The Marlins have yet to sign a major league free agent to a fully guaranteed deal this offseason. (They signed former Angels farmhand Eric Wagaman to a major league pact, but that’s a non-guaranteed/split contract.) That could change in the near future, however, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Fish are considering a late-offseason addition of “a veteran starter or two.”
Miami lost lefty Braxton Garrett to UCL surgery and traded Jesus Luzardo to the Phillies this offseason. They’re not going to rush star prospect Eury Perez back from last April’s Tommy John surgery. Their once-vaunted rotation depth has been gutted by injuries and trades of several young arms.
As things stand, Miami projects to open the year with a rotation headlined by returning former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (who missed the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery) and also including lefty Ryan Weathers, righty Edward Cabrera, and former No. 3 overall pick Max Meyer. Among the candidates for the final rotation spot are righties Valente Bellozo and Adam Mazur and southpaw Robby Snelling. Lefty Dax Fulton is also on the 40-man roster and once ranked as one of the system’s best arms, but he missed all of 2024 with the second Tommy John procedure of his young career.
Despite the trade of Luzardo and myriad question marks up and down the pitching staff, the Marlins have yet to make any big league additions and haven’t even been active in adding depth options on non-roster deals. It’s generally been a silent offseason for a Miami club that RosterResource currently projects for a paltry $67MM Opening Day payroll (with just $84MM of CBT obligations).
With a basement-level payroll (even by their standards) and plenty of fringe big leaguers on the current 40-man roster (plus the ability to put Garrett and/or Perez on the 60-day IL when camp opens), Miami has no real roadblocks to signing a starter or taking on a veteran via trade — other than whatever self-imposed spending limitations are in place. There are plenty of options to consider both via trade and free agency.
The Yankees, for instance, are eager to move sixth starter Marcus Stroman and willing to pay down some of his $18MM salary, though Miami might balk at the $18MM vesting player option that’d kick in if Stroman reached 140 innings. The D-backs would welcome trading a portion of Jordan Montgomery’s remaining year and $22.5MM. Ditto the Phillies and the remaining two years and $36MM on Taijuan Walker’s contract or the Cardinals and the $12MM they still owe to Steven Matz.
While the Fish could opportunistically use a Stroman, Montgomery, Matz or Walker trade as a means of effectively purchasing a prospect or two, the likelier and more straightforward path would be to finally venture into free agency. Miami isn’t going to surrender a draft pick to sign Nick Pivetta, but virtually any of the other remaining rotation arms could make sense. Among the yet unsigned names are Andrew Heaney, Kyle Gibson, Patrick Corbin, Cal Quantrill, Jose Quintana, Spencer Turnbull, Ross Stripling, Lance Lynn, Jakob Junis and Alex Wood. There also some post-injury rehab candidates to consider (e.g. Anthony DeSclafani, John Means, Jose Urquidy).
The Marlins are only in their second offseason under president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, but free agency essentially hasn’t been utilized during his tenure. Tim Anderson is the only guaranteed deal given out by Bendix in nearly two full offseasons at the wheel.
Miami call Yankees for Stroman ASAP!!! You can even have Stanton back. 🙂
In every possible way Stroman is perfect for them. Maybe Stroman for Bruján?
Brujan who was traded to the Cubs already?
Much cheaper options on the market right now. Unfortunately I can’t imagine the Marlins taking Stroman when they can have at least two of the dudes out there for less without giving anything away.
Just a thought:
Could the Marlins ownership group, just decide to disband? Skip the season, sell the players and call it a day. Cash in the chips!
Would anyone even notice?
The players on scheduled teams would get a nice little break during the season, right.
Stanton certainly has his problems but it ain’t the smartest idea to get rid of one of the only guys that can hit in the post season.
The marlins need to get the most out of Cabrera. I don’t think Mel’s firing was the right call, but he needs to take that next step to cement his next contract.
Mel’s firing is the 1 main part of the direction I’m annoyed with; hopefully that’s not something we’re still talking about in 3 years from now
Pat Rapp time, baby!
Throw those free agent names in a hat and just pick one.
Just take on two of those bad contracts with prospects. There’s no point in giving a similar pitcher money to just eat innings.
It seems the small markets are waiting for the free agent SP to drop into the 4-6M range.
If the priority is innings and not upside Kyle Gibson makes plenty of sense. There are plenty of options still out there.
Gibby might not want to go to Miami though…
Really too bad that they Marlins lost out on Ohtani and Yamamoto last year and Sasaki this year.
I thought they’d add 1-2 SPs that can give them some innings, 3 bullpen arms, hopefully arms that can be flipped, and maybe 1-2 bats that could make sense…all relatively cheaply, but they haven’t done any of it
Most of those people are still available though…
Trading a non-prospect for Montgomery plus a legit prospect and paying his whole salary gets Miami over the potential grievance line of $105 million cap money, gives them a veteran future trade chip, and a prospect.
I kinda feel bad for Pivetta, I don’t see how he will beat the QO AAV at this point. And I’m sure that without that QO, he’d already have a new team too.
The wording suggests that Stroman’s opition would kick in if he pitches 140 innings.
But, his option has already kicked in because he pitched over 140 innings in 2024.
Stroman’s player option kicks in only with 140 innings in 2025. The article is correct.
That payroll tho!! I am so glad I’m not one of the 4 Marlins fans. The Florida teams need to move. Florida is transplants that root for other teams and many go home during the summer anyway.
Hey man, it’s not fun
Jacob Junis would be an absolute bargain and STEAL. I watched him fi ushed the season with the Reds firsthand last year after the trade and he was absolutely rock solid. Im furious they haven’t resigned him, even as a bullpen option. He deserves a full time starting opportunity and if he pitches like he ended 2024, the return they could get for him at the trade deadline would be cashing in, especially if they sign him to a 2yr contract for say $16-18mil (8-9 per year). That extra year of control would get them a top 10 prospect from a team around the deadline if he’s starting and even potentially as a reliever. If he doesn’t light it up, you’ve got a 4/5 starter who will eat up innings at a very reasonable contract for two years. He wants to be a starter and that’s the only reason he hasn’t signed so far.far
This franchise tries even less than the pirates. At least the A’s spent some money and the Rays are always relatively competitive.
What is the goal of the Miami Marlins franchise? How do they market their team? Which of these seem appropriate – We are likely better than any AA team? We are collecting a bunch of revenue-sharing and then we will file bankruptcy? Despite being stupid and incompetent somehow by dumb luck we will be successful? We thought we bought a soccer team?
Just a pathetic ownership and management team.