The Marlins will place closer A.J. Ramos on the 15-day DL, Andy Slater of 940-AM WINZ tweets. Slater adds that the team will send lefty Hunter Cervenka, who it recently acquired from the Braves, to the minors. Corresponding moves have yet to be announced, although the Marlins used eight relievers (including Cervenka and starter Andrew Cashner) in a 14-inning loss to the Giants yesterday, so bullpen reinforcements would appear to be in order.
There’s no specific word on the reason for Ramos’ DL placement, although he recently has been unavailable due to a jammed finger. It’s unclear how long he’ll be out, but if the finger turns out to be the only problem, the Marlins’ initial reluctance to place him on the DL might suggest they believe the injury won’t turn out to be serious. Fernando Rodney collected a save this weekend in Ramos’ absence and appears likely to continue to close until Ramos returns.
The 29-year-old Ramos has had a solid second season as the Marlins’ closer, collecting 32 saves while posting a 3.05 ERA and compensating for a high 5.3 BB/9 with an excellent 11.4 K/9. He’s now pitched parts of five seasons with the Marlins, with a career 2.69 ERA, 10.6 K/9 and 4.8 BB/9.
With so many teams one arm short, could Theo Epstein parlay Joe Nathan into a piece?
Pretty sure he was recently DFA’d. Doubt he’d bring back anything but cash considerations.
He was DFA’d. He might be consdered better than the Marlins next-man-up. Which might make him valuable enough to bring a Tony Campana- or Rafael Lopez-type of return.
Gonna be honest I don’t know who Rafael Lopez is or how good he is, but whatever the return is it won’t be good. If Miami really wanted him, they could just claim him off outright waivers in a couple days and not give up anything
If nobody else wants him. Then, yeah. The Cubs front office knows other teams’ systems fairly well. I’d think he might get a pitcher in short-season ball for Nathan. Which is what he did with Lopez and Campana, who were less impressive than Nathan.
Better than Narveson or Austin Brice, likely.