friday, September 4, and Ryan Gusto scheduled opposite Javier Assad on Saturday, September 5.

Is De Los Santos on the 40-man roster?

For De Los Santos to be recalled to the active roster, he must be on the 40-man roster — the reserve list a player must appear on to be eligible for a call-up. The Jiménez designation creates the 40-man space that makes the transaction work. Beyond that, the specifics of De Los Santos's roster status were not detailed in the MLB.com report.

What we don't know yet

The report from Christina De Nicola was brief and noted that more details were to come, so several questions remain open. It is not yet known what role De Los Santos is expected to fill on the active roster, nor is there any reporting on what the Marlins intend to do with Jiménez once the seven-day DFA window opens — whether that means a trade, a release, or an outright assignment to the minors.

The Edwards situation also remains a thread worth tracking. With the veteran infielder on the injured list with a sprained left thumb, the club has been piecing together its infield depth through a series of recalls. Whether De Los Santos slots into that infield picture or serves a different roster function was not specified in the report.

What to watch

The immediate item is what happens to Jiménez during the seven-day window. A player designated for assignment can be traded, released, or placed on waivers, and the outcome shapes whether he remains in the organization or moves on entirely. That clock is now running.

On the field, De Los Santos's role in the lineup — and how the Marlins deploy their expanded September roster against Kansas City and then the Cubs — will be worth monitoring as the club works through the final weeks of a season that has them sitting outside the playoff picture. The Edwards timeline is a parallel question: the sprained left thumb has no reported timetable attached to it, and whether he returns before the regular season ends remains unaddressed in available reporting.

For a team at 71-72 and on a three-game losing streak, the next week asks them to answer some short-term questions on the field while simultaneously making longer-range decisions about who belongs in the organization's plans. The Jiménez designation is one answer to the latter question. Whether it turns out to be the right one is something September will not fully resolve.