JUPITER, Fla.—Two things immediately stand out about Marlins righthander Jose Ceda.

1. There are only a handful of players on the planet who can throw a baseball as hard as he can.
2. There are only a handful of players—pitchers or hitters—who are as big as him.
 
At 6-foot-4 and around 260 pounds, Ceda has a fastball that has touched 100 mph and ranges from 95-98 mph in a typical relief outing.
 
Of course Ceda hasn’t always been able to throw that hard or been that colossal.
 
Ceda signed with the Padres on Nov. 1, 2004 at age 17. At the time Ceda weighed around 185 pounds and threw 88-89 mph, topping out at 91. Ceda pitched in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League in 2005, holding down a 1.50 ERA with 29 walks and 83 strikeouts in 60 innings. His weight quickly grew, up to 225 pounds, then up to 260 pounds. It wasn’t all lean gains, but it helped Ceda start pumping fastballs that topped out in the mid- to high-90s soon after signing.
 
Ceda, now 22, threw 23 innings in the Rookie-level Arizona League Padres in 2006 before San Diego dealt him to the Cubs at the trading deadline for Todd Walker.
 
The Cubs used Ceda as a starter last year at high Class A Daytona, where Ceda had a 4.80 ERA with 28 walks and 53 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. When Ceda received a promotion to Double-A Tennessee, he posted a 2.08 ERA in 30 1/3 innings with a 42-14 K-BB mark. As a starter, Ceda said he could air it out for three innings, but by the time he reached the fourth and fifth innings, he would have to scale back.
 
“It was different,” Ceda said, “because to be in the starting rotation, you have a lot of time for doing whatever you want to do—doing your exercises, everything. In the bullpen, you have to do something not too many times, but you may have to do something a little bit every day if you want to stay healthy.”
 
Staying healthy is priority number one for Ceda, who came the Marlins’ way this offseason in the trade that sent reliever Kevin Gregg to the Cubs. Ceda missed two months last year with shoulder problems, and he felt some shoulder soreness earlier this spring.
 
“I want to keep working to be healthy for the season,” Ceda said. “I don’t want to be hurt any more. I think I want this to be my last time in the training room. I don’t like being there. I don’t like it when someone else (is) on the mound and I watch the game, I know I throw hard, but I can’t do it because I’m hurt, my shoulder’s bothering me.”
 
Officially listed at 6-foot-4, 275 pounds, Ceda says he’s closer to 260 pounds now, but his weight has oscillated in the last two years. Ceda said he weighed 285 pounds when the Padres traded him to the Cubs, then came into camp in 2007 at 238 pounds. With Ceda’s size and power arm, scouts frequently compare him to Lee Smith ("I just remember seeing a huge human on the mound," said one Southern League pitching coach), but Ceda says he knows he needs to watch his weight.
 
“It’s not good for me,” Ceda said. “I want to be healthy. I want to be strong. I don’t want to be fat. Every coach who work with me and trainers say I no work like a fat guy, I work like a strong guy.”