The Marlins’ preferred bullpen targets after missing out on both Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman are righties Brad Ziegler and Joe Blanton, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Miami reportedly agreed to a two-year deal with Junichi Tazawa yesterday but is still hopeful of adding one more reliever to its bullpen, it seems.
[Related: Miami Marlins Depth Chart]
Blanton and Ziegler are arguably the top two relievers left on the market now that upper-echelon names like Chapman, Jansen and Mark Melancon have signed. Ziegler, 37, has recorded a sensational 2.05 ERA with 6.2 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 68.1 percent ground-ball rate over the past two seasons while pitching in hitter-friendly environments (Arizona and Boston). Though he averages just 84 mph on his fastball, Ziegler is a ground-ball machine that has a penchant for inducing weak contact. He’s said to be weighing multiple two-year offers right now, as teams are apparently reluctant to put three-year deals on the table due to his age. With an average of 70 appearances per season dating back to 2009, though, Ziegler’s durability has been impressive.
As for Blanton, the 36-year-old looked to be done with baseball in 2014 after a rough stretch with the Angels, but he’s reinvented himself as a reliever over the past two seasons, pitching to a 2.65 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 165 innings between the Royals, Pirates and Dodgers. Despite his age and his struggles toward the end of his tenure as a starting pitcher, multi-year deal seems likely for Blanton based on that impressive run.
Miami currently has a solid on-paper bullpen featuring A.J. Ramos, Kyle Barraclough, David Phelps, Tazawa, Dustin McGowan and lefty Hunter Cervenka. Adding either Ziegler or Blanton would further deepen that unit and provide support to a considerably shakier rotation. Deepening the bullpen has been a long-stated goal for the Marlins, who reportedly made a significant offer to Kenley Jansen before he inked his new deal with the Dodgers. FanRag’s Jon Heyman reports that Miami also made Aroldis Chapman an offer that was between $80-86MM and may have been willing to go higher, but their offer didn’t include a no-trade clause and was heavily backloaded (Twitter links).
ROFLOL!
Jeffrey Loria is always good for belly laughs as long as you don’t live in Miami.
The Marlins didn’t “miss out” on Chapman or Jensen, Loria refused to give them no-trade clauses as is Loria’s policy. Everyone must be tradable at Loria’s discretion as Loria attempts to turn every decent player on the Marlins 25 man roster into two or more free players.
Seems like they did miss out then. Not like those players got full no trade clauses elsewhere.
Actually, Chapman got a full no-trade clause in the first 3 seasons, and a partial in the final seasons
I hope Blanton comes back to LA. People who only watch playoffs might say he sucks and he blew that series and he was a big part of that series loss but all year he was great. That series wasn’t just on him either..we couldn’t hit with runners on or the bases loaded like always and lefties killed us. But he did mess up big time in that series. I’ll admit that. Still shocked me at how good he was all year.
He was pretty bad with the Angels
LOL at this ^ on multiple accounts
1. Thinking “LA” is a reference to the Anaheim Angels
2. Basing his worth on how he did years ago in a different role and not paying attention to how he has pitched the last couple years in new said role.
3. Thinking the reason he pitched poorly in Anaheim was because it was Anaheim and that a return to Anaheim would equate to him pitching equally as bad.
4. Ahhhh Angels fans.
You really want him back ?
Angels fan, he meant the last L.A. team he played for, the Dodgers, not your team in Anaheim.
Yup man. When Blanton was in LAA he was a pretty much washed up old starter. In LAD he had turned himself into a great bullpen arm with a starter’s arsenal and a plus slider while maintaining a 91~94 fastball.
Look up the stats while your at it
Wrong. The last half of his tenure with the Angels, he was used only in the bullpen and sucked equally there too.
Joe is totally unafraid. Biggest balls on last year’s staff and Doc loved him for it. Unfortunately, he was overused at times…one being in the playoffs when Kenta, Hill and Urias each hit the wall.
He is now a completely different pitcher and being used in a different role than when he was starting for Angels, Phillies and Dodgers.. I would love to have him back for one year. I suspect Joe will want a two-year deal though and that may be a deal-breaker with LAD.
Good luck Joe wherever you land. You were a joy to watch last year!
Likewise. He appeared in nearly half of the games played in the regular season putting in 80 innings of quality relief work. No surprise he was gassed by the time the postseason rolled around.
Yes I do really want him back. Maybe he wasn’t good with your Angels but he was really good with us last year. I had the chance to watch a lot of games he pitched in last year and I was very happy with him.
I agree BlueSkyLA..he was gassed by time the playoffs came around. If we brought him back hopefully that wouldn’t be the case because if he could pitch like he did last year and not have to be used as much as he was last year by the playoffs he could really help us get over the hump. We gotta be able to hit with players in scoring position though and not expect the world out of every pitcher so I put half the blame on our hitters for that series loss. I don’t think we are going to bring him back but I’d like them too.
If it was one year yes but he’s probably looking for multiple then no. He was gas and it was fun to watch him pitch.
As a Pirate fan, you learn to not wish for much, but…what about bringing Joe Blanton back?
He was really good for the Pirates two years ago and even better for the Dodgers last year.
Go spend some of that Liriano money.
The Marlins crack me up. I guess they are convinced they need a high priced reliever to put them over the top.
I think it’s for the best the Marlins that they didn’t get chapman or Jansen, they can get 2 or 3 decent relief pitchers for the same cost as it would have been for Chapman or Jansen