The Marlins announced that they’ve designated right-hander Justin Shafer for assignment and reinstated infielder Isan Diaz from the restricted list. The club sent Diaz to its alternate training site, and it also added outfielder Connor Scott to its 60-man player pool.
The 27-year-old Shafer joined the Marlins via waivers from the Reds in late July, when Miami was dealing with a team-wide COVID-19 outbreak. Shafer came to the team as someone with a 3.75 ERA in 48 major league innings, all with the Blue Jays, but his Marlins tenure has gone terribly so far. He threw 5 2/3 innings of eight-run ball while allowing eight hits and eight walks (against four strikeouts) before they designated him.
Scott, the Marlins’ 15th-ranked prospect at MLB.com, was the 13th overall pick in the 2018 draft. The 20-year-old topped out last season at High-A, where he batted .235/.306/.327 with one home run in 111 plate appearances.
I find it very impressive that even with their Covid outbreak, the Marlins are still in the playoff race. They’ve had guys like Brett Eibner, Logan Forsythe, and Justin Shafer play in meaningful games when they should probably all be in Triple-A or lower. If this team had all their guys for the whole season, they could be seriously challenging the Braves
Most every team has had issues this season. Look at the Braves. Acuna was hurt for a bit. Albies has been out most of the season. Hamels and Soroka are hurt and now Fried. Not to mention Folty and Newcomb being sent down.
If the Braves had all their guys…
Half the Braves weren’t under quarantine though.
I get that and the Marlins have done a great job, but the point remains, everyone has had issues this season. You can’t play the “well if our entire team was here” card. The Braves have basically been without 4/5ths of their rotation the entire season.
Half of the Marlins weren’t under quarantine either. 2/3rds of them were. Even as a big Marlins fan, I am truly surprised that they are still around after losing 2/3rds of the roster during that mess. We still haven’t gotten all of them back either.
I am 100% okay with players choosing to sit out the season… what I’m not okay with is the decision to opt back in. Would Isan really have opted back in if the Marlins were in the cellar as usual?
Why does that bother you?
Why does it bother you that it bothers him?
why does it bother you that it bothers him that it bothers him?
It bothers me because he opted out for health concerns, and now he’s opting back in because this may be his only chance to contribute to a playoff team, Health should still be a concern to those who decided to not play, as nothing has really changed regarding COVID from July to now, so his priorities likely changed due to a playoff standing.
That being said, if you play baseball for a career, your goal should always be to win on a day to day basis, which he could have chose to do all season, but now that his teammates have created that winning environment, all of a sudden he wants to be a part of it? Call me cruel, but I won’t be a big Isan Diaz fan going forward.
On a similar note, I should mention Nick Markakis opting back in, and why that doesn’t bother me as much. At the time of Markakis’ opt out, he had a teammate who suffered a pretty serious hit of COVID. He chose to remove himself from the situation, and then reinserted himself into the mix once he saw Freddie was healthy again. Not to mention, Markakis is on a contract year, and every at bat he takes this season is crucial to earning a spot in the show in 2021. Diaz will have many more chances down the line.
Or maybe Isan Diaz isn’t nearly as concerned about the ramifications of COVID now. This is a fluid situation.
You give the benefit of the doubt to Kakis for the Freddie Freeman case but you don’t for Diaz. Perhaps he thought the whole league was going to shut down when 75% of his team got it. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong time to change your view on the risks of covid. It’s a personal choice.
He saw all 18 of his teammates recover. Markakis saw 1 of his. If the Marlins were 10-30 and he came back would that have been cool? Diaz May have just wanted to earn a big league check for the rest of the year after determining the risks were not that significant for himself. Your assuming his primary motivation was to come back because the Marlins are in the postseason hunt.
You’re*
Or Isan Diaz could’ve been concerned about losing his job permanently. You say that he has plenty of time because of his age but the fact is that he isn’t established at all. He’s been really bad in the major leagues.
As a Marlins fan, I can say that the culture that the Marlins are building seemed to send some messages Isan’s way.
1) After it was clear that the Marlins weren’t thrilled with Villar for not cooperating with the culture and system they’ve been building, they sent a message to all of the players in the organization that, ‘if you don’t get with the program, you’re going to be gone.’ This combined with other factors that played themselves out.
2) Jazz Chisholm was being brought up any day at that time. That has happened. Jazz had been working at 2B at the alternate site. That’s direct competition with Isan, who had previously lost his SS role to Jazz when they both were in the D-Backs system. This combined with the Villar message.
3) As the Marlins have been winning, even as players have gone to the IL for various reasons, part of the culture has been that no player is bigger than the team. (a concept that Jeter and Michael Jordan have been preaching since Day 1, and have talked to Pat Riley of the Miami Heat about in picking his brain about the “Heat Culture”). It has been shown that they can win games this year for the most part with a make-shift roster that lost 2/3rds of its players all in one day, and have been patching up since, but have shown they will win with the culture. This has also shown that any player can be replaced – especially on a roster with no superstars or long-time established All Stars…yet.
All of these factors, and probably some of his teammates probably chatting with Isan, is what looks like may have been the main factor. Of course the team winning helps, but I think it was more about these other factors involved. Isan is already in his 3rd organization (D-Backs, Brewers, Marlins). At some point, a guy likes stability – especially when he’s this young. He also doesn’t want to get a ‘red flag’ tab on him if he gets moved to a 4th organization so early in his pro career.
I personally feel this was more about not losing his position and standing with the organization than it was about the team winning.
And I’m pretty sure that Isan is going to have to earn his way back into favor with teammates, coaching/management, and the organization. The struggles he’s had so far will be on a shorter leash now…especially with Jazz up to play 2B or SS…with Miggy Rojas manning the opposite side of the middle infield in any scenario.
I get both sides of it. MLB set the rules and even specially set a deadline for guys to opt back in, then they up and change it. Does it affect me or do I care? No. But if they were going to let guys opt back in, why set a deadline? It looks bad on the MLB like they don’t know what they’re doing.
could have used him tonight…