Now that their deal with left fielder Corey Dickerson has been finalized, the Marlins plan to focus on adding to the bullpen, president of baseball operations Michael Hill indicated on a conference call Tuesday (Twitter link via Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). Among the names the team is considering, SiriusXM’s Craig Mish reports, are Pedro Strop, Brandon Kintzler and Hector Rondon.
Miami has already added Dickerson, Jonathan Villar and Jesus Aguilar to a lineup that ranked 29th in the Majors in runs scored, 29th in on-base percentage and 30th in slugging percentage thus far in the offseason. They’ve also signed Francisco Cervelli to back up Jorge Alfaro and made a handful of minor league signings, headlined by Matt Kemp.
The lineup hasn’t exactly been built up into a powerhouse, but there’s little denying that it looks like a more robust collection of bats than the group trotted out in 2019. However, the bullpen has gone largely unaddressed to this point; the Marlins, rather, have subtracted more relievers from the organization than they’ve acquired. Control-challenged relievers like Tayron Guerrero, Tyler Kinley and Kyle Keller have all been jettisoned from the 40-man roster, much as Austin Brice was earlier today when making room for Dickerson.
Miami has added right-hander Yimi Garcia on a big league deal and righty Ryan Cook on a minor league pact, but the organization has otherwise been quiet when it comes to adding to the ‘pen. Current options on the roster include right-handers Drew Steckenrider and Ryne Stanek as well as southpaws Jarlin Garcia and Adam Conley. Last year’s Opening Day starter, Jose Urena, lost his rotation spot and was moved to the bullpen late in 2019, and Hill indicated today that Urena will get another shot at claiming a bullpen role in 2020 (Twitter link via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald)
Obviously, a grouping of Urena, Steckenrider, Stanek, Conley and both Garcias leaves plenty of room for potential augmentation. But the relief market has also thinned out considerably, with Strop, Kintzler and Rondon shifting from middle-tier options at the onset of free agency to some of the most appealing names yet to sign. This patient approach is often necessary for the Marlins or teams in similar rebuilding situations, as some free agents are hesitant to sign with a non-contending club early in the winter (barring an overpay). But as contending clubs spend their money and fill holes on the roster, the allure of high-leverage innings and a guaranteed salary with a rebuilding clubs only increases.
The Marlins did well to wait out the market and sign Sergio Romo to a $2.5MM contract last winter — a move that ultimately netted them first base prospect Lewin Diaz at the trade deadline. Whether it’s Strop, Kintzler, Rondon or another veteran arm, the Miami organization will be hoping for a similarly beneficial result in the coming weeks as they try to add to their stock of relievers on what’ll surely be a short-term arrangement.
Are marlins trying to contend?
No, the top pitching prospects including Sixto arent ready yet.
No, but you’ve got to give it to Jeter/Hill & Company, they have put together a very nice club. A good mix of proven players and high ceiling waivers. Nobody talks about him which is a shame but Jordan Yamamoto looks like he is going to be a stud.
Yamamoto, sixto, neidert, and many many more. Pitching will not be a problem, when these hitters develop we’re onto something.
Yamamoto? A stud? He looks he like might be a middle-back end of the rotation guy. He carried an unsustainably low BABIP and walked too many guys. As the season went on his numbers got worse. If anything I thought Gallen was the “stud” pitcher they had. But still I’d take Alcantara over Yamamoto. I don’t see stud there.
But that does sound way more negative than I meant it to be. Yamamoto wasn’t a top prospect by any means so that’s a fantastic outcome if he’s a #3 or 4. The marlins do have an interesting mix of SP’s. Even though we haven’t really seen any TOR guys come up yet for them. Hopefully the Gallen/Chisholm swap works out for them.
You’re right. When the Yelich trade happened, Yamamoto was a throw in, and projected to be a 5th starter. He showed the ability to be a 3rd in the beginning of the season, but I think that’s his ceiling. If he ends up being a #5, a guy with a 4.2-4.5 era, decent K/9 and BB/9 stats, simply eats innings, the marlins would be happy. A goal would be a Tanner Roark comp.
Trying to contend? While the names remaining might surprise and could be traded at the deadline, sorry Marlinsnation69, I just am not getting that same feeling.
who cares what the Marlins do, they will finish last in NL east and probably last in NL. The home game nobody watches and TV deal will get a lot worse.
Let’s get weird boys
They should sign Cody Allen, Jermey Jeffress and Addison Reed. If even one of them returns to form, they’ll have some veteran leadership down there in the ‘pen and a nice trade chip at the deadline.
Think the odds of Reed ever being worth a flip again are about the same as Carson Smith. both for minor league deals, just don’t guarantee either money until they prove worth.
I don’t think any competent GM is going to be giving any of these 3 major league guaranteed contracts. It will be minor league deals probably with a few million in incentives. If the marlins can snag Jeffress and maybe a few others, that would be great. I think they missed out on Jimmy Nelson and Edubray Ramos. They should take a look at Taijuan Walker, and maybe even a 2 year deal with Aaron Sanchez, since he won’t be back until late this year
Agreed on both Walker and Nelson. Walker must be having some issues with his arm still, or asking for decent money to still be unsigned this late in the offseason, thought he was the best of the “all injured returnees” coming into 2020 for guys who missed most of the last season-2.
I agree with you as well with Walker. Hopefully he is healthy. I wonder what he’d be like in the pen
Which makes dfa’ing Keller odd. They must really think he can’t hack it.
Sign Bartolo to compete for a bullpen spot! It’s a low risk signing and he’d draw a crowd if he made the team which the marlins need. Great veteran presence, pitchers park as well. But I’d put him strictly in the bullpen as his starting days are gone.
Are you being serious? I mean that’s not gonna happen but that would be awesome
Yeah I’m deadass serious lol, I think it’d be awesome for baseball but it’s definitely not gonna happen
Dude just imagine everyone that is a fan of baseball if that happened
Oh for sure, and he’d be a great mentor for the young staff
Sign David Phelps and Hector Rondon. Then sign Felix Hernandez to a minor league deal to compete for the No 5 rotation spot or maybe even try him out as a long man out the bullpen.
Sitting here, thinking, are the @pirates focused on…… ANYTHING?
They’re focused on saving money, and that’s it. Seems like even Dollar Tree is beyond their budget this winter, so expect all holes to be filled internally or the very bottom of the waiver barrel.
Cherrington has done literally nothing so far. Its clear the Pirates are in a rebuild, well can you maybe start rebuilding something? Trade Marte/Kela/Bell/Frazier….something….anything. I wanna be excited about 4-5 years from now, but it looks like business as usual.
stop
Hammer time.
it would be awsome to see a team thats already supposed to be a dumpster fire actually contend, being a red sox fan, its tough seeing how many teams are racing to be worse, the other day i was watching the MLB network and they were discussing Miami and Baltimore and seeing who was worse, imagine being in that position, actually discussing how much worse your team can get? while im not saying they will win, watch Miami have atleast a winning record, i mean they ranked 29th in offence last year, they cant really be that bad again by any measure of logical thinking
Baltimore – KC – Detroit – Pittsburgh and Miami will all lose 100 games this year — heck Marlins will lose 50 and better just against the east div — there just isnt enough talent in the ML — time to disband 2 teams
Disband teams? BAHAHAHAHAHAH no, Expand the league to 32.
Hell no. Keep it the way it is
Expand to 32, make the two expansion teams pay a $320-mil buy-in for a franchse, take the $640-mil and divide by 32 teams ($20-mil apiece). Every payroll should go up minimum $20-mil from the previous season or else they must return the money to the revenue sharing pool.
The marlins lost 105 in a successful season would lose on 85 games. To not finish last would be a pipi dream.
it must be awful though playing in a city that NOBODY cares, the handful of games i did see last season in Miami the seats were so empty is was really hard to watch if i was them looking around at seeing rows, not just seats but entire sections empty, pathetic really
It all seemed to go downhill when Jose Fernandez was killed in the boating accident — then what good players were left were traded and of course Jeter and his scum bucket buddies only want to make $$$$ not build a team — thats why the place is empty on game day — I agree with you – the only good thing is you can get great seats and there isnt long lines and your in the AC
That’s nonsense. Miami’s ballpark was empty in 2003 as well until the playoffs. Jeter & company had to completely rebuild, and if you know anything other than the big names of baseball, you can start to see the fruits of the rebuild starting to bloom.
You must be related to Jeter
Yeah because he isn’t trying to make his team better this offseason at all…
Plus, you have a very good chance of coming home with a foul ball.
Then yellich( who i love and love what he did) DEMANDED to be traded cause he didnt wanna be on a loosing team and they did the 1 smart move and they honored his request, while im not a brewers fan, if he hadn’t broken his kneecap they would have gone much further then they did. Its just sad all around, reminds you of a few years ago when you knew Chicago and Houston were gonna loose 100+ plus games no matter what
its the same in Miami, i do agree loosing Fernandez devastated everything they would ever achieve, but i truly thing loosing Stanton hurt more from a fans standpoint, you had 1 GUY on the team that was worth seeing, and you trade him.
i never liked the jeter thing, great player, but you cant just expect him to know the day to day operations of owning a major team
finished yet?
Ya because I’m sure Jeter doesn’t have an advisory board or anything. He’s just winging it, doing it all by himself.
Lol
Marlins should take a shot on Yasiel Puig.
Why they already filled their spot with Dickerson
Comparing two terrible teams, the tigers and marlins, I think the marlins made much better additions than the tigers. Tigers add cron, schoop and romine to the worst offense and the marlins add Aguilar, villar and cervelli, plus Dickerson and some mediocre fillers.
Romine is better than cervelli, but not by much. Everything else goes to the marlins.
Good job Jeter and co.
Romine is far better than Cervelli, at least defensively. Cervelli should not be catching anymore. The man has had so many concussions on the field, its amazing doctors are even allowing him to suit up back there.
He’s not. There’s a reason why he isn’t a starter. He’s a backup. You really think he is going to start over Alfaro?
Neither Florida team can draw fleas to a flea market. Probably should both be contracted, but moved at the very least. Montreal is not a viable option, though.
Didn’t they just trade away a decent bullpen arm?
Yup
Also, just trade/gave away young starter to Arizona foe nothing.
I definitely questioned the trade but getting in return the D’Backs #1 overall prospect and a top 100 ranked prospect in Jazz Chisholm isn’t def not nothing.
He should be starting for the fish by end of year, latest.
Pedro Strop….the guy who will lose the lead & the game for you !
Steve, just a note—Craig Mish works for FNTSY Sports Radio now, not SiriusXM
Most teams get as many young players. as they can the Marlins sign old players that won’t be there for the rebuild to finish. Marlins 1 step forward 3 or 4 steps backward, all they want is the revenue sharing money.
Signing Dickerson and trading for Villar definitely falls in line with only caring about revenue sharing money.
Padres trade ya Profar Myers and Yates for Dickerson and villar