The Marlins have been monitoring the market for catching help with the trade deadline now under two months away, per Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. With the team currently sitting seven games above .500 — currently in possession of an NL Wild Card spot and just 3.5 games back of the division-leading Braves — they’re positioned to head into the 2023 deadline as a potential buyer.
Certainly, that stance could change in the coming weeks, depending on whether the team can sustain its hot start to the season. However, even if the Marlins approached the deadline from a seller’s standpoint, finding some long-term help behind the dish could still be a focus. The catcher position has been an area of need in Miami ever since J.T. Realmuto was traded. The team originally hoped that Jorge Alfaro, acquired in that Realmuto swap, could take the reins are the catcher of the future. That didn’t prove true, and a subsequent trade for defensive standout Jacob Stallings has proven similarly unsuccessful.
Stallings, 33, saw his vaunted defensive ratings plummet in his first year with Miami last season. They’ve rebounded to an extent so far in 2023, but the former Pirates backstop has seen his offensive production bottom out at career-worst levels. Stallings is hitting just .161/.238/.226 this season, and since Miami acquired him in the 2021-22 offseason he’s managed only a .210/.281/.278 slash. Paired with his surprisingly below-average defensive grades, the 2021 Gold Glove winner has played at a sub-replacement level since donning a Marlins jersey.
In light of this season’s struggles, Stallings has begun to cede playing time to 26-year-old Nick Fortes. While Fortes isn’t an offensive force himself, his .231/.280/.328 batting line outpaces what Stallings has been able to muster so far in 2023, and Fortes has drawn superior grades for his pitch blocking and pitch framing. Fortes, in fact, leads all big league catchers in Statcast’s new pitch blocking metric. (Stallings has been above-average as well.) Neither catcher has been able to control the running game at all; Fortes has just an 8% caught-stealing rate on the season, while Stallings is only marginally better at 12%. Stolen base success rate is up in general throughout the league with this year’s new rules, but the Fortes/Stallings tandem has allowed the sixth-most steals in MLB (63) and is tied for the fewest runners caught (seven).
Unfortunately for the Marlins — as is often the case, given the scarcity at the position — there doesn’t appear to be a particularly robust catching market on the horizon this summer. Veteran rentals like Yasmani Grandal and Tucker Barnhart (whose two-year deal has a 2024 player option) could become available, but neither is necessarily a major difference maker. Grandal is enjoying a somewhat resurgent .263/.328/.406 performance at the plate, but he’s earning $18.25MM this year and has the worst pop-time of any catcher in baseball (with a 15.5% caught-stealing rate himself). Barnhart hasn’t hit any better than Stallings has.
It’s feasible that some other veterans could hit the market once their respective clubs take a look at top prospects. The Guardians have Bo Naylor largely ready for a big league look but continue dedicating playing time to Mike Zunino. The Pirates have top prospects Endy Rodriguez and Henry Davis both in Triple-A, and either could unseat Austin Hedges in the Majors before terribly long. However, neither Hedges nor Zunino would give the Fish a meaningful offensive upgrade.
As far as some potentially more controllable options go, the Marlins could look to some yet-unproven backstops around the league. Ivan Herrera, once the ostensible successor to Yadier Molina in St. Louis, is now blocked by Willson Contreras but remains a top-100 prospect with everyday catching upside. The Giants recently optioned Joey Bart and will continue taking a look at Patrick Bailey as their primary catcher, perhaps setting Bart up for a potential change-of-scenery swap. Of course, learning a new staff on the fly midseason is a challenge, and that’s even more true for a young catcher who’s also trying to establish himself as a viable big leaguer — perhaps even in the midst of a playoff race.
Some Marlins fans might’ve gotten their hopes up for a potential run at Salvador Perez when his name recently popped up in a few rumors, but Kansas City general manager J.J. Picollo publicly stated yesterday that he has no intention of trading Perez (who has full veto power over any possible deals anyhow, as a player with 10-and-5 rights). The Mets looked into trades of Tomas Nido before passing him through outright waivers, but he’s another veteran option who’s no guarantee to be an offensive upgrade over the current in-house tandem. The last-place Rockies could speculatively look to sell high on Elias Diaz’s solid start, but he’s a volatile performer on a year-to-year basis and the Rox tend to avoid selling off veterans even in losing seasons.
Miami figures to be just one of several teams poking around a limited catching market. Hopeful contenders in Cleveland, Houston and San Diego have also gotten negligible output from their catchers, and injury troubles elsewhere in the league could create other motivated buyers between now and Aug. 1. There aren’t likely to be too many plausible upgrade options on the market, leaving the Fish and other interested teams to get creative as they aim to address the need.
What you guys need is a 3B with a lefty bat
I heard Gary Sanchez is available again?
I’m shocked that Yan Gomes isn’t mentioned here.
Or Max Stassi. He’s currently out with a hip injury and there were some family issues, but the O’Hoppe / Thaiss / Wallach trio have the catcher position stable for the Halos.
Stassi makes $5.8M a year thru 2025; I would imagine the Halos would eat a lot of that contract.
He’s not Piazza, but when Stassi is healthy, he can hit.
Because the Cubs are not going to trade Gomes. He’s too valuable in pitcher development so unless a team is willing to pay a premium on Gomes with, say Stroman or Smyly, he won’t be traded.
Speaking of the above i wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cubs, assuming the sell, try to package Barnhart with one of their starters. Tuck has been horrendous with the bat but great with the staff, I think the Cubs however are ready to go with Amaya as their primary back up.
Carson Kelly
Exactly my thought, I see it happen.
Good thought, but the D-backs are competitive. I’m guessing they’d prefer to keep their catching depth intact for now.
I don’t know exactly how Gomes’ defense is these days, but he would seem like the best bet: a veteran who can hit some, and on a team that’s not going anywhere this year.
Everyone lost the Stallings trade.
Eh, the jury is still out for the Pirates. I don’t think Kyle Nicolas or Connor Scott are going to be great players, but Nicolas definitely could be a solid RP. Though the chances this ends as a wash is pretty high.
You guys had the top catcher in the league and you trade him away? You don’t need a catcher, you need help from the TB Rays system.
Because the Rays success is built on paying-value for a premium position…? Oh, wait.
Realmuto wanted out. The Marlins tried to extend him to a long-term deal, but he declined. The deal the Marlins offered actually was larger than the deal he signed with the Phillies. The Marlins had to trade him.
They just once again royally failed on what they could have gotten from multiple other teams at the time. Also, that was after trading Yelich, signed to an extremely team friendly deal for 5 years, just b/c he asked, and for literally nothing. Those were the 2 pieces that should have been kept, but once the 1st move was made, ya, he needed to be traded as well, but obviously not for…I’ve said it enough times
The Marlins front office was stupid about those trades… Should have been more open to talking to Atlanta and several other clubs but they got too hung up on wanting particular names. When you go from demanding Ronald Acuna from one team to settling for Lewis Brinson from another clearly your talent evaluations are a joke.
I’m cool with Fortes, as I was before they made that trade for Stallings that made no sense in multiple ways.
I’m looking more for a SP or 2, a 3b and/or SS, and a high leverage bullpen arn
They might have a couple of those things in house if they would give those opportunities to those young guys…
Marlins infield defense has also been very bad this year, especially when certain people are on the mound
Agreed @formerlyz. If there isn’t much of an upgrade over Fortes on the market, I’m fine with sticking with him the rest of the year to see if he can be the permanent option going forward (based on whether he progresses or not). However, part of me has been thinking that the Marlins may have thoughts on either Grandal or Yan Gomez.
And I agree about getting an IF on the leftside (SS or 3B). Unless they get creative, and perhaps finally land a CF and move Jazz to SS.
With SPs, I think they can pull it off because, with our pieces as they are now, we can easily find a backend innings-eater that will help fill in our staff nicely.
With bullpen, agreed. I feel we’re definitely a little thin in the depth of the bullpen.
Among the sellers, there might not be enough of those for a big market of available pieces. There’s a lot of parity this year leading to above the norm teams that realistically have a shot at grabbing a Wild Card spot. It will be a seller’s market for the few teams that are sellers.
For the Marlins, and most potential buyers, the team to keep an eye on as a seller is the White Sox, but that AL Central seems like nearly all of those losing teams there are going to still be in the race for the division. If one of the teams like the Twins can go on a good streak by the deadline to pull away from the pack, it could prompt the White Sox to sell a lot of their pieces.
We’ll tie a bow on Grandal and ship him express to Miami.
We’ll pay for the express delivery. You guys pay for the contract.
Jazz should be back on the infield. I also want to see some of their young guys get those opportunities. I dont need to see more of Segura b/c they wasted their money on him, or Wendle who should have been traded last year before he hurt his hamstring when he was hitting.
Im not sure why they didn’t dip back into the Alfaro well when he recently became available, if they have managed to put up with Stallings horrible production, why not give Alfaro another chance. Even only a slight upgrade in production would be better than anything Stallings has contributed.
The problem is that Alfaro is an awful catcher behind the plate. With the bases larger this year, with the Marlins pitchers struggling with holding runners on, with Alfaro behind the plate, they’d be tempted to steal two bases on one pitch to the plate – assuming that it doesn’t end up as a Passball.
He was still better than Stallings…also, he was still capable in some areas. He had a bad stretch, but I would have stuck with Fortes and Alfaro before trading for Stallings, when we could have traded for bullpen pieces at the time, or something we actually needed
Yeah, that’s a good point. We also had that other kid, I think Payton Henry…the one that was a good fielder, but couldn’t hit. Was that Henry? He could’ve been a good backup and a much younger version of Stallings, but with better defense to go with the lousy hitting.
McIntosh was interesting as a possible opportunity this season, offensively, before he got hurt early. He is back now, but he might have missed too much time to get that look.
I really don’t see the Braves trading Travis D’arnaud since they have lost the main “clubhouse leader” two straight years already but he should probably be mentioned. It’s getting hard to find anywhere for him to play but trading him means they are trusting Ozuna to take the DH at bats the rest of the year which is a gamble as he’s obviously been streaky.
Yet Miami has a record 5 games better than the Padres. Maybe the 619 could use Ng’s leadership
I fail to see why she would be unqualified when many GMs fit the description he described. One thing about baseball is it usually (in the past especially) takes forever to climb the ranks but should it? She played college softball. She understands the human side of it. And she apparently is very smart. I don’t doubt she may have gotten the job in part because she’s a female but who cares in this situation. Unless it’s taken to extremes of continually not hiring the person that deserves a job to diversify (typically we do this when it’s already happening naturally too).But she’s the ONLY one. I fail to see why a woman can’t do the job. Perhaps she could do it better than most men if she communicates well. There are advantages to having a female taking calls, potentially, not to stereotype but the sexes are different in temperaments typically.
That woman was being groomed to be a gm practically forever. She put in plenty of work.
Rishi: Just one thing that bothers me about your last post. There is no way softball is anything like baseball. Completely different sport. I’ve played baseball for nearly my entire life. When someone asks me what I played and I say “baseball”, the response is almost always “softball?” “No, “baseball.” Oh, is the response.
My point is she understands the need for the right human beings being in place. She is not purely a “stat geek”. I’m not comparing baseball to softball. There are many GMs that have not played baseball at any high level (aren’t there?). So it can’t hurt that she at least played softball.
The Astros are getting more than what they could’ve expected out of their catchers.
And with other holes on the roster, they’re not in the market for catching
Seems they like Yainer more than Korey Lee, that would make Lee available.
It would seem the Giants’ Bart for one of the Marlins’ minor league starter prospects might make sense. Bart is defensively above average with a great arm. If the bat was to get close to his projected potential, he’d be a great get and the Marlins have the young arms to dangle.
Bart’s value is at its lowest right now. SF can trade him, but I don’t they get anything of value back
Which only means the Marlins would naturally super overpay b/c they dont know what asset management is
Kapler’s Coconut Oil — You are still talking about the #2 pick in the draft with under 500 ABs at the Major League level, and already a above defensive catcher. There is no question that his value is lower than it was two years ago, but I can guarantee there are a number of teams who will take a chance on him.
Except you’re not just talking about the #2 pick in the draft with under 500 at bats, you’re talking about a guy with under 500 abs who with 20 days in the minors from the time he was demoted will burn his final option heading into next year. Whatever value the draft status will be long gone because he would have to make the roster or be subject to waivers, and considering how poorly he has shown in those 500 abs, making any team’s roster isn’t a lock.
Also, not sure where youre getting that he is an above average defender when his demotion article from 4 days ago said he has a DRS of -5 and fangraphs has him with a negative pitch framing grade.
Sure, you’re right. But since he can be traded and NOT brought up immediately by the acquiring team, the option issue is not as critical. Plus, what I’m suggesting is that the player the Giants would be acquiring would also have some downside. I just think someone will take a shot at Bart.
As for his defense, I’ve read the opposite, that he’s slightly above defensively—an excellent pitch blocker, a strong arm and middling framing. And we know how erratic defensive numbers can be. I guess we’ll find out, but in a league where there are few quality catchers, someone is going to give him a shot.
What would be an even return for knizer? Or make a big trade and cards through in an outfielder and a relief pitcher too fir a more valuable piece
Yeah I think the Marlins and Cardinals are natural partners here. They have quite a few young pitchers, Cardinals have both Herrera and Knizner who would probably help Miami and since we have Contreras and the one that doesn’t get traded it would benefit STL to grab a controllable pitcher in return. Just don’t know who from Miami we’d want. I’m guessing not a guy that’s below AA ball.
Or trade Wilson Contreras.
Like yesterday. Eat the money. Throw in a sweetner. Just get him off the roster. We are a better team with Knizner in the lineup.
I blame this on Marmol’s mouth. He deflated Contreras with his ridiculous announcement. Maybe it was coincidence that Contreras started struggling after that episode; I don’t think so.
Nothing the Cardinals do will help until they clean house in the managing and coaching staff. How long can you let almost an an entire team play below expectations and career levels before you see the problem is coaching and leadership? Marmol doesn’t motivate the team. He does the opposite.
I agree. I think the culprit is a little higher on the ladder, but I agree. I always thought Contreras was a bad fit though and he hasn’t done anything to change my min
I agree with that. Now I wonder which of the conflicting stories on the Oakland ask for Murphy is true. Was it Nootbaar and Donovan or was it Nootbaar or Donovan? Graceffo was included either way. The second ask was quite acceptable.
After this recent home stand, it’s time to fire Marmol and tell MO to step back or retire while bringing in a new GM. Every single one of the Cardinals pitchers are performing well below their career level. The pitching coach also needs to change. The experiment with a pitching coach who has zero coaching experience has failed miserably.
Jason Delay is the new Stallings – career minor leaguer with good D who somehow hits once he gets to Pittsburgh.
The Marlins fell for it once already!
Giants would probably swap Bart for luzardo or other effective pitcher with lack of remaining options.
Yeah, but the Marlins are not trading Luzardo or any of their effective young pitchers for Bart.
If there’s anyone the Marlins would probably do for Bart, it’s Braxton Garrett. Bart’s value has diminished.
MarlinsFanBase – marlins need to include Luzardo and at least one of Eury or Sandy plus 5 years of supplemental drafts over to the Giants for the future mvp that is Joey Bart.
It’s only fair
lol @Mjm117
You always come through! But I think you may still offend those Giants fans. Don’t you think all of our international money should be thrown in as well?
F*** if that what it take. Marlins need to push all in.
This is a joke, correct? Luzardo who is currently a part of their rotation and who happens to be younger for Bart who is currently in the minors because he has failed to be productive in parts of 4 seasons with the big league team?
Except they are not trading Bart, the hyped prospect. They are trading Bart, the disappointing big leaguer. He is no longer worth someone like Luzardo. He is basically only worth a change of scenery guy.
As the guy who suggested the Bart trade, I would not expect a Luzardo in return either.
I know most teams won’t trade within their division….and prospect for prospect trades are uncommon. However, the Nats could offer up Riley Adams who is still pre-arb in exchange for one of Miami’s young prospects from their minor league system. Good chance it is a winning trade for both sides.
I would like to see NG throw a baseball….how bout we make that the title of a Marlins article. Maybe that way someone will actually tune into that bottom feeding team on here or anywhere for that matter.( It would actually be entertaining) Those who say they disagree are lying…I know it and so do you….
Most FO guys these days didn’t even make the pros, and some come from other sports. Why does Ng being a woman make her innately unable to understand baseball?
Bc women don’t play baseball. Softball is not baseball. It’s called common sense and telling it like it is.
Uh, @DiehardFansFromThe619
Yeah, Ng was a high-level quality softball player. I’m pretty sure she can play ball better than someone who peaked in rec league.
I bash Ng for some of her shortcomings, but I’m always going to defend a fellow ballplayer over guys who probably never played the game or had a mediocre rec league career for a few years.
Mitch Garver’s bat needs to be in the lineup every day, but he’s blocked by Jonah Heim in Texas. A rental. Now fully healthy. I don’t know his defensive metrics. But he’s probably just what the doctor ordered for the Fish.
Grandal makes sense. Tucker Barnhart is worse than what is already in house. Hedges is fine defensively but is basically a slightly younger Stallings. Maybe they should try the Twins and see if Ryan Jeffers is available, it would be interesting to see what he could do playing everyday
I’d hate to do that to the Marlins, send them a catcher as horrible as Grandal. My fear is that the Sox will re-sign him.
Or send them a player as horrible as Hedges.
You could do much worse than Tucker Barnhardt. Catching is not about offense, you know. It doesn’t hurt, but most good ones are not offensive juggernauts.
Tromp for Solar, seems fair to me lol
Ever since the NL started DH’ing, catchers are batting like pitchers and DHs batting like catchers.
I think the best suited is Grandal, but Garver, Herrera and even Tromp are not so bad options. Anyone but Stallings.
Good for the Marlins, they’ve been killed for some stuff in the past that didn’t work out but it certainly looks like that’s changed now. Seems like baseball has really turned into a young guys sport (especially on the pitching side) with some obvious exceptions thrown in there.
Mr. Cohen hint hint
I almost said that the Stallings trade blew up in the Pirates face.. but then i remembered Jacobs control and the pirates are out from under that… And still a bit early to write off these young guys
I also remembered talking up Stallings because of the GG and Control with a bat that wouldn’t put a huge hole in the line up. I guess the Marlins were listening to me… that will teach them lol.
Not familiar enough with how high or low Miami is on their rotation pieces, but any opinions on:
DBacks get: LHSP Braxton Garrett
Marlins get: CF Alek Thomas and C Ali Sanchez
That trade would have been awesome last winter… right now, the Marlins would give a quality back of the rotation SP for a demoted CF (with potential, I’ll give you that) and a catcher who is not big-league ready yet.
Maybe Thomas + Jose Herrera can work. Or maybe Dom Fletcher + Sanchez.
Fun fact about Garrett: he has a 2.87 ERA taking out one horrendous outing against ATL.
Appreciate that you actually keep tabs on other names; I like Herrera, but wouldn’t mind seeing him go if it meant a capable SP is being added.
IDK if I’d say that Sanchez is not MLB ready yet; he’s 4th on the DBacks C depth chart because they managed to slip him through Waivers unclaimed, so he’s not currently on the 40-man and would require getting rid of somebody else to add him. His plate discipline is looking much improved, and his batted ball data looks pretty solid as well.
I was mainly suggesting Ali because he’s actually doing a decent job controlling the run game in Reno; 10 CS against 14 SB is not bad at all. I like Herrera a lot, but mostly for his plate discipline; I’d consider Sanchez’s defense superior to Herrera’s at this stage.
And Thomas was a suggestion to make up the difference in value in a deal; his batted ball data has actually been stronger than it was last season, but he’s had a lot of hits stolen on nice fielding plays and started pressing trying to make up for it
There’s no reason for the DBacks to keep Thomas in MLB to work through his struggles when other LHH OFs like Carroll, Fletcher, McCarthy, and Smith (and Canzone off of the 40-man) look like they’re ready to take on MLB pitching.
Both his and Carroll’s defensive numbers are looking a lot worse than last season, because they’re consistently being shaded towards the gaps to compensate for Gurriel’s (and Smith’s) poor range; most CFs play better when they’re playing straight up the middle.
If Herrera/Thomas would work in a deal, I’d jump all over that; appreciate the insight, since it’s hard to keep tabs on every team lol.
Thanks for the thoughts, they actually sound logical. Although I have some comments:
– At this point, it is more important to get a C that can provide any offensive improvement over Stallings… and that bar is VERY low. Fortes is a below average batter, but not ugly and he is ranking quite good at defense. So I guess the Marlins would be more interested in Herrera rather than Sanchez.
– I personally don’t love Thomas, but I am sure that he is better than Davis (current CF while Jazz is on the IL) in the long run, besides, Thomas has many years of control and still very young. I think Fletcher can be more MLB-ready as of today.
– During the MLB rule 5 draft last winter I spotted Canzone and a perfect match for the Marlins. They chose Enright from CLE and send him back two weeks ago. The Fish really missed that one.
Appreciate the conversation; I’d agree with you Fletcher is more MLB ready, but I’ve always liked Fletcher more than Thomas (but I’m generally higher on “whole is greater than the sum” type players than most). You’re a knowledgeable individual if you picked Canzone out of the hay stack with little familiarity, the dude can hit.
The biggest selling point on Thomas is the upside that his young age gives him, so I can’t really blame anybody that’s not enamored with him.
I was just trying to suggest something that might work out for both parties; I find it hilarious when DBacks fans clamor “We should trade Carson Kelly or Pavin Smith!” To which I reply, “If we don’t want them, what makes y’all think other teams do?” Lol
Have a look at this tweet last November:
twitter.com/habetohn/status/1593270437601054720?s=…
And a FanPost Analysis I made for the now-extinct SB Nation- Marlins fanbase page:
fishstripes.com/2022/11/11/23453000/trading-with-a…
I saw the Dbacks as the best trade partner for Miami this past offseason, but hey, tough to beat the Gurriel + Moreno for Varsho swap. The snakes are looking really good after getting rid of MadBum.
Another SBNation cat! I’m frequently on AZSnakePit and have done some analysis articles on there as well (sadly they weren’t archived when the site made changes, but I had pieces up about Jose Herrera, Blaze Alexander, and Tristin English a few years back). Sad to hear that FishStripes is defunct; I quite enjoy the SBNation affiliates for smaller franchises. It just feels like the fans are more invested.
If Marlins could get their position player half of the staff figured out, they’d be a lot scarier; the pitching is already there. DBacks need to get something figured out mid-back of the rotation, and a CL would be nice. I’m along for the ride, but their ride won’t be very long unless they get their pitching figured out. Fortunately, at least they don’t have to go hunt for #1/2, so getting upgrades won’t be as difficult as it could be.
The people that ran the Marlins fishstripes site moved to a new one, if your interested in that stuff. I think it’s called fishonfirst
My autocorrect has been messing with me today grammatically…
Jake Rogers or Eric Haase could be available.
What if they took Contreras off of the Cardinals hands? It seems like that relationship is damaged and the Cardinals are clearly not committed to Willson behind the plate. Marlins could send Johnny cueto or avisail garcia in a salary swap since the Marlins are buying at contreras’ lowest career point. They could call up Ivan Herrera and go from there.
Cardinals would not make that deal despite Willson’s struggles (the first of his career).
I don’t think the Marlins are actually this good outside of Luis Arraez. I expect the Phillies to catch them soon in the standings.
Korey Lee for Jorge Soler…. Long term catching solution and some RH thump to the Astros offense
Joey Bart for a bag of blitzballs
Caratini is the route I would go.
Reds need to free up a roster spot and get rid of a catcher. Maybe trade Luke Maile to the Marlins?
Why would the Marlins want Luke Maile?
He’s playing well, hitting better than the 2 catchers they have. They wouldn’t have to give much at all for him. It was just a thought. The Reds will probably keep him and just DFA Casali anyway.
Fine. I GUESS you can have Bart for Alcantara
I predict the marlins win 75 GameS. Which is a couple more than I had them pegged for in the beginning of the year. Nice start but they’ll pair back to the actual talent level. Can’t play the White Sox Royals and A’s every game.
That 9-0 stretch certainly helped….
I’ve heard some local radio chat that the Tigers would be willing to trade either Eric Haase (bat/versatility) or Jake Rogers (defense/power) if they can get a respectable return. Thoughts?