The Marlins have opened long-term extension talks with injured ace Jose Fernandez, Christian Yelich and Adeiny Hechavarria, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. As Rosenthal notes, nothing is close with any of the three. Fernandez, a client of Scott Boras, is a particularly long shot to be extended. Boras typically encourages his clients to test the open market, and while his players have on rare occasion signed long-term deals before reaching that point (e.g. Carlos Gonzalez and Carlos Gomez), Fernandez isn’t in a great spot to talk contract as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery.
It’s not hard to see why Miami would have interest in extending Fernandez, however, as he was among the game’s most dominant young arms before undergoing surgery and figures to get back to that point in the near future. The former first-rounder skipped Double-A and Triple-A entirely and debuted in the Majors as a 20-year-old. While that jump would be difficult for most, Fernandez had no trouble acclimating to the Majors and notched a ludicrous 2.25 ERA with 10.3 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 through his first 224 1/3 innings. He won Rookie of the Year honors in 2013 and finished third in the NL Cy Young balloting that season.
Fernandez is controlled through 2018, although now that he’s missed a season with injury, the Marlins’ decision to have him break camp in 2013 looks even more questionable; Miami could’ve secured another year of team control by leaving him in the minors for just three weeks or so. Of course, if an extension is worked out, that will be a relatively moot point (though still puzzling, in principle).
Yelich, 23 in a month, quietly enjoyed a breakout season. Also a former first-round pick, he batted .284/.362/.402 with nine homers, 21 steals and excellent defense in left field. Baseball-Reference valued him at 3.6 WAR, while Fangraphs pegged him for 4.3 WAR. Yelich can be controlled through 2019 and won’t be arbitration eligible for two more years, so there’s no immediate urgency for the Marlins to extend him. He’s repped by Paragon Sports.
Hechavarria, 26 next April, is a client of Praver-Shapiro Sports and is a more curious case. While most acknowledge that he has the tools to be an excellent shortstop, most defensive metrics peg him as below-average at shortstop despite his affinity for highlight-reel plays. He’s under control through 2018 and isn’t arbitration eligible until next winter. Hechavarria posted an improved .276/.308/.356 batting line in 2014, though his offense still hasn’t caught up to its minor league levels, where he slashed .327/.376/.446 with eight homers in 606 Triple-A plate appearances.
In addition to this group, the Marlins are, of course, trying to extend franchise cornerstone Giancarlo Stanton. Earlier today, reports indicated that talks are ongoing and the Marlins are aware of and comfortable with the fact that Stanton may cost $28-30MM annually.
3/9M for Hech to buy out his Arb years.
6/42M for Yelich for Arb+3 years.
I’d wait on Fernadez because of TJ.
Plus you linked the wrong Fernadez.
You’re telling me they don’t have him locked up through his age 44 season?
Sounds a little light for Yelich. Was thinking more in the 6/60 range.
As for Fernandez, probably not going to happen, but maybe you could get 4/36 with a club option for $20 million.
Might have to make it a mutual option.
These 3 better ask for at least limited no trade clauses, that’s the only way they can have any control over where they will be playing in 3-4 years.
Marlins have a club policy prohibiting that type of agreement.
I know. I think to have any shot at extending quality players, especially in Stanton’s case, they are going to have to abandon that policy.
I think Stanton made up his mind on how he feels about the Marlins a long time ago. Do we forget his angry tirade after Reyes and company were traded?
ummm i think he is over that by now
Well I could see Stanton demanding it, but the other guys have to be willing to bet on themselves to ask for the clause or turn down the money
Yea, Stanton is a once in a lifetime type player so a partial no trade clause at least, is warranted.
They had Cabrera didn’t they?
Hey, I dont think they are gonna sign him either, but if they are actually serious about competing for years to come (as they have stated), Stanton is the right player for them to break their anti-no trade clause policy.
Cabrera never signed anything other than one-year deals for either Florida’s choice of pay or an arbitration salary. Stanton is looking at a long-term deal. Different animals.
My reply was directed at the “once in a lifetime player” comment. The Marlins already had a once in a lifetime player and they decided to trade him for a bunch of nobodies, while I might add they had Cabrera play LF/3B for who knows what reason.
Cabrera also wasn’t due to become a free agent until 2010, so really the Marlins just didn’t want to pay Cabrera anything after they already lost one of their many arbitration cases they go to.
They traded him before 2008 and he had two years of control left, not 3, unless you meant 2009/2010 offseason. And I don’t think the other dude was talking about this. I actually don’t know if Cabrera is once-in-a-generation. I don’t think Stanton is either, though. The situations regardless aren’t analogous since they’re trying to extend Stanton right now, not trade him. If they want to extend him, he’s a special enough talent to make an exception on no-trade clauses.
Marlins were unhappy with Cabrera’s conditioning and overall attitude. And Miller and Maybin were both considered to have All Star ceilings and were both top 50 in the game. Not nobodies at the time. They both faded fast, but Maybin’s been better than replacement level for SD and Miller’s become the best left handed reliever in the game.
An all time great for a better than replacement level OF and a REALLY good reliever. Sounds legit!
That’s hindsight though… they were expecting to get two future all stars.. in that trade and it didn’t work out that way.
I understand, but I hope they learned their lesson.
2 future all stars, one of which hadn’t played more than half a season in Double A. Miller was considered a great prospect but Maybin was way too young to be considered ready for the show like the Marlins thought he was. The man was 20 years old in 2007.
They could’ve and should’ve gotten more, The Tigers clearly thought they stole a franchise player after they immediately inked him to an 8 year deal in March of 2008.
Maybin was hot stuff back then. I thought Detroit did a great job, as I remember the Angels were going to trade Kendrick and Adenhart and Mathis for Cabrera alone.
Maybin was 20 years old when they traded for him, not many guys outside of the steroid era succeed at the MLB level at 20.
That Kendrick deal might’ve been something, Kendrick was already showing he was MLB ready starter in 2007. Adenhart’s death was a tragedy.
The Marlin’s have a great track record with young players. Cabrera was 20 when he was beating up on the Cubs in NLCS in ’03.
Yep, thats one thing they do very well. Stanton Yelich, and Ozuna are all age 25 or younger. Their pitching prospects are solid, but they have some interesting position players in the minors too that are seldom talked about because of that great young pitching. The issue has always been, locking down those key young players.
They do have a great track record with their own players they developed. Not so much with any of the trades so far.
At the time it sounded like a good idea, don’t act like you would not do the same if you were strapped for cash.
Cabrera wasn’t an all-time great at the time, and his first two years in Detroit weren’t elite, either. He became truly elite, among the greatest in the sport, starting in 2010.
Granted his defense was terrible, but when you look at his ranking among all time greats before turning 25 (.300+ AVG, 25 HR +, 100 RBI+), yes he was an all time great. He was in Albert Pujols, A-rod company. He truly cemented himself into all time great status in 2010 like you said.
People say this but a .318 AVG/.396OBP./551SLG/.947OPS/147OPS+ from 2004-2007 is pretty top in terms of a slash line. Mix that in with him being an RBI machine and you got the old traditionalists thinking he’s the next Albert Pujols. Playing LF and 3B is what killed most of his value, who knows why the Marlins thought that was smart.
Stantons offensive output is quite similar to Cabreras first 5 years in the bigs, well, except for AVG. Cabrera had him beat there. Stanton does have him beat in the power department though (obviously)
Stantons offensive output is quite similar to Cabreras first 5 years in the bigs, well, except for AVG. Cabrera had him beat there. Stanton does have him beat in the power department though (obviously)
At the time we didn’t have a park and we were paying the Dolphins money to stay at that Park in Miramar
2 fire sales in 10 years, and an anti-no-trade clause policy. They are really attractive to those big time FA. They’ll need to ditch that.
They traded away guys in between those fire sales like like Delgado right away in 05, also traded away Cabrera for a bag of balls.
Maybin and Miller both had all star ceilings and both were top 50 prospects. At the time it seemed like Marlins had a nice haul for Cabrera and a fading Willis.
If they do trade him away this time, they want a mix of major league talent and prospects. In the Cabrera deal they got Miller and Maybin and then 4-5 nobody prospects. This time they will probably be looking for some more proven young talent.
Yeah for sure, Stanton’s talents seem so much more unique than Cabrera’s at the time. Pujols was the premier power/average talent in the league at the time, where as now Stanton stands a top anyone’s power in the game and seems to have more value over peers than Cabrera did at the time. I might be wrong but I seem to recall the Marlins didn’t like Cabrera’s conditioning and were happy to move him.
That’s the wise thing to do.
The good thing is that there are plenty of teams that could offer that kind of package.
Swihart, Owens, Barnes, Victorino, Cespedes and 15 million cash for Stanton.
Considering Cabrera wasn’t due to become a free agent until 2010, I don’t think that was a nice haul. The Tigers immediately signed Cabrera to a 8 year extension the second they traded for him which was the 4th highest contract in total salary ever handed out, at the time. They obviously thought Cabrera was an elite player worth building a franchise around.
Clearly the trade was motivated by not wanting to go into arbitration and lose again to Cabrera. The Marlins can’t afford to do that with their owner constricting their payroll be non-existent.
Willis’ contract situation was a negative at the time, if I recall correctly, and Miller has, albeit belatedly, turned into a pitcher with excellent results, while Maybin did flash that value briefly for San Diego before becoming injury-prone. Neither excelled in Miami, but both have had success to retrospectively, Miami was acquiring legitimate MLB talents for Cabrera, whom they, at the time, likely wouldn’t have been able to, nor wanted to, extend. It was a bad deal, but hindsight is 20/20 and both players have justified some of the hype thrown their ways.
If they could lock up a good portion of this young core they’re building, they won’t have to do much convincing.
Stanton and Fernandez are franchise, Marlins must sign them to be a legitamite contenter down the road.
Agree completely. Whether Loria opens his pockets is another question though. Building around these two players is (except for the TJ surgery) an ideal situation – Fernandez is lights out and Stanton is a beast in a relatively powerless decade.
Why Hechavarria?
Solid defense, fan favorite and took steps forward with the bat, plus it would be unrealistic to expect him to get anything more then solid-bench-player type money like 3-4M AAV
His defense is overrated, fans are actually quite divided on Hech (I am on the anti-Hech train), and his bat went from historically bad in 2013, to just bad in 2014.
He is the same age, and produced the same numbers in his career as Marlins utility middle infielder Donovan Solano yet Solano is making the league minimum 500K and isnt projected to improve much further in his career. Hech on the other hand is treated like a rising star. He made 2.2 million in 2014 and with his “improvements” in 2014, he will likely make 3-4 million in 2015. Waste of money.
Fernandez has literally no reason to do this IMO. His first season of work is nearly guaranteed to get him a nice sum in arbitration when he hits it I believe in 2016, and he’s going to hit free agency at, what, age 26? After his age-25 season? Why would a player in a situation that amazing take a discount now, especially if he’s hired Scott Boras, the king of getting players to free agency. It would take a massive, life-altering contract of substantial length to make him reconsider, I’d imagine, and Miami probably shouldn’t offer a crazy deal to a pitcher currently rehabbing from TJ.
Only reason would be fear that he re-injures the elbow again prior to hitting free agency. If he doesn’t give up any free agent years, then I wouldn’t blame him for locking in now.
Extend them and then watch Jeffrey Loria trade them off a year later.
If I was them , I’d wait till after Stanton decides what he’s doing.
I always get a good belly laugh any time I read the words Marlins and extension in the same sentence.