Catcher has already been identified as a position of need for the Marlins this winter, and the club’s search for more offense is likely to result in some new faces in the outfield. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson believes the Fish “will acquire two starting outfielders,” with Jesus Sanchez likely taking the other starting role and Bryan De La Cruz probably moving to fourth outfielder duty.
Sanchez played almost exclusively as a right fielder down the stretch this season, so that would seem to specify left field and center field as Miami’s target areas. De La Cruz is probably best suited for a corner outfield role but he can at least chip in as a center fielder, expanding the Marlins’ ability to find ways to get his bat into the lineup following a solid rookie season. Should the National League adopt the DH in 2022, that will provide another route to playing time for De La Cruz or any other hitters the Marlins might acquire.
There’s no shortage of prominent outfielders in this year’s free agent class, and while a true blockbuster signing would still be a little unexpected for the Marlins, general manager Kim Ng has stated that “we are going to have some money to spend.” Jackson estimates that the Marlins have around $35MM in new revenue to work with thanks to a new TV contract and their ballpark’s naming rights deal, and while not all of that money will necessarily go into player payroll, it does at least somewhat expand the team’s spending parameters.
Of course, Miami could also turn to the trade market, as the team has already explored the possibility of trading from its depth of young pitching to acquire a high-profile outfielder. And with new talent coming in, internal trade candidates could be found amongst the players who may no longer be a major part of the Marlins’ long-term plans. Jackson mentions Braxton Garrett, Isan Diaz, Nick Neidert, Monte Harrison, and the out-of-options Lewis Brinson as players who have yet to show much at the Major League level, so any could conceivably be part of trade talks, whether as part of a lower-level swap or as parts of a larger trade package.
If outfield is a target area, it makes sense that the Fish could try to clear room by moving Harrison and Brinson. Garrett Cooper’s season was cut short by elbow surgery, but he has hit well in his career when healthy and his projected $3MM arbitration salary isn’t too expensive, so he could be retained for some right field work and as part of the first base/DH mix.
Third base is another potential position to be addressed, depending on what the Marlins opt to do with Brian Anderson. An injury-plagued year resulted in subpar (.249/.337/.378) numbers over 264 plate appearances for Anderson, a notable step back from the .266/.350/.436 slash line he produced from 2018-20. Depending on how Miami feels about Anderson as a building block, he could be deployed again as the starting third baseman, or moved back to the outfield to fill one of those holes, or the Marlins could look to trade him and then look for an upgrade at the hot corner.
They’re building a solid and sustainable organization. I don’t see them taking down Atlanta, but looking at the rest of the division, wouldn’t surprise me at all if they challenge for 2nd next year.
I agree. If they acquire a couple of top-end FA and make a wise trade or two I think can get there. Marlins would gain that much offensively over Alfaro, but I wonder if they would be interested in Heim, Peters, Guzman, Solak for Thompson/Hernandez and Alfaro or Cooper.
The mets are gonna be so good next year they’re gonna come in 1st 2nd and 3rd place because the wins of all the other teams combined wont equal the Mets lone win total.
You sure about that? Braves don’t play well in the regular season. With their rotation, Marlins could go further than you think. Tough to say now but that rotation is great, easily the best in the NL East.
The rotation is the best on paper. They haven’t done anything yet. The talent of Alcantara, Lopez, Rogers, Sanchez, Cabrera, Meyer and Luzardo is insane. All have such amazing stuff. Secondary guys like Neidert aren’t bad either. But only Alcantara has pitched a full season more than once and gets 0 run support. Once at least four of those guys can throw at least 180 innings in a season then we can finally say the Marlins have an amazing rotation. Till then it’s all speculation based on talent.
You sure?! The Braves don’t play well in the regular season? They have played better than anyone else in the division for 4 straight years. They certainly play better than the Marlins, Mets, Phillies and the Nationals and they do it while playing against those guys. If some of these Yankees fans are right the Marlins are probably going to fall apart anyway. For some reason they seem to believe they can just hire Don Mattingly away from the Marlins just because the like him. Apparently it doesn’t matter that he is already under contract because “Mattingly deserves a world championship and he’s never going to get one with the Marlins.” Due to that logic some of them seem to believe it should be okay for them to just take away another teams manager. At least that’s what some guy named emt basically just said to me on another thread. I do feel the need to specifically point at all Yankees fans don’t act that way. In the last thread some of them got offended and pretended I was referring to all Yankees fans when I was clearly only referring to some of them. Then, right on cue, emt showed up and started spouting out all of that nonsense proving my point that some Yankees fans clearly think that way. I always wonder what it must feel like to be that delusional. Is it crushing when you realize you don’t live in reality? Or would it be okay because you just get to make up your own reality all the time so nothing really matters. It’ll be; interesting to see what all the people on YouTube have to say when it never happens even though according to them Mattingly coaching the Yankees next season is by far the most likely outcome. That’s where I heard most of it. Only one guy I know of on this site actually believes the Yankees are going to be able to just take away another teams manager while he is under contract.
I don’t see anything on Mattingly in the comments above so are you referring to something else? I definitely agree about the Braves “not” playing well in the regular season…. How does that make sense when they have won the division the last like 5 years?
Anyway If the NYY fans want Mattingly please take him. Please please please. I know you all joke around that Marlins fans don’t exist but all the ones i talk to we all don’t like him the way LAD fans didn’t like him. He can’t put together a good lineup, goes with his “gut” way too often, sticks with terrible players way too long, gets obsessed with “his guys” in the pen and only uses them (even while they implode for a week) and overall is one or the worst bullpen managers I’ve ever seen.
So please whoever wants him, please take him.
Yeah. I could see that. I’m not particularly a Mattingly fan but yeah I was referring to something on multiple different threads. My comment wasn’t so much about whether Mattingly is a good manager or bit as it was about the fact SOME Yankees fans are very open and vocal about the fact they think they should just be able to hire away another teams manager while he is under contract. I’ve personally never met any fans of another team who were that arrogant. They aren’t all like that though. It was just weird because when I pointed out that some were like that a bunch of Yankees fans got on my case and accused me of blaming all Yankees fans when I clearly wasn’t. Then they started talking about how that was very rare and basically never happened even amongst Yankees fans. While they were saying all that a Yankees fan named emt literally showed up in the conversation and started explaining that the Yankees SHOULD be able to just take away the Marlins manager. H literally proved me right and proves them wrong while they were trying to make their point. It was pretty funny actually. They got so butt hurt about it they just ignored what he said and pretended emt didn’t exist so they could try and continue on with their narrative that no Yankees fans like that existed. Even when we literally had one in our midst speaking his mind.
But they have Alex Jackson!
Marlins trade for Gurriel to jays for one of their SP. I assume the jays would have to add prospects. Adding some Cuban flare to the marlins can’t hurt.
Maybe they can take Santander off the O’s hands.
Marlins are a ways away. They’re loaded with pitching but not much hitting at the major league level or in prospects.
Chisholm, Khalil Watson, and JJ Bleday is not a legitimate offensive core
Which is why they need to bring in more offensive power. The article states as much.
Once/if they do and adding a legit closer, Marlins should be able to contend for the division/wild card(more likely)
Well Whatson is a ways away but considered to be real top tier talent.
The issue with Bleday and Greene is the Marlins wanted a college bat, something that SHOULD have been ready sooner than high schooler Greene. The Marlins for way too many years went with high upside toolsy high schoolers which hurt them for years. Pretty much every publication also said Bleday was “can’t miss” and would be one of the safest picks (aside obviously from Rutschman and Witt).
Jazz will be looked at obviously to be offensive help. Jesus Sanchez looks like he could be a good piece. Then they have Lewin Diaz who has shown great power in the minors and then Peyton Burdick who has major upside. I think BDLC should get a shot depending on what they do, and they also need Anderson to get back to what he used to do (hitting 20+ HRs with great defense and offense trending up about every year but the last).
Bleday I think can still turn out well as losing the 2020 minors season really hurt him (and yes many others) and being counted on to come by 2021 and be the leader of the offense. They really messed up not giving Monte Harrison more of a chance instead of letting Alfaro fail forever along with Brinson. They had some guys in the minors doing well but they kept playing Brinson, Panik, Isan Diaz, Alfaro and calling up Marrero every other day.
They need to resign Aguilar to be the DH, rotate Cooper and Lewin playing time (Cooper quietly has been a great hitter but can’t stay on the field but is cheap enough to keep around and try). Then sign someone like Mark Canha, with catcher I would go after a defensive great game caller catcher to help our young staff, and a back end reliever. Let Burdick, BDLC, Misner and co compete for a roster spot. This is all if they don’t trade anyone. I just hope it’s not Meyer (especially for Marsh). We have enviable pitching talent but many have been hurt. Meyer has not been hurt, doesn’t have a lot of mileage on his arm, has two 70 grade pitches, and has a hockey mentality (plus he’s been told he’s short so he has a chip on his shoulder). If they trade Meyer it should be for a superstar like Reynolds. Instead they should honestly consider trading Pablo Lopez or Edward Cabrera (maybe even Sixto) if people will bite. We need healthy guys on the field. Only Sandy has stayed on the field. Rogers was hurt too.
Sorry but the TLDR is there are ways to get competitive (I mean more like play .500 ball and maybe get lucky) that involve using what they have creatively, trades, or actually spending money. But with the money we have to see that to believe it.
Chisholm is great. Injuries plagued his consistent production. It’s easy to add batters but their pitching is great. Pitching wins games, so I wouldn’t underestimate them.
Marlins don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt when it comes to comparing the future of NLE teams, they don’t deserve to be talked about as better than the Mets or Phillies in the future until they show it. This was a D tier rebuild that only produced Alcantara, Chisholm, Sixto (who is understandably on the edge), and salary relief. Bleday might eventually be a fine player, but it’s funny to think that Bleday-Greene might be a Tua-Herbert situation.
I agree this ownership/management has not earned m any BOD but I wouldn’t also categorize this rebuild as d-tier with that envious amount of SP talent that they can use to supplement the offense as well as with ample amount of financial resources avail to them to add even more offense and RO’ing coming from the new tv deal and having very low future payroll.
RP.ing**
This Marlins regime has no excuses not to contend next year and for years to come.
.
Sox’ Bloom should call Marlins and ask what pitching they’d give them for Hunter Renfroe.
Jeff Brigham.
Bleday and Meyer plus Monte Harrison and Evan Fitterer for Bryan Reynolds. Boom CF problem fixed.
Except the Pirates never make that trade.
They would be foolish not to.
kwolf, that’s two top 100 prospects, a former top 100 prospect, and a throw in for a first time all-star. Pirates would make that trade, but the Marlins would be stupid to let it get that far for one player.
Based on what the Pirates asking price was, they’re asking for a whole lot more than that. They were asking for the Marlins top 3 prospects when they inquired about him earlier in the season. That’s 3 top 50 prospects (Meyer, Sanchez, and Cabrera). Heck, 3 top 40 prospects if you go by FanGraphs’ measurement.
Huh? You mean Marlins never make trade, right?
Also Reynolds does not look comfortable in CF and should be moved back to LF. The Marlins determined Starling Marte to be too expensive after they tried to sign him to an extension then they traded him to Oakland, so I’m not sure how much they are willing to spend. Maybe a possible target could be Victor Robles from the Nationals. He’s still young enough and seems to have fallen out of favor. Could be a change of scenery could him good
I feel with Marte they just didnt want to bet on him being good for another four years. In 2020 with the Marlins he was awful (yes it was a little less than half a 60 game season but it counts) and they can’t afford to give him the 3/45 he wanted and him bust in year two. They have to be smart with their spending. Marte has had an interesting career with some downs (and a PED suspension, and his wife passed away and he thought about quitting – and rightfully so). And how often does a guy in his early 30s have a career year, get paid, and then not work out? So I kind of understand. CF salaries are surprisingly not that high (depending what you consider Trout but still the AAV of CFers is like 13mm) so they offered him 3/30 and then supposedly went to 3/39 and he declined. Oh well. It didn’t bother me. I don’t want 5k pay a guy 15m a season for 34,35,36. It’s a gamble that a richer team could make. and if he works out and is good then great, good for him, I liked him.
On the other hand the Marlins could extend a similar offer to the final one they made and he can see what’s out there. He could end up back. Though I highly doubt it. Plus this last year he decided to be more of a table setter and while any team could use one I know the Marlins are more focused on power and clutch hitting.
Marlins should move Anderson back to RF and go after Eduardo Escobar to play 3B. I don’t see the need for the Marlins to invest big on Outfielders when they have several in the pipeline coming in the very near future
Problem the Marlins have is that there is a shortage of decent ML CF’s (almost as bad as the shortage of C’s….and they’re looking to upgrade there as well). The FA CF’s are terrible. and teams that have a decent one to trade (if there are teams out there) will put a big price on him.
They should be able to find a LF that can hit. Then again, they traded Adam Duvall to get a C that they’re not happy with.
Appears the Marlins are in circles. As with 20 other underperforming teams, they have to develop players they have under contract at the ML level. If you can’t do that you aren’t going to win anything.
Duvalls HR and RBI totals look good last year but he just isn’t the answer. He gets cold for a very long time and just fails over and over again. Then for five games he’s Barry Bonds. Then another 12 games of 2 K’s a game and always like 4 LOB. The only reason his WAR was decent is he played out of his mind defensively last year I’ll give him that. But he is not reliable enough to carry an offense. They didn’t get anywhere with him and Aguilar leading the league in RBIs and they certainly won’t get there next year with him.
They could be really good really fast with the right moves in such a crap division. The Phils are probably a pen and a CF and IF away from owning the division but if the Marlins can actually put together a good team and keep it the division is better off.
I root for the Marlins in the NL, but I think it would take an aggressive winter of reshaping the lineup and bullpen for them to contend in 2022. I’m skeptical that’s something the Jeter regime would/should do.
As an Astros fan, I would love to see a deal for Alcantara.
The Astros need a top of the rotation starter to pair with McCullers and Valdez. Right now they have too many #3-4 type starters.
If they can resign Correa then they can use Jeremy Pena as the headliner of a deal that could also include some combinat ion of CJ Hinojosa, Chas McCormick, Jose Siri, Freudis Nova,Taylor Jones, Alex De Goti, Bryan Abreu, Enoli Paredes, or Andre Scrubb,
All major leagye ready and solid useful players to include with the potential star in Pena, but the pitchers all have great stuff and command issues
Still there is enough there that Pena along with 2 or 3 of the others would really help both teams.
If Correa does not sign then Pena can’t be traded and we are back to the drawing board.
I think in order for this deal to work the Marlins need to help offset some of Correa’s contract, something along of the lines of at least pay 50% of future salary in order to help Astros resign him.
Additionally, and on top of giving up Alcantara, the Fish need to also include one of Trevor Rogers or Sixto or Pablo Lopez for ONLY the future super elite stud batting and HR king that is Jeremy Pena.
Lol what? Oh now I get it. Nice one mjm
Great stuff here.
It’ll be interesting this offseason. Marlins can contend with the addition of an impact bat and a real closer. A win-now catcher will also help because the 3-headed monster they have now is a bit risky (Alex Jackson, Peyton Henry and Nick Fortes).
I want Kimbrel. If his option is declined they need to attack day one. With something respectable but don’t overdo it. I think he would take 2/20. His overall body of work the last couple years is bad so it messes with his value. But I would hope he can regain his second half 2020 and first half 2021 form. Here in Miami with not much scrutiny and anxiety I think he could get to top form. Bender can be his setup man. Floro could be traded or also be a setup man. looks like the plan is for Thompson to be the long man. I believe Bleier is coming back (and Baseball Bits – Foolish Baseball did a great video on him). I would try to convert Garret to a reliever as his starting career is going nowhere and also add Holloway who was basically lights out as a reliever and garbage as a starter. With these moves going right suddenly the pen is not a problem.
The problem is the offensive solution I have no idea who to get. Who to trade for. What to trade for. I state constantly I don’t want Meyer traded. But something must be done. I also want them to try out Burdick in spring for a possible starting job. I also think BA will bounce back if healthy. If we get a DH that’s amazing because Cooper and Aguilar would make amazing DHs (Cooper is quietly a great hitter just can’t stay on the field) and Lewin played amazing defense during his cup of coffee and they expect power out of him. So it may just require one bat. But it has to be a legit bat.
For catcher, I would love to try to get Joey Bart somehow. Otherwise I don’t really care about going after some offensive stud. With the talent and youth of our pitching staff I want someone back there who wont lead the league in passed balls (Alfaro) and can call a great game. They just need to bat better than AJax and Leon. The teams ERA with Leon was so much better but we have to be able to do better than that. I’m ok with a Catcher hitting .230 with like a .320 OBP if they are good defensively, call a great game, and occasionally show some pop or a clutch hit. Let the other 8 spots worry about offense. We need a leader behind the plate who can get the best of these pitchers. Do you understand the talent we could possibly throw out? Our options for our five man (hell even six man) are Alcantara, Lopez, Rogers, Sanchez , Cabrera, Luzardo, Meyer and then even guys like Neidert and Thompson who have the ability to get it done (I really think they never gave Neidert the right opportunity to prove himself). Yeah Luzardo sucked besides like 3 starts but he has the stuff. They all do. Cabrera was bad. But some scouts say his stuff is better than Sixto and he leaned too much on his secondary stuff instead of attacking with his best. We also need them all to be healthy. But talent wise we could easily have the best rotation in baseball. Talent wise. I want to stress that before someone comes and yells at me about it. What team has a fifth starter with stuff like Cabrera, Luzardo or Meyer? Come on. But again they have to stay healthy and prove it before we really get the mantle. But on paper, you almost drool at the thought of five of them pitching all year.
Anyway sorry as always my posts are too long, I just really enjoy talking to fellow fans since “we don’t exist”
I know we “don’t exist”. Are you and I even real people? 😛
With the bullpen, I was thinking about Kimbrel when I saw the White Sox getting eliminated. He’d be a great get for the Marlins. Along with him, I’d also try to bring in Brad Hand as a lefty to attempt to close or be a primary lefty arm. I like the idea of converting Garrett into the bullpen too. After we add pieces to the bullpen, we also need to do one addition by subtraction – Anthony Bass. As long as he’s a part of our bullpen, we are always running the risk of him doing what he did this year – blow games at will.
As for offense, we definitely need an impact bat. For this, somehow I think the Marlins are going to see if something falls into their lap from the musical chairs in the SS free agent market. There may be a bargain at the end of that market when those players run out of big markets to try to run to. The guys I am looking at are Marcus Semien and Trevor Story. I’d also keep an eye on Cory Seager. If the Marlins are looking to go big and long term, for some reason I’m thinking Correa – but that may be a pipe dream.
For OF, I would keep an eye on what the Braves do with their excess corner OFs after this season. They have Marcel Ozuna under contract, who most likely takes DH. Acuna comes back. That leaves two OF spots, which Adam Duvall is very likely to be re-signed by them this year, thus leaving one spot to be determined between Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario and Joc Pederson. The Marlins could use any of those three as an extra bat – in particular Soler. And whichever two are the odd men out, the Marlins very likely can have one or the other at a budget-friendly price..
For catcher, I imagine they engage the Cubs about Contreras again. We have a bunch of pieces to work with for him. I figure we see Elieser Hernandez in a deal for him along with some other pieces (maybe Alfaro or one of the trio of other catchers, and maybe one or two additional pieces)..
We do moves along these lines, we’re a playoff contender next season.
I mean aren’t we just living in a situation?
I wonder what Brad Hand would command as well. Since he and Kimbrel had a miserable end to their seasons and some blemishes recently, maybe they can be had for something reasonable. I just think they would have to move VERY fast. With the way the market is if they offer them something decent like day one then they might jump at it to guarantee money. Like I said I feel Kimbrel could take 2/20. Or even something like 1/12 to try to built value again. Maybe Hand would take 8-10mm one year for value or something like 2/16 around there. People could have had him for 10mm last year and turned him down. Either way I don’t think they stay long term so I that time they need to convert Garret and Holloway. We saw Holloway do very well as a reliever or throwing 2 innings. If that’s what he can do put him there. Garret lost his velocity from TJ and is stuck to two pitches now, one of them plus and one average (the fastball) but in the BP maybe it could play up and he will sit 92-93 and focus on one inning. Then with Bass (ha I forgot about him) he was actually quite good when NOT pitching the 9th. So someone might take him knowing that (we would get really nothing back) or the team comes to their senses and never uses him past the 7th. Never. NEVER.
I like what you’re thinking with the SS game. In a perfect world I would love to see them go high AAV with Semien for low years but that would never happen. Story may end up with the smallest deal. Personally I would love Seager the most but he and Correa will get 200mm plus. I don’t see them buying in that hard. Some crazy team may give Semien six years (and with his age and track record I don’t think he would be good all six) or pay him 3/90. I don’t think we could or would do that… They probably have 40mm to spend in total. Maybe the right moves a little more.
But with Atlanta, I don’t think we can get anyone from them besides Joc. I feel Soler is their DH next season. It depends what happens with Ozuna. He’s going to still get suspended most likely. Duvall is going to get 10mm plus cause of his ballooned HR/RBI numbers plus he played great defense. But I still don’t trust him to really upgrade an offense as all advanced metrics suggests he was league average. We know him, he carries you for five games then disappears for twelve to 15… I rather play Sanchez, BDLC and Burdick. I don’t know why Ozuna can’t field anymore as he was great at it here. If his situation was solved I bet they would love to get rid of him and even eat money for something respectable in return (not even top tier). But that would involve losing Aguilar (which I guess I’d be ok with) if we knew Ozuna was playing. And then do we want the headache of what happened to him looming over us? Apparently the police report is wrong as it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but it was still bad. Very bad. Just not very very bad. So I don’t know. But Joc would be the odd man out. I’ve read some braves reporting and they say Soler is most likely with them next season. Duvall has that mutual option that I doubt he takes and someone will pay him 10-12mm to hit .220/.289/.490 with an OPS+ of 98-102. I don’t want to. Money can go someplace else.
As for catching it really depends what they want for Contreras which I don’t know… I don’t think Eliesier gets it done. And I wouldn’t give up any of the real starters in Alcantara, Lopez, Rogers, Sanchez, Cabrera, Meyer, or Luzardo. Save them for a guy with more than one year left. If they want Eliesier and Nediert or something in down. Hell throw in Garret. The Giants are so starved for SP I bet we could throw them Lopez, Garret, Neidert and Elisier for Bart. Which I would do. They would have to be desperate to do that. But they might after losing… But I’m sure they would want a top prospect in return but at least Lopez and Eliesier have proven themselves when healthy. It’s a matter if they want to take that risk. SF fans would call me crazy but I imagine the Giants are a little lower on Bart with Posey back and the C they drafted like 2 years ago already looking great. They always get max value out of whatever they get so if they got Lopez, Neidert and Eliesier I can imagine at least one working out very well for them. Either way whatever they do it’s going to be interesting and get us talking. I’m sure we will all hate it at first too… But who knows.