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Eury Pérez, Ryan Weathers Begin Rehab Assignments

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The Marlins’ rotation has some reinforcements on the way, as both right-hander Eury Pérez and left-hander Ryan Weathers began rehab assignments over the weekend. Pérez tossed one inning for Single-A Jupiter on Saturday while Weathers logged three innings for the same club on Sunday.

The timing is fairly notable with Pérez, who underwent Tommy John surgery in April of last year. Back in February, he said that he was targeting a return around the All-Star break this year. It now seems as though he’s on pace to beat that timeline.

A rehab assignment for a pitcher can normally last as long as 30 days, though that can be extended for Tommy John recoveries. For those pitchers, it’s possible to extend the 30-day rehab window by an extra 10 days. That extension can happen as many as three times, meaning the total rehab assignment can eventually get up to 60 days. But even if Pérez ends up rehabbing for close to 60 days, that would only take him to mid-to-late June, well before the mid-July All-Star break.

Prior to his surgery, Pérez was in the process of establishing himself as a future ace. He was one of the top prospects in the sport before his debut. He made it to the majors in 2023, only 20 years old at the time, and tossed 91 1/3 innings over 19 starts. He allowed 3.15 earned runs per nine with a 28.9% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate. Ideally, he’ll be able to pick up right where he left off when he returns.

The Marlins control him through 2029, so he could be a pillar of their rotation for years to come. The baseball industry is expecting Sandy Alcantara to be traded this summer, so perhaps Pérez can take over as the rotation’s anchor.

As for Weathers, he was once a top 100 prospect with the Padres but struggled in his initial attempts against big league hitters. He was acquired by the Marlins at the 2023 deadline and then finally had some major league success in 2024. He posted a 3.63 ERA in 16 starts for the Marlins last year with a 21.8% strikeout rate, 6.5% walk rate and 46.6% ground ball rate.

Unfortunately, health has been stalling that breakout. A left index finger strain kept him on the injured list for most of the second half of last year. He then suffered a forearm strain before Opening Day of this year, which has led to him spending the entire season on the IL so far. He will likely return ahead of Pérez since he’s not coming back from surgery and also seems to be further along in his build-up.

The Marlins optioned Connor Gillispie yesterday, dropping them down to four starters. He allowed seven runs in two innings against the Mariners on Saturday, bumping his ERA to 8.65 for the year. That temporarily gives them a four-man rotation of Alcantara, Max Meyer, Cal Quantrill and Edward Cabrera. Perhaps Adam Mazur will get a chance to replace Gillispie, since he has a 1.44 ERA in Triple-A at the moment. Valente Bellozo is also on the 40-man and is sitting on a 1.59 ERA in Triple-A.

By the time Weathers and Pérez get back into the mix, the club will want to open spots for them. Alcantara isn’t going anywhere. He’s out to a rough start, with a 6.56 ERA through five outings, but the club will give him lots of time to get back on track after missing 2024 while recovering from his own Tommy John surgery. Meyer has options and can technically be sent to the minors but he’s been the club’s best pitcher this year, with a 3.18 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 56.1% ground ball rate.

Cabrera and Quantrill are perhaps less secure. Quantrill is sitting on a 7.83 ERA right now. He’s never been a huge strikeout guy but his 12.5% rate this year is even lower than his own standards. Cabrera has always combined strikeouts with walks to mixed results, which is still the situation. He has punched out 26.9% of opponents this year but has also given out free passes at an 11.9% rate. He currently has a 6.14 ERA on the year, though he missed some time with a blister and has only made three starts.

It’s possible the rotation outlook will change by the time Weathers and Pérez are back in the mix, due to other injuries or shifts in performance, but the Marlins may have to make some decisions about who holds onto a rotation job. The picture will likely change again ahead of the July trade deadline. As mentioned, it’s expected that Alcantara will be moved this summer, though the club may hold onto him if his struggles continue. Quantrill is on a one-year deal and should be available as well, though he would also have to turn his results around to have trade appeal. Cabrera has been in plenty of trade rumors over the years but is under club control through 2028.

Photo courtesy of Rhona Wise, Imagn Images

Griffin Conine To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Marlins outfielder Griffin Conine will undergo surgery on his left shoulder on Tuesday, the team announced to reporters (including MLB.com’s Josh Kirshenbaum).  The specific nature of the surgery will be established when Conine meets with Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday, though the fact that a surgery has already been scheduled in advance of this consultation certainly raises fears that the procedure may end Conine’s season.

It was a week ago that Conine dislocated his shoulder sliding into second base on an RBI double in the Marlins’ 11-10 loss to the Phillies.  Miami put the outfielder on the 60-day injured list the next day, and the direct 60-day placement (as opposed to even a token initial stint on the 15-day IL) was the first sign that Conine’s injury was particularly severe.  Even in the best-case scenario of a relatively minor surgery, Conine will surely be out of action until after the All-Star break.

Conine was hitting a solid .281/.352/.438 over his first 71 plate appearances before suffering the dislocation, which came on the heels of a similar .268/.326/.451 slash line in 89 PA in 2024 after Conine made his Major League debut.  The son of “Mr. Marlin” Jeff Conine, young Griffin was a second-round pick for the Blue Jays in the 2018 draft, and he was dealt to his dad’s former team back in August 2020.  Conine’s career minor league numbers have been more solid than spectacular, but he booked his first ticket to the Show after hitting .268/.350/.475 and 19 homers over 437 PA with Triple-A Jacksonville last season.

Though Conine is 27 years old and something of a late bloomer when it comes to his big league arrival, his early success has earned him more playing time.  Strikeouts have been a problem since Conine has whiffed in 47 of his 160 career trips to the plate against MLB pitching, but he has made a lot of hard contact this year, while also boosting his walk rate to above-average levels.  It was enough for the Marlins to deploy Conine in an everyday role, mostly as a left fielder with a few appearances in right field and as a DH.

Javier Sanoja, Ronny Simon, and Eric Wagaman have all seen time in left field in the past week, and outfield prospect Jakob Marsee could be in line to make his big league debut at some point in 2025.  The rebuilding Marlins aren’t likely to go out and get any kind of veteran outfield help outside of a pure stopgap measure, as the club is much more likely to keep giving playing time to younger players or players already in the organization.

Cubs Backed Out Of Offseason Luzardo Trade After Medical Review

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The Cubs pulled out of an offseason trade agreement with the Marlins that would have sent Jesús Luzardo to Chicago after a review of the lefty’s medical records, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Luzardo spent time on the injured list last season with both elbow inflammation and a lumbar stress reaction in his back; the latter injury kept him from pitching after late June. Specifics on the return that the Cubs would have sent to Miami remain unreported.

It stands to reason the trade would have occurred in the middle of December. Rosenthal writes that the Luzardo talks took place after the team’s two-year agreement with Matthew Boyd on December 2. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on December 14 that the Cubs had shown interest in Luzardo. Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reported two days later that the Cubs were pushing to get a deal done. By December 19, Levine had reported that talks were essentially dead.

Miami pivoted quickly, trading Luzardo to the Phillies on December 22. Philadelphia sent prospects Starlyn Caba and Emaarion Boyd to their division rivals while also acquiring minor league catcher Paul McIntosh. The Cubs aimed lower in their rotation pursuit. They signed swingman Colin Rea to a one-year, $5MM deal in January. Rea began the season as the sixth starter but has drawn into the rotation after Chicago lost Justin Steele to season-ending UCL surgery.

In his first session with Philadelphia media around the New Year, Luzardo said he’d “felt 100% the whole offseason.” He noted that the back injury had impacted him for most of the ’24 season before becoming something through which he could no longer pitch. He said in December that he felt it was “all figured out” and “back to normal.”

The Phillies were clearly comfortable with their review. It’s not unheard of for teams to have differing evaluations on a player’s medicals. The Yankees pulled out of a Jack Flaherty deadline deal before he was traded to the Dodgers last summer. The Braves and Orioles each backed out of free agent agreements with Jeff Hoffman prior to his three-year deal with the Blue Jays. They’re not completely analogous — free agent signees go through a physical examination, while teams usually just review the medical records of their trade targets — but this isn’t unique.

Luzardo has gotten out to a fantastic start with the Phils. He’s averaging just over six innings per appearance and owns a 2.08 earned run average through 30 1/3 frames. He has fanned 30% of opponents while averaging 96.4 MPH on his fastball — a tick above last season’s 95.2 mark. None of that guarantees that he’ll stay healthy, of course, but the Phillies are surely pleased with the early returns.

The southpaw will take the ball at Wrigley Field tomorrow opposite Ben Brown in the second game of a weekend set. He’s making $6.225MM this season and will likely earn something in the $10-12MM range for his final arbitration trip in 2026. Luzardo will hit free agency in advance of his age-29 campaign two years from now.

Marlins Outright Patrick Monteverde

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The Marlins have sent left-hander Patrick Monteverde outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Sunday.

Monteverde, 27, was just selected to a big league roster for the first time on Saturday. The Fish had used four relievers in their previous game and wanted to add a fresh arm to their bullpen. Cal Quantrill took the ball on Saturday but allowed seven earned runs to the Phillies through 3 1/3 innings. Monteverde came in for some mop-up work and tossed 3 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits and a walk, with four strikeouts.

He likely wasn’t going to be available for a few days after that, so he was promptly designated for assignment on Sunday as the Fish called up another couple of fresh arms. He has now cleared waivers and will stick with the Marlins as non-roster depth. Since he doesn’t have a previous career outright or three years of service time, he doesn’t have the right to elect free agency.

An eighth-round pick from 2021, Monteverde has primarily been working as a starter. He has 369 1/3 minor league innings under his belt to this point, having allowed 4.26 earned runs per nine. His 23.6% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate are both pretty close to par. As recently as June of last year, FanGraphs ranked him the #24 prospect in the system, calling him a “high-floored depth starter type.”

Photo courtesy of Kyle Ross, Imagn Images

MLBTR Podcast: Justin Steele, Triston McKenzie, And Tons Of Prospect Promotions

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

  • Can high-caliber early-career players like Paul Skenes demand trades or are they stuck where they are? (44:45)
  • With constant injuries and DFAs, could the new CBA lead to some changes in roster rules? (49:25)

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Marlins Recall Agustin Ramirez For MLB Debut

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April 21: Ramirez’s promotion to the majors is official, per a team announcement. Miami officially recalled Ramirez and righty George Soriano from Triple-A Jacksonville. Lefty Cade Gibson was optioned to Triple-A to open one spot, while Brantly was placed on the 10-day IL due to a right lat strain in order to open the other.

April 20: The Marlins are calling up catching prospect Agustin Ramirez prior to tomorrow’s game against the Reds, SportsGrid’s Craig Mish reports.  Ramirez will be making his Major League debut whenever the 23-year-old backstop appears in a game.

The corresponding moves aren’t yet known, though Ramirez is already on Miami’s 40-man roster.  The likeliest 26-man roster move probably relates to catcher Rob Brantly, who made an early exit from today’s 7-5 win over the Phillies due to right shoulder discomfort.  As per the Fish On First blog, the Marlins were already planning to call Ramirez up prior to today’s game and Brantly’s injury, so it’s a rough outcome for Brantly if he got hurt and lost his roster spot in the same day (though if he was on the cusp of a DFA anyhow, he’ll at least continue to accrue MLB service time and pay a bit longer this way).

Baseball Prospectus ranked Ramirez as the 55th-best prospect in baseball prior to the 2025 season, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel also had Ramirez 96th on his top-100 list.  In their ranking of Marlins prospects only, Baseball America slots Ramirez third and MLB Pipeline has him fourth.  The pundits agree that Ramirez has a lot of hitting potential, with plus power and good contact numbers, plus a good batting eye.  While not a quick baserunner, Ramirez is a canny baserunner who has stolen 53 bases (out of 63 attempts) during his minor league career — “in particular, he loves to steal third base by timing up pitchers’ looks,” as per BA’s scouting report.

It remains to be seen if Ramirez will stick behind the plate, as he is considered below average in pretty much every defensive category.  Ramirez does has a strong throwing arm, but evaluators note that he can’t take full advantage due to a lack of accuracy, plus he isn’t quick in getting the ball out of his glove.  If former first-rounder Joe Mack is the Marlins’ true catcher of the future, Ramirez’s eventual home might be first base, so that will put more pressure on Ramirez to produce at the bat-first position.

The Marlins have used Ramirez just as a catcher (and DH) during his two years in their organization.  Ramirez was an international signing for the Yankees during the 2018 int’l window, and was dealt to Miami last July as part of the three-player return the Marlins received for Jazz Chisholm Jr. Over 86 games and 362 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Ramirez has hit .248/.340/.430, with 12 home runs, 19 doubles, and 14 steals in 15 attempts.

Since starting catcher Nick Fortes is also on the 10-day IL recovering from an oblique injury, the Marlins’ decision to promote Ramirez may have been at least partially forced by a lack of depth behind the plate, which has now become pronounced if Brantly is out.  Ramirez and Rule 5 Draft pick Liam Hicks now comprise Miami’s catching corps, and if Ramirez hits well, the rebuilding Marlins will likely let him stick around on the big league roster in order to get more experience in the Show.

Marlins Select Cade Gibson, Ronny Simon

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The Marlins announced a series of roster moves this morning. Left-hander Cade Gibson and infielder Ronny Simon were both promoted to the majors. Outfielder Griffin Conine was placed on the 60-day injured list with a dislocated left shoulder, and lefty Patrick Monteverde was designated for assignment. Fish On The Farm first reported Gibson’s call-up, while Mike Rodriguez was first to report Simon’s promotion. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald was the first to report that Conine was headed for the 60-day IL.

Conine’s placement on the shelf is hardly a surprise given that his injury was announced last night. Still, it’s notable that the outfielder will be out for at least the next two months. An exact timetable for his return has not yet been made available, as Jackson reports that while Conine will be out quite a while it’s not yet clear if he’ll require surgery or if his season is in jeopardy. The Marlins are using Javier Sanoja in left field today in Conine’s absence, with Kyle Stowers remaining in right and a platoon of Jesus Sanchez and Dane Myers still handling center field.

Replacing Conine on the roster is Simon, who could theoretically partake in the club’s left field mix alongside Sanoja despite primarily working as an infielder over the years. The 25-year-old initially signed with the Cubs out of the Dominican Republic back in 2018 but was traded to the Diamondbacks during the 2020 season as part of the Andrew Chafin deal. He was then traded to the Rays in a deal that shipped Jordan Luplow to Arizona before reaching minor league free agency and signing with the Marlins on a minor league deal. Now in his fourth organization, Simon has gotten off to a very hot start at Triple-A with a .354/.441/.521 slash line across 15 games and 60 trips to the plate.

That was enough to convince the Marlins to give Simon a shot in the majors. While he’s primarily a second baseman, Simon will bring experience all around the infield and even in the outfield to the Marlins’ bench, offering some valuable versatility for a club that’s struggled to stay healthy early in the year. Simon is also a quality baserunner, with 127 career stolen bases in the minors including two separate 30-steal seasons. Simon could pair with Sanoja in left field while also backing up Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards, and Connor Norby around the infield dirt.

Meanwhile, the pitching side of things sees Cade Gibson come to the big leagues ahead of his major league debut. The 27-year-old lefty was a tenth-round pick by the Marlins back in 2022, and he turned in excellent results in a swing role while splitting time between the High-A and Double-A levels last year. He struck out just 21.1% of hitters but limited opponents to a 2.45 ERA in 80 2/3 innings of work. That performance earned him a promotion to Triple-A this year, where he’s surrendered a 4.50 ERA in ten frames of multi-inning relief work. Despite that lackluster run prevention, Gibson has struck out 29.8% of opponents this year while walking 10.6%. That intriguing jump in strikeout rate could be the reason that the Marlins have opted to give Gibson a shot in the majors after just four appearances with the club’s Jacksonville affiliate.

Making room for Gibson on the roster is Monteverde, who was promoted to the majors just yesterday. The southpaw was an eighth-rounder by the Marlins back in 2021, and he’s worked as a starter primarily throughout his minor league career before moving to a multi-inning relief role this year. Monteverde threw 3 2/3 innings in his MLB debut during yesterday’s game, but surrendered four runs on nine hits while striking out four and walking one. The Marlins will now have one week to either work out a trade involving Monteverde or attempt to pass him through waivers. If he goes unclaimed by the rest of the league, Miami will have the opportunity to outright him to the minors as non-roster depth.

Marlins’ Griffin Conine Suffers Dislocated Shoulder

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The Marlins announced after today’s game that outfielder Griffin Conine suffered a dislocated left shoulder and is currently undergoing further evaluation and treatment. It’s all but certain that Conine will require a stint on the injured list. While a more specific timetable for the injury won’t be clear until he’s been evaluated more fully, it should be expected that Conine will miss quite some time. Dislocated shoulders can often require a recovery period measured in months rather than weeks, and severe dislocations can even require surgery that would jeopardize the remainder of Conine’s 2025 campaign.

Trevor Story, Shohei Ohtani, and Jung Hoo Lee are among the players to have recently required surgery after suffering a separated shoulder. Ohtani’s partial dislocation required only arthroscopic surgery, and he wound up being ready for Spring Training just three months after going under the knife. Story’s surgery in April of last year was also to correct a partial dislocation but was nonetheless expected to be season-ending, although he ultimately managed to make it back to the majors in late September after roughly five months on the shelf. Lee, by contrast, suffered a full dislocation back in May and ultimately missed the remainder of the 2024 season.

However long Conine ends up missing, it’s nonetheless a frustrating setback for the 27-year-old. A second-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2018, Conine was traded to Miami as part of the Jonathan Villar trade and made his MLB debut late last year. Conine has looked like a solid contributor in 49 big league games since his promotion, hitting .273/.338/.441 (116 wRC+) to this point in his young big league career and even earning the everyday left field job for the rebuilding Marlins. That everyday job figured to be a very effective proving ground for Conine that could offer him plenty of runway to earn either a long-term job as a regular in Miami or perhaps even catch the attention of rival clubs as a potential trade piece, but all of that now figures to be scuttled for the foreseeable future.

A Marlins club that was already lacking in outfield depth after Derek Hill hit the shelf due to a sprained wrist earlier this week now figures to be tested even further. Jesus Sanchez and Dane Myers are currently sharing time in center field while Kyle Stowers serves as a regular fixture in right field. That would leave a combination of Sanchez, Myers, and utilityman Javier Sanoja to mix and match in left field as necessary out of the club’s current outfield options, though a bat will surely be brought up to replace Conine on the roster in due time.

Victor Mesa Jr. is already on the 40-man roster and could be called up to share time in center with Myers, pushing Sanchez over to left, or a non-roster veteran like Albert Almora Jr. could have his contract selected from Triple-A to help fill out the outfield depth chart in Miami. One other potential x-factor for the Marlins could be top outfield prospect Jakob Marsee, who came over from San Diego in the Luis Arraez trade. Marsee has looked good in 18 games at Triple-A to this point in the year and could slide into an everyday outfield role seamlessly for Miami, though it’s unclear if the club would have any interest in bringing the 23-year-old to the majors (and starting his service clock) without seeing a larger body of work at Triple-A. Marsee is also not yet on the 40-man roster and would require a corresponding 40-man move, though a particularly long absence for Conine would solve that issue by way of the 60-day injured list.

Marlins Select Patrick Monteverde’s Contract

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The Marlins announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Patrick Monteverde from Triple-A Jacksonville.  Right-hander George Soriano was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.

Miami used four different relievers in Friday’s 7-2 loss to Philadelphia, and Soriano ate 1 2/3 of those innings.  Today’s transaction gets a fresh arm into the Marlins’ pen, and also opens the door for Monteverde to make his Major League debut whenever the southpaw makes his first in-game appearance.

The 27-year-old Monteverde was an eighth-round pick for the Marlins in the 2021 draft, and the Texas Tech product posted some decent numbers in the minors before seemingly hitting a wall at the Triple-A level.  Monteverde has a 6.55 ERA over 88 innings in Jacksonville, with a decrease in strikeouts and an increase in home runs accounting for these struggles over parts of three seasons at the top minor league level.  Monteverde has mostly worked as a starter in the minors, but this season has seen him work just as a multi-inning reliever across his three Triple-A appearances, though a 4.82 ERA in 9 1/3 innings this year doesn’t yet hint at any great breakthrough.

It was at least enough to get Monteverde his first look in the Show, and he’ll be thrown right into the deep end if he is utilized against the Phillies’ many powerful left-handed bats this weekend.  Monteverde might indeed just be a depth arm for the short term, but on a rebuilding team like the Marlins, he has plenty of opportunity to stick around or get a future call-up if he pitches well.  Anthony Veneziano is the only other left-hander in Miami’s bullpen, so Monteverde could bring some extra southpaw depth if he remains on the active roster.

Poll: When Should The Marlins Trade Sandy Alcantara?

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While this year’s trade deadline is still more than three months away, there’s perhaps no more obvious trade candidate in the game right now than Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara. The 2022 NL Cy Young award winner, Alcantara missed last season due to Tommy John surgery but is back in action with Miami this year. While he was out of commission, the Marlins tore the roster that made the playoffs in 2023 down to the studs, trading everyone from Luis Arraez and Jazz Chisholm Jr. to Trevor Rogers and Jesus Luzardo. With no end in sight to the rebuild and Alcantara controlled through the 2027 season, it would be a complete shock if the Marlins held onto him until his contract came to a close.

Whenever the Marlins trade Alcantara, he’s sure to be an extremely sought-after commodity. The right-hander’s 4.70 ERA in three starts this year is far from impressive, but his peripherals have looked better. He’s generating grounders at a phenomenal 65.1% clip with a 3.86 FIP and a 3.91 xERA despite his lackluster 19% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate. Those strikeout and walk figures will become concerning if they hold up over a larger sample size, but unless that comes to pass, it seems fair to expect the righty to return to his previous dominant form. Since his full-season debut in 2019, Alcantara has posted a 3.33 ERA with a 3.71 FIP, a 51% grounder rate, and a 21.4% strikeout rate against a 7.1% walk rate.

Those numbers don’t hold a candle to his Cy Young season, where he posted a 2.28 ERA and 2.80 FIP in a campaign that led MLB with 8.0 bWAR, but it’s still clearly front-of-the-rotation caliber production overall. Perhaps even more enticing to teams than Alcantara’s rate production is his status as a true workhorse in a game where arms capable of pitching deep into games on a regular basis have become vanishingly rare. Alcantara hasn’t posted less than 184 2/3 innings in any of his four full seasons, and his 858 1/3 innings of work from 2019 to 2023 were second only to Gerrit Cole. That sort of volume would have value even if Alcantara was a league-average pitcher, given the increasing difficulty with which teams are forced to piece together their rotations.

He’s also appealing from a financial point of view. He is making $17MM this year and next year, less than half of what some other ace pitchers get. Then there’s a $2MM buyout on a $21MM club option for 2027.

Given his ace-level upside, workhorse reputation, years of control, and affordable contract, Alcantara’s status as one of the most valuable trade chips in the sport is unlikely to change. That gives the Marlins the ability to stay flexible with their plans regarding the prized righty. Reporters Will Sammon of The Athletic and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald have suggested that the Marlins have not yet decided if they’ll trade Alcantara at all this season. Alcantara himself tells Jackson that he wants to stay in Miami but is aware that he has no say in the matter. “I’m [just] a player,” he said. “If they want to trade me for a bag, they can trade me.” While the righty eventually getting moved appears to be something of a fait accompli, the Fish would still have two full seasons of team control to market if they opted to move him this offseason instead.

Of course, teams will likely be willing to pay a higher premium for Alcantara at the deadline, when they’d have him available for three pennant races and he wouldn’t be competing with a free agent market rich in rotation talent like Dylan Cease, Zac Gallen, and Framber Valdez. Unless the 8-10 Marlins are able to make a surprise surge into contention for an NL Wild Card spot this summer or Alcantara’s performance declines enough that lucrative trade offers start to dry up, it’s hard to see the club getting more value out of their star by waiting for the offseason. With that said, another year of information regarding their prospects and young players could allow them to make more informed decisions about which areas of the roster to target improvements for in the return package.

Could the Marlins benefit from moving Alcantara even earlier, as they did with Arraez last May? Such a decision wouldn’t give Alcantara much of an opportunity to prove he’s healthy and back to his usual form, but the extra few months of starts could be very attractive to clubs like the Yankees, Cubs, and Padres that are dealing with injury woes in their rotation already. What’s more, it’s not impossible to imagine a team like the Astros (Valdez), Twins (Pablo Lopez), or Royals (Seth Lugo) that is currently attempting to compete winding up on the outside of the playoff picture come July and marketing their own top starters. That would give potential suitors for Alcantara alternative options they surely wouldn’t have available to them this early in the calendar.

When do MLBTR readers think the Marlins should start trying to trade Alcantara? Would jumping the market and opening up the bidding now allow them to maximize their asset, should they wait to see if Alcantara can re-establish himself more before putting him on the market this summer, or could waiting even longer to deal him this offseason be the best course to take? Have your say in the poll below:

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