March 30: The Marlins officially selected Gurriel’s contract today, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. To open a spot for him on the 40-man, right-hander Max Meyer was placed on the 60-day injured list. Meyer underwent Tommy John surgery late last year and will miss most of the upcoming campaign.
March 26: The Marlins will select the contract of first baseman Yuli Gurriel, GM Kim Ng said today during the team radio broadcast (hat tip to Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). Both Gurriel and Jose Iglesias recently signed minor league deals with the Fish, and both had the ability to exercise opt-out clauses in those contracts yesterday if Miami didn’t place them on the Opening Day roster. Ng said that Iglesias won’t break camp with the team, but the veteran infielder has chosen to pass on his opt-out in order to remain in the minors.
Signs were pointing towards the Marlins’ decision yesterday, since the club was leaning towards utilityman Jon Berti as the right-handed complement to Joey Wendle at the shortstop position, rather than Iglesias. Jordan Groshans, Jacob Amaya, and Garrett Hampson also provided further shortstop depth at Triple-A, making Iglesias less of a true need as Wendle’s timeshare partner. By contrast, the Marlins have a lot less depth at first base, giving Gurriel an opportunity to join with Garrett Cooper as Miami’s top two options at the position. Cooper can also play in the corner outfield, and naturally either player could serve as the DH whenever Jorge Soler is in the outfield.
The financial terms of Gurriel’s minor league deal weren’t reported, but he’ll lock in a guaranteed salary whenever Miami officially selects his contract prior to Opening Day. Gurriel and the Marlins were linked on the rumor mill for quite some time before he actually put pen to paper, with the result being a minors contract after the Fish reportedly took a one-year deal in the $2MM off the table earlier in the offseason.
From Iglesias’ perspective, his decision to decline the opt-out clause makes sense. Iglesias only just signed with the Marlins a little over two weeks ago, and he apparently preferred the opportunity to ramp up in the minor leagues over another trip into the free agent market. Iglesias also has two more opt-out dates built into his contract, as he can again decide on his future on May 1 and June 1 if Miami hasn’t already added him to its 26-man roster.
Miami still has to place Max Meyer (Tommy John surgery recovery) onto the 60-day injured list, which will create space for Gurriel on the 40-man roster. As for 26-man roster space, the Marlins have two spots to work with, since left-hander Steven Okert and right-hander Tommy Nance are both going to start the year on the 15-day injured list. Manager Skip Schumaker told McPherson and other reporters that Okert will miss a couple of weeks as the southpaw recovers from a left adductor issue, while Nance faces a longer recovery period from a bout of shoulder stiffness. Nance isn’t expected to start throwing until closer to the middle of April.
Yuli’s worst year is better than Lewin Diaz best. Overall upgrade and Miami loves the Cuban guys
I was hoping the Phillies to sign Yuli Gurriel if he didn’t make the team with the Marlins. Well, the Phillies can sign Luke Voit now.
Voit signed with the Brewers the other day, major league deal.
Great moves by the MARLINS.
@Marlins Do you and Mr.Park the Mariners fan sleep together? You 2 speak the same language.
Actually, the Marlins get a D- GRADE for this offseason largely for bringing in the BIGOT yuli gurriel. Terrible move.
Care to explain the “bigot” thing..? I wasn’t aware of a Cuban ball player being a “bigot.” Bigot against who or what?
Against east asians.
@G-force
Gurriel had a moment in the World Series against the Dodgers in which he did a offensive mock of Yu Darvish.
So I will assume you’re just as angry about the Dodger player who made the same gesture to an Asian Dodger staff member while a bunch of other players watched and laughed.
And you’re also angry about a KC player who did the same thing to an Asian teammate.
Are you angry about those other incidents?
@Yuli Fan
While you may have a point about the person being selective about which person that poster is targeting in displays of bigotry and insensitivity, I hope you’re not trying to dismiss Yuli’s offensive behavior in that instance. I love the Marlins and welcome roster improvement, but I’ll never be the type that dismisses poor behavior like what Yuli did. I could never enable it. The man needs to learn to respect others…especially him being Latino, when we also have dealt with bigotry in our own forms.
Baseball players are the typically the worst people of all professional athletes, so not surprising.
Whatever.
Virtue signal received. You who has obviously committed no sin may continue riding your high horse.
@Yuli Fsn
I’m not perfect No one is. But I do know that I’ve never done anything as a full grown adult that involves bigotry…and probably my entire life after prepubescence.
Bigotry is a whole different level of bad behavior…especially when done as a full grown adult. This isn’t a 9-year ole playing a game or saying something that is offensive that a child doesn’t fully understand.
The Marlins could have been something this year if they went with a better managerial hire. Such a shame and a wasted opportunity.
You’re not even going to give Skip a chance?
Their best hitter???
There were a lot of those guys out there, not anymore.
Gurriel will get more time at 1B than Cooper. You can always count on one thing from Cooper, time on the IL.
Their other backup option at first would be Luis arraez but he hasn’t made the all star as a first baseman since 2022 so obviously they had to address the position.
Arraez bat is why he made the All Star team. He’s not a First Baseman
To be fair, he’s not a 2B either.
Since Arraez is a better than average defensive 2B, it’s you that is not being fair.
You are being a hater and being wrong.
Not sure the stats back up your claim that Arraez is a better than average 2B career to date. So long as he plays passable defense at 2B, the Marlins will love having him in their lineup. He’s one of the best pure hitters in baseball.
I’m sorry you don’t understand how to read the stats. 3 DRS at 2B last season. 1 OAA at 2B. 2 DRS the season before. Above average defense.
Marlins desperately need hitting and they traded their best hitter JJ Bleday, lmao for a reliever
Everyone is calling them up now to see what they can steal from them
In no way do you trade a controllable young position player for some reliever that has already had injury problems
Then you’re trading a starter for a 2B. Starter has way more value. Way, way easier to find an acceptable 2B than 3rd starter
Bleday is a bust. He’s terrible.
Yeah, we’ll see
We’ve already seen.
Bleday was the Marlins best hitter??!!
LMFAOOOOOOOOOO and Lol
Yeah, I can’t believe that some placed Bleday’s name with the word “best”.
Bleday hit .225 in the minors and .167 for the Marlins. He might be the best hitter on my seniors softball team, but not on any professional baseball team.
Are u sure? Bobby “long ball” Larkin squares up everything he sees.
“And they traded their best hitter JJ Bleday”
If you want to say you don’t know anything about Marlins baseball, then just say it
Bleday may develop into a decent hitter in the Majors at some point but if he is your best hitter when you have back-to-back batting title winners on your roster there are some serious flaws in the evaluation
Correct. I don’t know how he believed his evaluation made any sense
I know they can’t spend money, but you can be smarter about it. Brandon Drury, Dom Smith, Will Benson, Geneses….there’s a lot of those types of guys out there
@Camden, Benson is on the Reds and under team control for years. Dom Smith who signed with Nats production has went off a cliff the last 2 seasons, and Drury is gonna b making double what Gurriel and Iglesis combined with his contract with the Angels.
So why hasn’t anyone else signed them?
They have all signed elsewhere
Jose Iglesias will show, once again, that he deserves to be on the big club and, I predict, will end up being the starting shortstop for the Marlins this year Most underrated player in the majors. A truly great, exciting shortstop with a lifetime .279 average. Hit .292 last year. We haven’t seen the last of this excellent player.
Ping, a guy with a batting ave of what?
Good for Yuli!!!!!
Iglesias will be back up once Cooper goes on the IL.
As a Boston fan, I always root for Iggy, I hope he makes it back to the big show soon, very exciting player to watch defensively