Jorge Alfaro’s time with the Marlins looks to be about up, as Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of The Miami Herald report that the club is planning to part ways with the catcher this winter and look for a new starter behind the plate. Alfaro earned $2.05MM this season in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and the Marlins could simply non-tender him prior to the arb deadline or seek out a trade.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Miami was able to find a partner for an Alfaro trade, as it wasn’t long ago that he was one of the more highly-regarded prospects in all of baseball. This potential has already led to Alfaro’s inclusion in two major trades. Originally a member of the Rangers organization, Alfaro was part of the six-player package Texas sent to the Phillies for Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman at the 2015 trade deadline. The Phils then sent Alfaro, Sixto Sanchez, and minor league lefty Will Stewart to Miami for J.T. Realmuto in February 2019, with the Marlins looking at Alfaro as a natural replacement for Realmuto behind the plate.
Alfaro also isn’t far removed from some decent production in the 2017-19 seasons, as a big performance in 2017 largely fueled his overall .269/.322/.429 slash line in 956 plate appearances for the Phillies and Marlins in those three years. After slightly below-average production in 2018 and 2019, however, Alfaro’s bat has since cratered.
The catcher has hit only .224/.274/.329 in his last 296 plate appearances, striking out 101 times and posting the ninth-highest strikeout rate (34.1%) of any player with at least 250 PA since the start of the 2020 season. Beyond the bat, Alfaro’s defense has been enough of a question mark that the Marlins turned to the light-hitting Chad Wallach down the stretch last year and into the playoffs.
Alfaro was one of the players sidelined during the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak last summer, and he also missed about a month earlier this year with a hamstring injury. Still, Miami was already showing signs of looking beyond Alfaro last offseason when the team engaged in trade talks with the Cubs about Willson Contreras — Jackson and Mish recently reported that Alfaro would likely have been sent to Chicago as part of a Contreras deal.
Since the Cubs now appear to be in a rebuild mode, it stands to reason that Miami will probably check in on Contreras again this winter, if the Fish didn’t already do so prior to the trade deadline. Jackson/Mish also believe that the Pirates’ Jacob Stallings is likely to be a trade target. Contreras is under control through only the 2022 season, while Stallings is a Super Two player who isn’t eligible for free agency until the 2024-25 offseason.
Miami has enough pitching depth to explore trades for any number of other catchers on opposing rosters, and the club could also explore the free agent market if it decides on a shorter-term veteran addition. The Marlins may already have their catcher of the future in 31st overall pick Joe Mack, and prospect Will Banfield is also on the radar as at least a defense-oriented backup type. Looking at other internal options, Alex Jackson and Payton Henry were both acquired in deadline trades and Miami will consider both as candidates for a backup role in 2022.
I smell a “Willson-Contreras-for-pitching” de happening this offseason
Should Definitely be an option for the Fish this off-season
This is the kind of comment that gets Cubs fan speculating the Marlins would trade Trevor Rogers for mediocre Contreras.
Mediocre. That’s funny.
Mediocre isn’t the right word when applied to him against catchers but to the MLB he is more mediocre than great. I like good for Wilson
This is interesting.
In the lead up to the trade deadline I was wondering if Joey Bart for Trevor Rogers would’ve been the basis for a decent trade. Both teams deal from a position of strength to get a long-term controllable asset in a position of need.
And also would’ve helped the Giants this year as I think the rotation needs a little shoring up for the stretch run.
It can probably still happen in the off-season
Cole Hamels? Curt Zchilling out of retirement?
What’s the word on Hamels? He had that showcase but I haven’t heard anything. Did I miss something?
He’s still throwing to his grandkids every other day to gear up for his eventual return.
Well, he must not have impressed anyone because the deadline came and went without any team signing him.
If schilling comes out of retirement does his HOF 10 ballots reset?
Exactly my thoughts too, Bart+ 1-2 lower level players could get it done, right?
The Royals have a couple of extra catchers right now in AAA,
Melendez leads all of minors in home runs at AA, and is a good receiver. Royals could use a CF and pitching (always).
Pedro Severino should be available as the Orioles won’t want to pay his next arbitration bump. Hitting much better in the second half but continues to be a swinging gate with balls in the dirt.
Jay’s need to trade for one of their good young starter’s
Which catcher would net them even one of those guys? The guy who can’t hit, the guy who can’t catch, or the guy who can’t stop touching himself?
They have Moreno who is the Jay’s #3 prospect.
Do they want Austin Barnes back?
Yes, but they don’t want to have to pay him. The headline for this article should be: Marlins Seek Elite Catcher Willing To Work For Food
The Marlins season has been a complete disaster, not entirely their own doing with all the injuries. Kim Ng seems like a perfectly lovely person, but she is not going to fix this team. She will be fired in two years and return to the Dodgers. She has no clue.
They were better than they were last year, but the bullpen was trash in any semblance of high leverage situations, which is why they have such a terrible record in close games
I wonder why a bullpen full of Rule 5 picks and re-treads would fold under pressure.
For sure. She claimed literally first thing after she was hired she would address the bullpen, and it would be a priority, and then they essentially did absolutely nothing, and it was an obvious problem from day 1
The bullpen is Top five jn ERA and WHIP in the NL. The organization has done a great job improving the Pen. High leverage might be a bit of a different story, but the bullpen has been solid.
They’re the worst in the league in high leverage. 2 weeks into the year, they already lost like 8 games in the bullpen…and speaking of that, they lost it again today. Sometimes the numbers dont show the whole story. They’ve given up a bunch if HRs, and a couple of them got hit hard, despite some of their numbers, like Curtiss…garbage time numbers dont matter as much as those high leverage situations, which again, is why they’re so bad in close games
“but she is not going to fix this team ”
Can you also predict who will win the World Series? Winning Lotto Numbers? Superbowl LVI? Will fish ever win a title again?
Please let us know
Alfaro still has a cannon arm, but he is no longer the guy he looked to potentially be a few years ago. I personally think he does a really good job of making plays on balls up the line, and his framing has been better this year, but he lets too many balls get by him
I remember seeing Willson Contreras right after he was called up, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since, but he is a FA after next season, so I doubt thate a real option. I thought Will Smith could have been a good target, while he was still in the minor leagues, b/c he reminded me of JT Realmuto and seemed undervalued at the time, but now that he has been in the big leagues for awhile and they traded Ruiz, that’s not an option. Yan Gomes is a FA after this year, and he could be a good option on a 2 year deal as a stopgap type. Not many other options there.
Not sure I’m necessarily a fan of trading off too many pieces, considering depth can disappear quickly, with 1-2 injuries and a couple of guys falling off, and the fact the Marlins tend to give up too much in deals, and they did stuff like that in the 2-3 years leading up to 2017, leaving them with the need to rebuild
“and they did stuff like that in the 2-3 years leading up to 2017, leaving them with the need to rebuild”
During the Loria regime yes. Loria and his minions aren’t running the show anymore.
Which is why they luckily didnt trade depth away these last few days, but a bunch of fans are super angry about it, and they’re still rumored to be looking to make certain trades by using that depth, so it’s fair for me to bring up
Should’ve gotten catching help before trade deadline.
There’s never enough good Tight Ends in the NFL. And there’s never enough good Catchers in the MLB.
Gary Sanchez to the Marlins for PTBNL
For Lewis Bronson
Better idea is to trade some of that young pitching to the Giants for Joey Bart.
Why? He is in Giants limbo, Posey had an incredible comeback, and the Giants just drafted another catcher with a high draft pick.
Bart is MLB ready and can be the Marlins catcher for years.
Didn’t Bart get traded to Chicago for KB?
No lol
The Reds might flip Tucker Barnhart in the off-season since Tyler Stephenson is the catcher of the present/future.
Victor Victor Mesa for Barnhart should get it done.
Marlins need to bring in a string catcher such as Contreras. They have the prospects to do it. Stallings would be solid option as well. Anything other than Alfaro.
I think that, barring a slew of major health issues, the Marlins will have an absolute monster of a pitching staff next year. They do not need to be the ’27 Yankees. They only need to be somewhere in the middle of the pack offensively. Right now they are unwatchable. They also have no large contracts on the books. I think Jeter is going to spend some money this winter. Very excited about next year. As for now, GO DOLPHINS. GO CANES.
I’m imagining Kim Ng yelling down from the GMs box during the game: “Hey Alfaro!!! You got 2 months to increase your trade value!!! Either way you’re gone after September!!! Carry on!!!”
This offseason will have the Marlins parting with a few guys that have not grabbed the opportunities to be part of the team’s future – Brinson, Alfaro, Isan Diaz to name a few.
And yes, the bullpen has single-handedly destroyed the Marlins season this year. They haven’t found a high leverage situation lead that they couldn’t have blown – especially Anthony Bass.