PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — On Dec. 7, 2022, Mississippi State baseball legend Jake Mangum was traded from the New York Mets – the team that drafted him – to the Miami Marlins.
The change of scenery seemed like a positive one for the outfielder, who played his entire 2023 season with the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate, Jacksonville. Mangum excelled, hitting .298/.346/.425 in 119 games, numbers that typically portend a big-league callup or at least an invite to major-league camp for Spring Training. And then, like so many things in Mangum’s young professional career, everything changed.
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