The Marlins have been somewhat surprisingly tied to names like Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman, and Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports that the Marlins’ pursuit of the market’s top closers is coming at the urge of owner Jeffrey Loria. Spencer notes that signing any of the “big three” available closers would push Miami well past a $100MM payroll for just the second time in franchise history, but Loria is seemingly comfortable with that fact. According to Spencer, the Marlins’ payroll could rise as high as $115MM next year.
Right-hander Mark Melancon is reportedly nearing a deal with the Giants, which would leave Jansen and Chapman as the top two potential targets for Miami. FOX’s Ken Rosenthal reported last night that the Marlins were willing to offer upward of $80MM to Jansen despite the qualifying offer that is attached to his name. And, earlier this morning, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that Loria “loves” Chapman and has been speaking directly to the agents for the top relievers himself thus far.
Either Jansen or Chapman would be a massive boost to Miami’s relief corps and would give the team a potentially dominant late-inning trio, as right-handers A.J. Ramos and Kyle Barraclough both have gaudy strikeout numbers. It’s been rumored that the Marlins could field offers for Ramos this winter, though, so there’s obviously some degree of fluidity in the organization’s plans to solidify its pitching staff.
Also of note for Marlins fans, FanRag’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter) that they’re interested in veteran A.J. Ellis as a potential backup to young catcher J.T. Realmuto. Jeff Mathis has been Miami’s reserve catcher in recent seasons, but he recently inked a deal with the Diamondbacks, leaving the Fish in the market for some catching help.
So….sign Jansen, Chapman, and EE and then trade all of them next year for prospects. Just repeat 2012.
In today’s game, that’s not a bad idea. Sign them all then trade them
Yeah, I actually thought about it as a joke, but they got a lot of their team’s foundation from doing that before. It gives them a chance to contend this year and then rebuild after the loss of Fernandez.
No they didn’t
Realmuto, Yelich, Stanton, Conley and Fernandez (RIP) were all draft picks.
Bour is a rule 5 pick.
Chen and Volquez were free agent signings.
Ozuna was an international free agent.
Gordon was a trade pickup, but the traded prospects for Godon (Heaney and Barnes).
The only core player who came from trading established stars was Martin Prado, who came from the Nathan Eovaldi trade who came to the Marlins from the Hanley Ramirez trade.
The 2012 fire sale netted the Marlins Adeinny Hechevarria (subpar SS), Henderson Alvarez (non-tendered), Justin Nicolino (bust), Jake Marisnick (traded bust) and Jeff Mathis (decade old bust).
Pretty good idea if you can find a team willing to give up prospects to trade for market rate contracts.
They didn’t have much trouble doing it last time
Jansen, Ramos, Bear Claw makes it a 6 inning game
Yup…u no longer need top SPs
No, I’m pretty sure you still need top starting pitchers if you plan on winning anything.
Royals didn’t
You need good starting pitching to win. Period.
The 1 day per week where they are all available and the starting pitcher hasn’t given up 5 runs.
Their rotation is awful.
Either way Loria is a clown and they are going nowhere. The fact that he’s “negotiating” this deal tells you all you need to know about how this franchise is being run.
There is no way Chapman or Janssen will sign with the Marlins. Janssen is a possibility if he had a good relationship with Matingly but the Yankees, Dodgers, Nationals, and even Cubs would be better fits
Very exciting to see the Marlins serious about winning next year even though we lost JF16… Hopefully they sign Chapman as opposed to Jansen so we can keep the draft pick and rebuild the farm. Plus, I’d rather have Chapman for 5 years, 90-100 million as opposed to Jansen for 80-90 million. Both guys easily get that figure since Melancon just signed for 60ish million…Marlins should include an opt out for either closer they sign since the window of contention is only for a couple more years… I also hope the Marlins sign Jason Hammel. Think he’d be a solid fit for them on a 2/3 year deal because we’re still missing a starter… Would rather have a Phelps/Barraclough/Ramos/Chapman bullpen alongside a rotation of Hammel, Conley, Volquez, Chen, and Koehler. Might as well go all the way if you’re gonna spend 100 million on a closer lol.
If Miami were serious about competing, they’d sign Chris Carter to platoon 1B, sign a FA OF, and trade either (Ozuna or Yelich) plus (Godon or Dietrich) with their best remaining prospect for a starting pitcher.
The worst ownership in all of sports
If Loria is “driving this” one could be cynical and wonder what his real motive is–since it rarely has to do with prioritizing performance over profits. Perhaps he got pressure during the negotiations for the CBA, and this is the way he dresses things up–“driving this” and then falling short.
Worst ownership in all of sports
Loria has the most labyrinthine mind in the history of baseball.
No, he’s just dumb.
He thought trading A-Gon for Urbina was brilliant
He thought signing Heath Bell and Carlos Marmol was genius
He thought trading for Fernando Rodney was smart.
He overvalues closers, and overpays for bad ones.
He is the dumbest and worse owner in all sports
I have an idea of the names I’d like to see them go after, although its somewhat difficult to predict a couple of those guys’ price points at this moment. Koji Uehara, Neftali Feliz, Brad Ziegler are a couple of the RH names I’m interested in, and then though Cecil signed with the Cardinals, and now Rzepczynski signed with Seattle, there are still a few LH options available. We’re expected to believe they’ll spend $85+ million on a reliever, like Kenley Jansen, on top of giving up their draft pick, or close to $100 million for Chapman, or now he is looking for 6 years (insane for any pitcher, especially a reliever), with that percentage of the payroll to a reliever? Reports are that they’ve made offers, and that the rest of baseball think they’re really serious about Jansen. That honestly scares me b/c Loria has tended to somehow entice people in certain situations, like this (specifically the times he decides to do things himself and go around his baseball people, like he did with Heath Bell and John Buck), and I feel like it would be a bad move by the Marlins, despite the fact that I would love to have either Chapman or Jansen. With that also being said, I want to point out that I’ve heard a couple of times earlier in the offseason, including a couple of days ago, that Chapman himself has said that he specifically doesnt want to pitch for the Marlins, and prefers the Yankees or Cubs b/c of thirst for spotlight.
And the Marlins still need to add a SP, barring an Ozuna or Gordon trade, add a RH 1b to split time with Bour, and now they need to replace Mathis with a new backup catcher (heard we’re interested in AJ Ellis, so thats good). I’m personally still hoping for Napoli, as I was last year, but I doubt they can get him, especially with the reported interest from a few teams so far. I thought it’d be more likely they look at Steve Pearce as a slightly cheaper option in that area, before he signed with Toronto early today. Now it looks more like they’ll look at someone like Chris Carter, who I say no thanks to, or maybe Mark Reynolds…