NL East Notes: Marlins, Hill, Hellickson, Swarzak, Phillies

Many of the free agent mistakes that have plagued the Marlins in recent years weren’t the fault of president of baseball operations Michael Hill, a source tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.  “People without full accountability had more power under Jeffrey [Loria]” than Hill did, the source said, and Jackson’s piece details some of the thought process that led to the Marlins’ ill-fated signings of Wei-Yin Chen, Martin Prado, Edinson Volquez, Jeff Locke, Brad Ziegler, and Junichi Tazawa.  Hill’s lack of culpability in these signings could explain why he kept his job once the Derek Jeter/Bruce Sherman ownership group took over the team last year, amidst a general housecleaning of former front office staff.  Hill was already under contract through 2020, though that doesn’t appear to have been a major factor in his retention, since the team has eaten quite a bit of salary in letting go of other executives.  According to Jackson, roughly $18MM in total salary was owed to departed front office members Mike Berger, Jeff McAvoy, Marc DelPiano, and Jim Benedict through the 2020 season.

Here’s some more from the NL East…

• Jeremy Hellickson left during the first inning of today’s game due to a right hamstring strain.  MLB.com’s Jamal Collier was among those to report that Hellickson would undergo an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury.  Signed to a minor league deal last offseason, Hellickson has delivered tremendous results over his first 43 1/3 innings, posting a 2.28 ERA, 7.06 K/9 and 5.67 K/BB rate.  The Nationals don’t need a fifth starter until June 19 thanks to multiple off-days in the schedule, though Hellickson is hopeful of avoiding a DL stint since he noted that his current injury isn’t as painful as another hamstring strain he suffered a few years ago.
• The Mets are expected to activate reliever Anthony Swarzak from the disabled list on Tuesday, Newsday’s Tim Healey reports.  Swarzak, who signed a two-year/$14MM free agent deal last winter, made just two appearances for the team before hitting the DL due to an oblique injury in early April.
• In a chat with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury and other reporters, Phillies scouting director Johnny Almaraz implied that the team will look to take a college player with the third overall pick in tomorrow’s amateur draft.  Alvarez agreed with the general outlook that the draft is deep in quality college talent, noting “I see a lot of clubs moving in that direction where we’re going to try and get on these college players pretty quickly.”  Oregon State infielder Nick Madrigal, Wichita State third baseman Alec Bohm, and Florida pitcher Brady Singer have all been noted as potential picks for the Phils, and Salisbury believes one of the trio will be the choice, barring an unexpected development (like the Tigers passing on Casey Mize as the first overall pick).