The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve designated left-hander Wei-Yin Chen for assignment and added six players to their MLB roster: shortstop Jazz Chisholm, first baseman Lewin Diaz and right-handers Sixto Sanchez, Nick Neidert, Humberto Mejia and Edward Cabrera. Miami owes Chen $22MM in 2020 — the final season of a five-year, $80MM free-agent contract.
Chen, now 34, was a steady source of quality innings from 2012-15 in Baltimore, pitching to a 3.72 ERA in the hitter-friendly AL East while averaging 29.25 starts and 176 innings per year. That durability and reliability led the Marlins to invest a whopping five-year, $80MM contract in the lefty when he hit the free-agent market, but the deal went south almost immediately. Chen barely kept his ERA under 5.00 and tossed just 123 1/3 innings in his first year with the Marlins. A UCL injury wiped out nearly all of his 2017 season and much of the 2018 campaign, and he pitched just 68 1/3 innings of ineffective relief work in 2019. Overall, he recorded a dismal 5.10 ERA in 358 innings with Miami.
Of the prospects protected tonight were acquired via the trade market, Chisholm (Zac Gallen), Diaz (Sergio Romo), Sanchez (J.T. Realmuto) and Neidert (Dee Gordon) were all acquired on the trade market under the team’s current ongoing rebuild. Sanchez is considered to be among the game’s premier pitching prospects, while Chisholm has drawn top 100 billing as well despite a rough showing at Double-A in 2019. Diaz was acquired from the Twins amid a huge rebound campaign. Neidert had an injury shortened ’19 season but profiles as a back-end starter. Cabrera reached Double-A as a 21-year-old this past season, while the 22-year-old Mejia turned in similarly impressive numbers and topped out in Class-A Advanced.
YESSSSSS!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!
Mr. Chen was pretty trash all last year. That sounds like a Giants claim to me!
You claim Chen and you owe him $22 million. You let him go unclaimed and sign him and you owe him at most $575k.
That would be tight Papi. That’s tight. So tight.
The right move .
Back to the Orioles, Chen. Also, Jazz Chisholm is a great baseball name
…or a cowgirl stripper
Hard to beat Johnny Dickshot though. (Pun completely intended)
Great name.
And just like that the Marlins have a roster with some really nice high ceiling players. Jeter and Hill have done a really nice job rebuilding, only really screwed up with the Yelich trade.
Isn’t it too soon to judge the Yelich trade until we so how Diaz and Harrison pan out, if Yamamoto sticks in the rotation and if Brinson figures things out. There’s still potential in the deal. I’m excited about the arrival of Harrison and the progression Diaz.
No it’s not too soon. Yelich trade was a mistake from the get.
Yelich is one of the best players in baseball and with control. None of those guys will be Yelich but if a couple could be really good major league players Miami would have to just be happy to salvage that much. Yelich should have commanded a haul. Their was not rush to trade the guy
i said before Yelich trade. marlins never get full value for him. i weather lose him to free agent
and got chew out on fish stripe for saying that. .
they said malins had to trade him. cause he wanted out. and money owe to him.
their no way marlins can win Yelich trade. lewis brison war along will kill any change..
The trade will go down as a bad one overall when you consider we traded a perennial MVP candidate with years of control left. It is just impossible to get back the value we traded away. However I think in the long run it will not go down as a trade we look back on as catastrophic. If Diaz, Harrison, and Yamamoto continue to develop and improve then the trade because much more palatable. At this point it may be to late for Brinson but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will not end up being a decent trade for the Marlins.
decent trade for the Marlins.never
Brinson war kill any change and amount of playing time he got.
Clearly Chen had injury issues while in Miami, but I wonder if there were other reasons for his sharp decline. The guy went from posting a 3.44ERA across 377IP in the his last two years in Baltimore — a tough park to pitch in, within a tough division to pitch in — to putting up a 5.10 ERA across 358 innings as a Marlin with that “friendlier” home park.
Reminds me of Barry Zito going from the AL to the NL, where he was expected to “naturally” improve — not as if Oakland was a hitters park like Baltimore, but you catch my drift.
I hope this franchise improves. It’s been so bad. I feel sorry for those fans.
Marlins fans have multiple World Series’
Feel bad for us Pirate fans. We haven’t seen a playoff series win in 40 years
I’d tell you to feel bad for us Ranger fans since at least the Pirates have won something in their history, but in the end no one deserves more pity than Seattle fans. What a miserable existence that has to be.
The mariners are the team to feel sorry for. Theyve never been to a world series
The two of them will get over it.
Why is a fan of the team that has the longest championship drought among NL East teams trying to knock any other NL East team in any way, shape or form?
Wow u have a vendetta against the mets u just dont stop.
Seems that nymetsking has a vendetta aainst the Marlins. He just doesn’t stop. I don’t see you calling him out on it.
Vendetta against the Marlins? That’s hilarious! They’re the least “vendettable” team in MLB, except maybe… nope, Marlins, no question.
You mean to tell me that there is no way you’d be bothered by a division rival that has achieved just as many championships as your favorite team….in far far far far less years? Okay.
Do the results of sporting events from 15 years ago bother me? I feel sorry for someone who thinks the answer should be yes. My health, family and job were not impacted at all. The only times I recall actively rooting against NL East teams in the playoffs rivals were the Cards in the 80s, the Ultey years Phils and the Nats, but those teams winning didn’t “bother” me and I was over it by the next morning. OK, maybe the 80s Cards bothered me, but that was in the teenage years when my parents asking how my day at school was bothered me, LOL. Living in Nats country, I know it’s going to be annoying next year having to listen to the TV crew j*rk off over the win like it was their own personal accomplishment, but at least now it’s legitimate vice them reaching, like they’ve been doing. Funny you call the Mets and Marlins rivals. The two teams play in the same division, but they’ve never been contending at the same time (mostly lacking on the Marlins end). Now it makes sense why you feel compelled to hate on every single Mets thread and get defensive when anyone posts twice against the Marlins.
Uh, yes they have had some years where they’ve contended at the same time. I think you’ve repressed some of those years due to some serious pain (our 1997 championship year and your second consecutive choking year of 2008 where we burned you on the final day both years for example).
Defensive? Nope. I just get a kick out of your team and fan base because you all seek undeserved attention from the national media, and your homer beat writers make sure it happens…and for what? For the whole world to routinely see the dumpster fire the Mets usually are until it gets worse when you put out that dumpster fire with a fecal storm. And sorry, but the one bonding thing that Marlins, Nats, Phillies, and Braves fans have is that we all consider Mets fans the most annoying and obnoxious in the division. And your team is the one that we all gain the most joy in seeing fall flat on it’s face.
Don’t you notice that you all have problems with Nats, Marlins, Phillies, and Braves fans while we all tend to be civil to each other a bit more? That says a lot.
I will say one thing. All Marlins, Nats, Phillies and Braves fans do enjoy one thing about the Mets. No matter how bad any of our teams are at any given moment, we can always count on the Mets to take away the attention from our bad season, by showing in the spotlight of the attention seeking national media, how you guys always find a way to screw something up enough that our bad teams are not the focus.
1986…33 years and counting!
What about Austin Dean? If they don’t secure him they are total idiots. Tons of potential.
Not much of a surprise with Chen. The only surprise is that I thought they would see if he could make the team out of Spring Training, but I didn’t realize that they didn’t have some players not secured on the 40-man.
Too bad Chen didn’t work out for us. I thought, like many others did, that moving him to a pitcher-friendly park in the NL East, away from the hitter-friendly park in a stacked AL East, would’ve made him even better than he was. Unfortunately, the injuries just did him in.
Of note, when you look at the misfortunes of the Marlins pitching staff the couple of years before Loria sold the team, just getting rid of the bad mojo alone that comes with him is enough – before we even get into how he sucked as an MLB owner. We know about the SPs we stupidly traded away, but consider where the Marlins would have been at if Henderson Alvarez’s arm didn’t fall off in 2015; Chen’s arm didn’t fall off in 2016; and Jose Fernandez didn’t die in 2016. Those three continuing in their paths before those occurrences, would have put us probably one pitcher away from being a championship contender with the lineup we had. Ahhh, what could’ve been!?
I was thinking the same thing. the talent was their and that clubhouse was close. had potential not just for wins but players who wanted to play together.
Exactly. And there would’ve been more pluses too. Without these misfortunes, we wouldn’t have had to trade those pitching talent that we’re being bashed about in order to get Cashner and Straily. Then, you factor in that the Marlins knew that they would chase another SP in the 2016-17 offseason. Even after Fernandez’s death, they pursued Cueto, who ended up joining MadBum with the Giants, before we settled for Volquez. It was very likely, with Fernandez, healthy Chen and Alvarez, Cueto would’ve opted for Miami due to the bid they made for him. Without the misfortunes, that would’ve been a strong staff supported by Stanton, Ozuna, Yelich, Gordon, Realmuto, Bour (who benefited from being the guy pitchers chose to face), etc.
Yeah, what could’ve been.
Hopefully this rebuild makes all this go away.
Go Marlins!
On another note, now that Chen is essentially gone, when is Mike Hill joining him?
Sheesh…that guy is the master of self-preservation.
That’s a lot of owed money, but in the Marlins defense, it’s a little less owed money than the Yankees owe Jacoby Ellsbury in 2020, who they owe $26 million.
why do we want to read about yankees problem.
are you a jeter,/yankees/marlins?
Not much of a surprise with jeter and hill runing things.
22 million sit.
Are you seriously blaming Jeter for that? Chen was Loria’s mistake. Jeter’s team is cleaning it up. Chen was the last Loria screw job to Miami…oh wait. We still have Mike Hill. Okay, you can knock Hill because nobody knows how the guy is still around. He’s definitely my Hall of Fame Nominee for the “Alan Harper Self-preservation Award”.
Jeter and company didn’t even sign him!
He had success for the O’s. Makes sense for them to get him for league minimum, after the claim period.