This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MIAMI -- “You throw with your left?”

“Show him how you throw the ball!”

“I’m a lefty, too. There’s not many of us out there!”

It didn’t take long for Marlins southpaw Jesús Luzardo to bond with an aspiring ballplayer at the annual Holiday Wishes party presented by Florida Blue on Tuesday morning at loanDepot park.

One hundred and ten kids from Plumosa School of the Arts and Alpha Charter of Excellence were greeted by Luzardo and catcher Nick Fortes with Santa hats before making ornaments in Recess Sports Lounge and doing baseball and softball drills in left field. Luzardo and Fortes also handed out presents -- educationally minded gifts like building blocks and kinetic sand -- to the elementary schoolers.

“Spreading the holiday spirit, spending some time with the kids on the field and off the field, spreading the holiday joy,” Luzardo said. “You get a lot of the young boys who like to play some baseball, and a lot of the girls as well. You get a little bit of everything. You get to see just how happy they are, the smiles you get from them when you give them a gift that they take with them, and just spending the time with them, sitting down in the ornament-making station as well. You see the joy that they have spending time with us.”

Diana Alonso, manager of the Miami Marlins Foundation, loved that Florida Blue insisted on bringing a school from West Palm Beach (Plumosa), which is two counties north, for a chance to visit the ballpark this year. They also stayed with tradition by inviting a nearby school (Alpha) to represent the Little Havana community.

“Our mission is to really help communities and people achieve better health,” said Juan Awad, market leader of Palm Beach and Treasure Coast for Florida Blue. “The way we work is we really get to know our communities, understand the needs, and then that's how we determine [what schools to select]. We really have a tremendous partnership with both school districts -- Miami-Dade and Palm Beach -- and really, it's a partnership with them and understanding, what's the community? What do they need? And then, how do we select those kids?”

The Holiday Wishes party was the latest community event put on this holiday season by the Miami Marlins Foundation. Other events included a Thanksgiving meal distribution last month and a caravan that adopted five families and then bought and delivered gifts to them last Friday.

Fortes was on hand Tuesday and for the Thanksgiving event, while Luzardo has been busy setting up two events for the Jesús Luzardo Family Foundation: a baseball clinic on Jan. 11 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and a golf classic on Jan. 13 at Parkland Golf & Country Club. Philanthropic work is nothing new for Luzardo, who was named Miami’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee in 2024 for his efforts over the course of the year.

“That's why we love them,” Alonso said of the duo. “They don't even hesitate. We're like, ‘Hey, we need two players.’ Nick and Jesús are always there, so we're always grateful to have those kind of athletes with us.”

Both Fortes and Luzardo took turns signing ornaments and Santa hats while chatting with the kids. Like Luzardo, Fortes connected with one of the children about being a catcher.

The moment took Fortes back to his favorite Christmas gift growing up. From the time Fortes began playing baseball at the age of 5, he has always been behind the dish. About five years later, he received a Rawlings catcher’s mitt that he had been asking for. Tuesday marked the perfect way to combine the joy of the holidays with his love of baseball.

“We’ve got some different stations,” Fortes said. “We're giving away gifts here. We’ve got ornament-making over there. We've got some kids doing some drills out in the back. So we've got a little bit of everything. It's cool. They have a good time. We have a good time, too.”