The Marlins are expected to “explore” trade offers for right-hander Dan Straily this offseason and also could be open to offers on righty Jose Urena should they receive a strong offer, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Jackson adds that it’s “no certainty” that Straily will be tendered a contract this offseason even if no trade materializes. That’s a stark drop-off for a pitcher who was a relatively in-demand commodity prior to the 2017 non-waiver trade deadline. However, Straily struggled through an awful second half in 2017 and delivered pedestrian results in a 2018 season that was marred by a forearm injury. Dating back to the 2017 All-Star break, Straily owns a 4.69 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.8 BB/9, 1.61 HR/9 and a 32.2 percent ground-ball rate in 195 1/3 innings.He earned $3.375MM in 2018 and would be due a modest raise next season via the arbitration process. Straily, 29, is controlled through 2020.
Urena, 27, notched a 3.98 ERA in 174 innings, averaging 6.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 0.98 HR/9 along the way. His average fastball checked in at 95.8 mph, and his 49.6 percent ground-ball rate was solidly above the league average of 43.2 percent. He’s controlled through 2021 and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter.
More out of South Florida…
- President of baseball operations Michael Hill met with the media this week to discuss a number of topics (video link via MLB.com), including the team’s decision to host a showcase for Cuban prospects Victor Victor Mesa, Victor Mesa Jr. and Sandy Gaston. While the organization recognizes that this won’t necessarily give them a major advantage, it was still an easy decision. “We’re the Miami Marlins,” Hill said. “Our stadium is in Little Havana. Miami is the gateway to the Americas. It just made so much sense to everyone to host this workout. Obviously, all 30 clubs are invited to the workout so there’s no advantage that we have, but we want the most talented players in baseball to want to be a part of what we’re building. Friday, hopefully, is the start of a productive offseason for us.” Only the Orioles have more than the $4.3MM the Marlins currently have in their international bonus pool.
- Hill also discussed the team’s need for a first baseman (link via Wells Dusenbury of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel), indicating that the team will look at both internal and external options. Asked about 28-year-old slugger Peter O’Brien, who enjoyed a radical turnaround of his season following a largely unnoticed trade from the Dodgers to the Marlins, Hill called him a “very interesting player” and confirmed that he’ll be in the mix. “He took full advantage of his opportunity after being called to the big leagues,” Hill said of O’Brien, who raked at a .273/.338/.530 clip and homered four times in 74 plate appearances. Clearly, that’s not enough to make him any assurances of playing time heading into 2019, but Hill’s comments could suggest that O’Brien will stick on the 40-man roster this winter. Garrett Cooper figures to be in the mix for some at-bats at first base next season as well, assuming he’s fully recovered from this year’s season-ending wrist injury.
Urena to the Braves 😉
… sorry, had to
Sounds like Peter O’Brien has finally started to draw rave reviews.
Everyone but Mets fans
Was looking forward to the rave reviews as I read the article. Infamy.
Will it be his nickname if they do the Little League jerseys again next season
“Very interesting player” and confirmed that he will be in the mix. More rave reviews to come. May it never die.
I have a tab set to Peter O’Brien so I never miss an update. He doesn’t draw rave reviews on his defense at catcher or of, but his bat draws rave reviews at 1b!
Using the phrase “Very Interesting Player” has been the cop out phrase in baseball for tens of year. It’s a polite and deceptive way to not insult the player.
Yes, just like the “raking” he did at .273 with 4 home runs…..Geez talk about deceptive writing.
Dan Straily by the way for those who think Padre fans aren’t hard on Preller, was a big mistake. The Padres acquired Straily from the Houston Astros in exchange for Erik Kratz on March 28th 2016, to just DFA Straily on April 1st. Reds claimed him and turned a waiver claim into Luis Castillo.
Another whiff by boy genius.
Signing James Shields to that huge contract when he had over a million miles on his arm is all you need to know about Preller. He always seemed to draw rave reviews (hat tip to the comments above) for his scouting though and managed to turn him into Tatis jr.
Preller needs to be the head of scouting for a team and should never ever be allowed near the checkbook. His 3 big contracts have gone to Shields (all of baseball laughed when that contract was announced) the oft-injured Myers after he had one good complete season and still had arb years left. Then Hosmer (all of baseball got laughing again). Also, let’s not forget that he offered Sandoval over $100m in 2014 (more than the Red Sox) but thankfully for Padres fans he turned it down. If I had to guess about this offseason I would say he will sign either Moustakas or Kuechel to an absurd contract.
To be fair, the Shields signing was an edict from ownership – he was asked to go “all-in” in 2015 by Padres owners, hence the terrible deals for Kemp, Kimbrel, JUpton,Norris, Shields, etc. Preller isn’t an independent contractor; he works for Ron Fowler, and if Fowler says Preller has to try to go all-in he didn’t have a lot of options. It delayed the rebuild by a year, because all those moves backfired spectacularly.
Myers was fine; he has always stayed healthy when he’s been a primary first baseman, and he’s a 3-win or so player when he’s healthy. If they’d just signed him to be a first baseman the contract would be fine.
Hosmer is the definite head-scratcher. I don’t know how much ownership was involved, but it sure seems like the Padres were bidding against themselves to fill an need they didn’t have. Hosmer’s first year in San Diego was an abomination – we all knew he was an underpowered first baseman who hit way too many balls on the ground, but I didn’t realize just how bad his approach was. He doesn’t draw enough walks, hit into 18 double plays, slugged under .400 and didn’t provide any baserunning value because he’s painfully slow for a 28-year-old. He came to San Diego with a reputation as a good defensive first baseman but his defense was dreadful – because he’s a statue, anything hit to his right, in zone, turns into a single to right field. He doesn’t know how to field pop-ups, infield flies or foul pops. His above-average ability to scoop errant throws is offset by his inability to do anything else defensively. Unless he buys into the “launch angle” revolution (word is he was experimenting with elevating his swing late in the season) this might just be a poor-man’s version of late-career Wally Joyner, and that’s not a guy you sign for 8 years/160 M.
As for Straily, meh. I don’t care about that as much. STraily isn’t any good; he’s basically a #5 starter and the Padres have lots of those already hanging around. The fact that the Reds were able to turn him into something good is a nice fluke, but we can’t assume that deal would have emerged for the Padres.
Wow,
I agree with a lot of your points. I have watched every game of Padre baseball since the 90’s and you’re realistic and honest with your approach and it’s appreciated even if it’s not widely agreed upon.
The Padres will do exactly what you said by either signing Kuechel to an unreal deal or giving up a Kings Ransom for Syndergaard to come over and be hurt/mediocre or what’s even crazier is that Preller could very well do both, Acquire two guys but then tell the fans let’s reach .500 as the goal.
The almost lost it earlier reading an article on “Fans on Base”, a Padres independent writing company from some die-hard fans. They suggested the Mets inept front office will blow the Syndergaard deal like they did the Familia deal when they received pocket lint for him and that the Padres would only have to give up:
Travis Jankowski, Austin Allen and Reggie Lawson.
A back up outfielder and two prospects outside of the organizations top 15 for what the club will call their “Ace”? Yeah idk about all of that.
I almost lost it * second paragraph
https://www.google.com/amp/s/friarsonbase.com/2018/08/01/san-diego-padres-trade-syndergaard/amp/
What’s also funny is the Padres had Luis Castillo a few days before they had to return him because of Colin Rea injury.
What’s Eerie about all of that is Colin Rea hasn’t pitched in a big league game since and could very well not get back. Ouch
This just in Marlins trade everyone making over a million for Single A prospects no one has ever heard of. Including their mothers.
Baseball just doesn’t belong in South Florida, give Montreal the team.
Lol Montreal! Remember when there was a team in Montreal? No one showed up to the games lmfao! Move them to Charlotte or, if you want to go to another Canadian city, Vancouver.
Montreal was an amazing baseball city – check out Up, Up and Away, Jonah Keri’s recent book about the Expos. The problem was that the stadium was falling apaprt – do you remember the final season the Expos were there and they had to move 30 home games to the road because the roof of Olympic Stadium was collapsing?
But in the early-80s they were routinely drawing 30K a game, in the Raines/Dawson era. But by the 90s attendance had plummeted, in large part because of the terrible stadium situation; also, in the 90s, it would have been impossible for Quebec to build a new stadium in Montreal because of politics – it might be easier now. Montreal is a huge metropolitan area, bigger than about half the metro areas that currently support major-league teams. The Blue Jays have tremendous attendance numbers, so there’s not a ton of reason to think Montreal couldn’t do the same.
Montreal simply isn’t a major baseball market. Hockey rules and I doubt it will come back. I agree with the other guy. Portland deserves a shot. Not sure how the Seattle owners might feel about that.
Omaha also seems like it might be a wide open market too.
This is wrong. Montreal was one of the premier baseball cities until the strike, MLB,, and Loria screwed them over for a decade.
Unfortunately you don’t realize that the provinces of Quebec and Ontario are like night and day.
What goes in Ontario won’t in Quebec and visa versa.
Just because the Blue Jays have good attendance won’t guarantee anything in Quebec where French is the first language and if you remember wanted to secede from Canada not too long ago.
Those politics you mention count Hockey first and only in sports for Montreal. Baseball is nothing but a afterthought which is probably why nothing was ever done to update Olympic Park. No so long ago, you could walk in At game time and get the best seat in the park and not sit near anyone for 20 seats or so.
Rocky is right.
And Jonah Keri loves Montreal. Problem is he loves Montreal. Too much.
Expos drew less than league average beginning 1983 onward. The roof collapse happened in the early 90’s. Province is poorly run, city of Montreal lacks space for a new ballpark and the old park stood above a subway stop.
Montreal can’t hold an MLB team unless they schedule Boston, New York and Toronto every single weekend of the season.
No, bring them to Portland!!
Need more West coast teams to truly balance the league. Arlington and Houston should clearly be in the South central division with COL and ARI (depending on re-alignment). Give us Portland and Vegas as expansion teams and make 8 divisions consisting of 4 teams each.
Southwest division (LAD/LAA/LV/SD)
Pacific division (SEA/POR/OAK/SF)
Central division (KC/STL/CHC/MINN)
Mid-west division (ARI/COL/TEX/HOU)
Southern division (ATL/MIA/TB/CIN)
Atlantic division (NYY/BOS/NYM/PHI)
Northeast division (TOR/BAL/WAS/PIT)
Great Lakes division (MIIL/CHW/DET/CLE)
I actually like that idea
I think baseball is squeamish about Vegas because of the gambling thing. Portland feels like the obvious choice. I would love realignment but the “purists” would scream bloody murder. But those divisions would work for me.
The gaming thing is such a weak excuse to keep pro sports out of Vegas. You can gamble online in many (any) states and it’s working toward full blown legality in several others. The NHL & NFL have obviously seen past that “hiccup”, I doubt MLB can’t as well
Baseball is the only major sport in which it is definitely known that the outcome of a finals series was decided because of gambling (I assume the other sports have had issues in that regard but it’s never bben proven). Baseball will always remember 1919, even as it nears its 100-year-old birthday.
No offense but a scandal that happened in 1919 is completely irrelevant today. You’re crazy if you think the Blacksox are impacting Manfreds thoughts when considering Vegas as an expansion city.
Pete Rose was just 30 years ago
This is a great idea. But I agree with the gambling comments – I have a very hard time seeing MLB go to Vegas. However, with some of the games in alternative cities it makes one wonder about a Mexico City or a Vancouver. Replace Vegas with Charlotte?
Hahahaha No!
Good thing that will never happen. Baseball belongs in Miami too.
Hoping Peter O’ Brien works out. Been a fan since pre-rave.
I have so many autographed O’Brien baseball cards. I got them for a little over a buck a piece on EBay. I thought for sure I would be able to flip them for a nice profit after that monster year he had in AA. Sadly, I think using them to eventually retire will never happen.
Their value might lie in putting them in bicycle spokes
This ain’t the 1950’s brugh
I actually saw a kid riding with cards in their spokes last week. Of course he was one of the few kids in that area who actually goes outside and doesn’t stay on electronics all day.
Can’t have it….Rays are moving there…..Jeter wants to save on train fare, so you get wherever a $100 ticket gets you…..
Wow another Jeter bashing post, how thought provoking.
How original, grow up.
Jealous much?
Jealous… of an owner… who traded anything of value making money?
Why can’t people comprehend what he did? He knew the team couldn’t do much with Stanton’s contract on the ledger and with ZERO pitching and knowing that Ozuna and Yelich were probably not going to be around once they rebuilt the pitching he traded them with hopes that in the next 3-5 years they be competitive for a longer duration.
I think you have to judge Jeter and the organization’s intentions based off of how they handle the next group of young players that come thru. Are they going to be aggressive in extending them? Are they going to trade guys entering into their arbitration years. Just knowing Jeter’s personality I can’t believe that he would go into the Miami situation unless turning the team into a perennial winner was his intent.
Agreed. They certainly made the right move in re-building, Its just crazy that they were never really competitive with such a solid core of position players
Jeter bashing is popular with all the Yankee haters that write comments.
We’ve seen what a good rebuild can do for teams like Houston and the Chicago Cubs. Jeter and company did what they had to do. Taking a step or two back to take a few steps forward.
That’s the thing you have to do when you’re not competing on a level playing field.
Jose Fernández tragic death, horrible free agent signing of Chen, bad trades I.e. Straily for Castillo. We’re big reasons why they were not as competitive over the past couple seasons.
The death was a huge blow.
I understand why they did it and even agreed with trading the Stanton albatross contract. But to say people are jealous of Jeter as an owner is not really accurate at all.
So i guess the marlins got rave reviews on that trade
Marlins should non-tender Straily. High 4.78 FIP and very high injury risk. Past Marlins pitcher Volstad has a lower FIP (while playing for absolutely horrible teams) and has never been injured.
Good thing the Marlins waited so long, 3 times actually, to trade Straily. Just another example….
Urena sounds like the type of player the A’s would covet. Starting pitching is a priority in ’19 until Luzardo, Puk and Manaea are all ready to contribute at the MLB-level in 2020.
Controllable and could be had through trading off some MiLB types without something crazy. Wonder if Mateo, Neuse and a flyer prospect would do it?
Urena better go far away to avoid Braves payback.