After an absence of a bit more than four months, Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen has been activated from the 60-day disabled list, Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports (Twitter links). He’ll head to the bullpen for the time being.
Chen’s return is not insignificant for a Marlins club that has ridden a historic Giancarlo Stanton hot streak back to the fringes of the National League Wild Card race. While they’re still five games out of the second Wild Card spot (with three teams to vault), the Marlins have at least managed to make things interesting down the stretch.
Of course, what the Fish could really use right now is a quality starting pitcher. That’s just what the team thought it was getting when it signed Chen to a five-year, $80MM deal before the 2016 season.
Instead, Chen has worked to a 4.85 ERA over just 150 1/3 innings since arriving in Miami. He has made only five starts this year, spending most of the season rehabbing through a partial UCL tear.
There’s no chance at this point that Chen will opt out of the remaining $60MM over three years left on his contract. Hopefully for both he and the team, however, he’ll at least be able to get back on track late in 2017 and come into camp healthy for the 2018 season.
An easy opt-in decision, probably the easiest of the off-season.
Question. In the event of a Marlins Cinderalla WS, after miraculously vaulting three teams and into the playoffs (5 games out as of this article) do you see Chen opting out of the remaining three years $60MM, assuming he plays a big role in September and the playoffs.
(Big assumption I know.)
No lol, cus even assuming all of that happens Chen will not be the driving force behind the run. 100% opt in
I hope they make the playoffs, would love watching Stanton in October. But I still can’t see anyway Chen opts out. Is anyone going to pay him more than 20 million a year or give him more than three years after he got injured this season? I don’t see how any team would, but there arnt many options for teams at this point.
Unless he somehow throws perfect games in all his remaining starts this season, he’s not opting out, because he certainly wouldn’t get anything near what remains on his contract if he decided to go to free agency.
On a slightly related note, loving seeing what Stanton can do when he’s healthy