Just as Detroit will be receiving interest in a huge chunk of its bullpen, Miami figures to have several relievers on the block. Longtime Marlins beat writer Joe Frisaro tweets that the Fish have gotten interest on lefties Tanner Scott and Steven Okert as well as right-handers Dylan Floro and Anthony Bass.
The 28-year-old Scott surely has the highest price tag, as he’s leading the club with 14 saves and has long tantalized scouts with a blistering fastball and power slider, dating back to his time in Baltimore. He’s averaged 96.8 mph on that heater this season and ramped up the usage of his slider to a career-high 66%. The result is a career-best 31.8% strikeout rate, a huge 15.3% swinging-strike rate and a 31.3% chase rate on pitches out of the strike zone.
Scott’s command — or lack thereof — is the elephant in the room. The southpaw has walked 15.3% of his opponents this season, plunked three hitters and tossed a pair of wild pitches. That’s been par for the course throughout Scott’s career, evidenced by a bloated 14% walk rate. Were Scott’s command even average or just slightly below-average, his overpowering fastball/slider blend could make him one of the sport’s most dominant relievers. That hasn’t been the case, however, which is surely why the Marlins were able to acquire both Scott and Cole Sulser from the Orioles this past offseason in exchange for a Competitive Balance draft pick (Round B) and a pair of low-level minor leaguers.
It was still a surprising return for a player with Scott’s stuff, particularly given that he’s controlled through the 2024 season. That remaining control will obviously appeal to clubs but also make the asking price on him fairly steep. The Marlins are known to be looking for immediate offensive upgrades in trade returns, and Scott’s two-plus seasons of control could embolden them to do so when teams call about the power-armed lefty.
Okert, meanwhile, has been a great find for the Fish. The 31-year-old signed a minor league deal after spending nine years in the Giants organization and never establishing himself in their bullpen. He’s been great in Miami dating back to 2021 however, working to a combined 2.74 ERA, 29.3% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate. Okert doesn’t have Scott’s power stuff and has also been homer-prone, but the late nature of his breakout means he can be controlled another five seasons.
Both Floro and Bass are closer to free agency and, as such, seem likelier to change hands. The 31-year-old Floro is earning $3MM this season and has pitched to a 3.49 ERA with a below-average 17.7% strikeout rate but strong walk and ground-ball rates (5.3% and 50%, respectively). He’s excelled at keeping the ball in the yard throughout his career with the Rays, Cubs, Dodgers and now Marlins, yielding just 0.5 homers per nine frames.
Floro isn’t without red flags, though. He’s never been an especially hard thrower but has seen his average heater drop from 93.8 mph in 2021 to 91.8 mph in 2022. And after posting one of the lowest hard-hit rates in the Majors from 2016-21 (31.5%), he’s yielded a 41.4% hard-hit rate this season along with a career-high 88.7 mph average exit velocity (the latter of which is right in line with the league average, to be fair).
Of the whole group, Bass seems the best bet to go. The 34-year-old signed a two-year, $5MM contract with Miami prior to the 2021 season and posted a solid but unremarkable 3.82 ERA through 61 1/3 innings in his first season in South Florida. This year, however, Bass is toting a pristine 1.41 ERA with a career-high 26% strikeout rate and a very strong 5.8% walk rate. Like Scott, he’s throwing his slider at a career-high rate (56%) and has enjoyed terrific results thanks to the change.
Bass is also controlled for the 2023 season by virtue of an eminently reasonable $3MM club option. That could be good reason for the Marlins to hang onto him, as they’re intent on competing in the near future, but there’s some risk in hanging onto a reliever for what would be his age-35 season as well.
Any of the relievers here could make sense as trade candidates on their own, but it’s also intriguing to think about the possibility of them being packaged as part of a larger deal. Pairing any of the four together would be appealing for a contender seeking bullpen help (which applies to pretty much every contender), and the Marlins could also add a bullpen arm to a package if they’re trying to coax out an even bigger return for a pitcher such as Pablo Lopez, on whom they’re reportedly at least listening to offers.
They’d be wise to trade whatever pitching they can after the Mets knocked them around all weekend.
Jd Davis dom smith Carlos Cortes and szcapuski for Scott?
Count me in López and Bass for Oswald Peraza, Ken Waldichuk, Estevan Florial, and 2 lower profile prospects but top 30.
Lol. Yeah right.
Bass for Trout, who says no?
Sounds fishy to me.
Throw in a Salmon jersey.
Is Mike Carp still kicking around?
Miami could also throw in Fishman as well.
Trout family says no. There is no way they are willing to trade Steve for Anthony Bass. Marlins may need to beg the Trout family because Steve may be an upgrade from Bass…even at 65 years old.
As a Marlins fan, I feel it in my bones they’re going to do something incredibly stupid and frustrating before this deadline…
In my opinion, the Marlins should be looking to trade Jesus Aguilar, any bullpen arm with any actual value, anything they can possibly do to move Avisail Garcia (maybe someone buys the improvement since May? Lol) and/or Jorge Soler who shouldnt have ever been signed, Elieser Hernandez a year later than they should have traded him, Jacob Stallings who should have never been traded for, and unfortunately even consider moving on from Miguel Rojas, and potentially even Joey Wendle, and they should look for potential bullpen arms for next year, and/or 1-2 corner bats, preferably on the infield, or maybe 1-2 lower level pitching prospects to help that area of the system
Otherwise, just stand pat for now so they dont do any more stupid things that put them more in a hole. There are rumors about Pablo Lopez, and I’m super against it, especially b/c of the Marlins track record of being unable to get value in trades. If by the offseason there is slightly more clarity on certain arms, then maybe consider it with Lopez, although it makes more sense to try to extend him for a couple of years, and deal someone else in that scenario, or even try to move him later on with more years of control behind him/having more proof of durability for more value there
They should bring up multiple players that should have been up earlier, and let them play/pitch out of the bullpen. They’ve finally started to do that the last few days, but there are several others as well
If they’re stupidly trading Lopez, we’ve seen a couple of the potential interested teams, and I have some deals in mind for what it should be if that happens, even though I really hope they dont do it. If they’re moving him, it better be for a lot, and as I’ve said, I dont trust them to be able to do that, and even those deals I’m not necessarily on board with
Essentially, I say get rid of any big league reliever we have that anyone would take, especially the ones with any value. I’ve been saying this for years though, and they almost never do it b/c its more important for them to have relievers to help them lose, than get value for when they actually need to win, and then they’ll usually give those same players away for nothing later on, when they actually do need the help in that area, and just go into the season with nothing, like these last couple of years…and essentially the position players we have for 1-2 more years that arent necessary/blocking others for the Marlins moving forward, but could help others and get at least something back. Hopefully my route is where they go, but the Marlins almost never do anything with any actual logic to it, outside of their smugness of thinking they’re smarter than everyone else, while actually being significantly dumber
Stallings had a very good 2021 and in the end you guys gave up nothing for Stallings. I wouldn’t sweat that deal.
Still pieces that could have been used on something they actually needed… when you include those guys, plus Elieser Hernandez, who they refused to trade, plus all the other times they’ve waited to trade people, only for them to get injured or fall off a cliff and then they get nothing, it’s fair to be annoyed by it, especially if you were someone like me that didnt think it made sense, and didnt think he was even worth it b/c of certain reasoning. Say what you want about his defense, but it hasnt been that good anyway, in fact it has been bad, and they had options that would have made more sense. Meanwhile, they let Alfaro go for nothing for him to be better than Stallings, and they could have just used Fortes, which is what most Marlins fans wanted…
They went into the season with a nonexistent bullpen, when they had pieces to move to potentially address that. They also signed 2 OFers they didnt need, which will now preclude them from things moving forward, after refusing to pay Starling Marte $40 million, and getting no value for him in the trade they made. People try to say this organization has changed, but they still do all the same stuff
@formerlyz
Instead of writing all of that you could have just wrote who you wanted to keep. Lol
Admittedly 2 of those paragraphs were accidental copy/pasted from when I was talking to someone I know earlier. I guess my phone selected more than I realized, but whatever, its relevant anyway…
Point being hold on certain people and get rid of everyone else, even if it’s not for much. There are a couple of teams that could use help at 1b/DH that they can send aaguilar to. There are a couple of teams that could use catching. They have a handful of bullpen arms to potentially move, as mentioned in this article, and those are the pieces I hope to see move the most, and then Rojas and Wendle should have some value as well. Garcia is just a pipe dream lol
I agree that they need to sell. They need to clear roster space to pursue upgrades in the offseason.
And to bring people up in the meantime
Scott is another analytics fraud. His ERA of 4.43 this season is his lowest in a season save 2020 and his career ERA is 4.67. That is NOT GOOD.
Dude has unbelievable stuff though. If you were to put him and Billy Wagner side by side you couldn’t tell the different out of hand. But when you look at the numbers the control issues are just too significant.
As an Orioles fan and very familiar with Scott I can not see why any team would want him besides that he is left handed. The dude can not pitch on the MLB level because he has no control. Buyer if any beware.
I have no way to watch the Marlins and on the off chance I’ve got them on MLBN I haven’t seen Okert, is he still have that low low arm angle?
Yes
And his stats are deceptive. He is a sucker deal waiting to happen.
Scott… overwhelming stuff with zero command.
Can Ng just move on from some of these pieces already? There is nothing to think about. Get what you can for the vets that failed this team.