7:15pm: The Marlins are “very much engaged” in negotiations with Soriano, Frisaro now tweets.
That talks seem to have intensified, perhaps, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reported tonight that Cishek has been told he’s being removed from the closer’s role (Twitter links). The Marlins will likely give A.J. Ramos the bulk of the closing time in his stead, for now, according to Spencer, though Mike Dunn and Bryan Morris could also see occasional looks. However, if the team is moving on from Cishek as a closing option, adding a more experienced arm wouldn’t be a surprising route.
3:13pm: Marlins GM Dan Jennings is expected to have an opportunity to speak today in Los Angeles with Soriano’s agent, Scott Boras, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports.
10:31am: The Marlins have reached out to Rafael Soriano’s representatives to express interest in the veteran reliever, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports. Miami has exchanged some dialogue with agent Scott Boras, per the report, as it weighs its options in the relief corps. Per Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, via Twitter, the sides are not close to a deal at present.
Soriano, of course, remains on the free agent market despite ranking among the game’s fifty best open market players coming into the year (per MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes). The 35-year-old struggled down the stretch last year, but still finished with 62 innings of 3.19 ERA ball under his belt with 8.6 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9.
Spurring the opening of talks with Soriano, of course, are the struggles of closer Steve Cishek. After establishing himself as one of the game’s better late-inning arms in recent years, Cishek has stumbled badly in the early going and appears to be moving out of the 9th inning role.
Miami had previously explored adding a veteran arm to bolster the back of its pen, most notably pursuing Francisco Rodriguez before he signed with the Brewers, so the interest and availability of funds is not a new thing. The club opened the day with a 15-18 record, sitting 5.5 games off the NL East pace, but has been performing much better since a 3-11 start.
Of course, as Frisaro emphasizes, a Soriano signing is just one of several possible avenues the club is considering to drive improvement in its late-inning pitching. There are several internal options both to fill the closer’s role and to otherwise boost the pen. And the club could look at the trade market, possibly revisiting Rodriguez — who is pitching well with Milwaukee — or even taking a look at an intra-division deal for Jonathan Papelbon.
From my perspective, it remains a bit early for the Marlins to make any rash decisions. The club has plausible replacements for Cishek and can still hope he can right the ship. And it is not yet clear whether a significant investment will make sense over the summer. That said, it obviously makes good sense to explore the possibilities with Soriano, particularly if he may be drawn to sign for a somewhat more palatable sum if he has a reasonable expectation of slotting into the 9th inning.
Just go with AJ Ramos. 1.06 ERA, 21/6 K/BB in 17 innings. Give him a shot.
yep. much cheaper and better pitcher than Soriano.
I’ve been waiting for them to go with Ramos for weeks now. I’ve had him stashed in my fantasy roster just waiting….
Boras obviously doesn’t mind waiting, but I wonder what offers, if any, were out there that were rejected by Soriano before the season started. Everything I’ve seen seems to talk about Boras saying “logical fit” but that doesn’t mean there was actual interest.
4 years. Eleventy billions
Excellent use of “Eleventy”. Well done!
I would be surprised if there haven’t been quite a few teams that have expressed some level of interest in Soriano. That doesn’t mean teams have been lining up to sign him, but he’s probably fielded a number of calls, and the team’s role for him(likely minor league deal) didn’t suffice his desire.
Soriano’s best years are behind him. As a Nats fan, I can avow that he BARELY got the job done and often did so thanks to great defensive plays behind him. An atmosphere of fear and dread would overcome the ballpark whenever he came out. And if he were brought out during a non-close situation, he wouldn’t even try. Our color analysts were all over it, and management finally benched him the last few weeks of the season. He was noticeably absent from our post-season roster. I hope the Fish do themselves a favor and take a pass on this guy.
I am fairly certain he was on the post-season roster. And as a Nats fan, far be it for me to defend him too much, but surely Boras could put together an incentive-laden package for him. I mean, it’s not like he was the only closer who lost his job last year and yet most other free agent closers managed to find landing spots.
He was. And pitched 2.1 scoreless innings. He must have been noticeably absent since he didn’t allow any runs. Haha
He wasn’t benched and he did pitch in the post-season. His velocity was down the last month of the season so he was either fatigued or pitching through an injury. Perhaps he’s waited until now to avoid that happening again.
Ship Cishek up to Boston, not far from home.
He can’t pitch in a pitchers park , he get killed in Boston , with Green Monster only 308 feet away.
without the 4 blown safe, Marlins would be 2nd place and only 2.5 games behind
Pap’s would bring some excitement to Fish.
If it came down to Paps, Soriano or Rodriguez I think Paps is definitely the best of that group. The fact that it’s an intra-divisional trade would mean nothing since the Phils are several years away from contending…and that’s an extremely optimistic view for when the Phils actually compete again. They’re bad just about everywhere…everywhere but closer. Who needs a strong closer when you’re looking at a 100 loss season?
Marlins GM Dan Jennings is expected to have an opportunity to speak today in Los Angeles with Soriano’s agent, Scott Boras
Oh Boras is making time in his schedule to meet Jennings?
Wow! How lucky is he to be so favored!
Dave, the clock is ticking. I think you should look into Soriano before its too late. Not saying at any price, but wouldn’t you have to find out someone else signed him on the cheap when the Tigers pen is still scary? He’s got to be better than Joba.
Marlins manager should not have a job if he keeps rolling Cishek out there to blow games. Hint, use your best pitcher in the pen as closer and not the worst. It ain’t that hard.
I’m guessing that the Cubs are not highly motivated to negotiate a deal with Scott Boras.
A lot of teams were interested in Cishek at last years trade deadline and over the winter. There’s very few closers who are consistently excellent year in and year out. The Fish missed a good chance to sell high. Of course hindsight is always 20-20.
Right? I think closers like Cishek’s talent need to be shipped as fast as possible. Especially when approaching age 30. Relief pitchers are so finicky year to year, the bad years are terrible and Cishek’s 2015 shows what terrible looks like. Nevermind keeping them healthy. it’d be one thing if he was elite, like Kimbrel or Chapman, but Cishek was just your everyday RP who was given the role as 9th inning guy.
Soriano is a great guy let him go to Miami and I want to see the untuck of his jersey after the game that looks cool
How about one of Isael Soto/Austin Dean and Michael Mader for Papelbon and say, $8.5 million?
Austin Dean / in any trade right now is wrong four marlins. im not giving on him . plus we don’t need to make a trade when we got people who can be closer. and Soriano as a free agent. free
Austin Dean / in any trade right now is wrong four marlins. im not giving up on him . plus we don’t need to make a trade when we got people who can be closer. and Soriano as a free agent.