JUPITER -- The Marlins trimmed 12 players from their spring roster this morning, including top pitching prospects Justin Nicolino and Anthony DeSclafani.

"The ax came down hard," said one player.

There were no surprises in the first wave of cuts.

Nicolino and DeSclafani were among five non-roster players reassigned to minor league camp. The others: Jesus Sanchez, Colby Suggs and Avery Romero.

Michael Brady and Kyle Jensen were optioned to Triple A New Orleans while Grant Dayton, Angel Sanchez, Jose Urena, J.T. Realmuto and Brent Keys were optioned to Double A Jacksonville.

The big-league camp roster now stands at 58 players.

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The Marlins have hired Pat Shine to the team's newly created position of major league administrative coach. Shine, who was associated head baseball coach at Cal-Irvine, will focus primarily on video replay. But manager Mike Redmond, who played with Shine in high school and college, said Shine would also throw batting practice and work with infield coach Perry Hill.

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Injured infielders Rafael Furcal (hamstring) and Jeff Baker (quad) could return to game action as early as Friday.

"Both are feeling much better," Redmond said. "They're going to do some light activity today, and if everything goes well, go through all baseball activies tomorrow. I wouldn't rule out them playing in the next couple of days."

Baker said he slipped coming out of the batter's box in Port St. Lucie on Monday.

"The box was soaked, grabbed, and just kind of gingerly got down to first," Baker said. "Just made sure I didn't blow the thing out and miss significant time. I'd like to play Friday."