In his Sunday column, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald has a number of noteworthy Marlins items. Here’s a look at some of the highlights..
- The Marlins like impending free agents Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake, but they’ll be out of Miami’s price range unless Jeffrey Loria is really willing to loosen the purse strings. MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently dropped Cueto to eighth in his 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings.
- If the Marlins deal Marcell Ozuna – and owner Jeffrey Loria reportedly is open to doing that – they’ll need a replacement in center field. The Marlins like Mets impending free agent Yoenis Cespedes, Jackson hears, but he’d probably be out of their price range. Cespedes is reportedly seeking at least six years on his free agent deal. The most recent version of Tim Dierkes’ 2016 MLB Free Agent Power Rankings has Cespedes as the No. 5 free agent on the market and Miami surely isn’t alone in its interest.
- There is “no thought” to the Marlins trading Christian Yelich, who has been tearing it up since the All-Star break. Yelich inked a $49.75MM, seven-year deal with Miami back in March. In April, MLBTR spoke with Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill and agent Joe Longo for an inside look at how the pact came together.
- Jackson hears that “there’s some internal sentiment” to trying to upgrade at closer, though that might not be realistic due to the team’s financial situation. In that event, Miami would use closer A.J. Ramos and Carter Capps as set-up men. Ramos, who has struggled with location issues at times this year, owns a 2.30 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 this season.
- Henderson Alvarez is expected to be tendered unless he has a setback in recovery before the early-December deadline, Jackson writes. That echoes a report from last month which indicated that Miami was leaning towards tendering an offer to the pitcher. The 25-year-old underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a tear in his right shoulder in late July, ending his season prematurely. He was Miami’s Opening Day starter, but wound up finishing the 2015 season with just 22 1/3 innings, four starts, and a dismal 6.45 ERA under his belt.
What kind of contract are we looking at for Leake that the Marlins are probably out on? He probably isn’t much more than a 4/$52 guy, is he?
He definitely gets a lot more than that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 5 years/$90 million
$18m/year?! Holy crap. He’s only approached that value once in his career. He’s not getting close to that. I could see the years, but certainly not the AAV
That was the high end of my estimate, but I don’t think it’s egregious to think that someone will pay him that. Regardless, I think your estimate is low. If he gets 4 years, it’s probably in the $64 million range
I can’t really see him pushing $16m, but if he does, I certainly understand how he would be out of the Marlins sights. I’m not sure who would sign him for that price though. Maybe he stays with the Giants at that, with Lincecum coming off the books, but they probably go other routes before investing that in Leake.
He’s going to get very close to that…he hasn’t approached that number because he’s never been a FA. He’s 28, very proven.
I would think 5/80-100 is right around his value too. He may have a rep as a bad pitcher from his first few years but this guy has really really turned his career around.
Marlins need at least 2 SPs and 3 bullpen arms. Of those bullpen arms, they desperately need someone that can get lefties out, and someone that can pitch at the backendbof the bullpen. Trading Sam Dyson for no reason definitely hurts, considering we already needed help in the bullpen before we traded him for a scrub backup catcher b/c he sort of looks like prince fielder.
John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Hisashi Iwakuma, Brett Anderson, Wei-Yin Chen, Yovani Gallardo, Doug Fister should all be in their price range, with the money they should have to spend with so little committed money on the books
John Lackey will fit nice in that Grand Cannon they call a Baseball Park !
And I personally think his mentality would be a boost to the rest of the rotation, especially the younger guys.
This just in: The Marlins are interested in every free agent, but they are all out of their price range.