Amid the flurry of deadline moves yesterday, the Marlins optioned right-hander Edward Cabrera to Triple-A Jacksonville, with Jordan McPherson of The Miami Herald among those who relayed the info.
Cabrera, 25, was generally considered one of the top 100 prospects in the league in his time in the minors but has yet to put together an extended stretch of big league success. He made his debut in the big leagues in 2021 with seven starts, posting an ERA of 5.81 in those. In 2022, he was able to get that down to 3.01, obviously a much better number, but that came in just 14 starts as he made multiple trips to the injured list. He was probably lucky to have that ERA, as his .207 batting average on balls in play and 86.1% strand rate were both on the fortunate side of average, leading to a 4.59 FIP and 4.68 SIERA.
Here in 2023, Cabrera was able to stay healthy for the first half of the season. He did land on the IL in mid-June due to right shoulder impingement, returning after just over a month. His 17 starts and 77 innings are already personal highs at the major league level, and he’s getting strikeouts at a strong 27.6% rate as well as grounders at a 54.4% clip. But he’s paired those with a 15.4% walk rate, the highest such rate of any pitcher with 70 innings pitched this year, almost a full percentage point beyond Alek Manoah’s 14.6% rate. Despite a solid combination of strikeouts and grounders, those control issues have Cabrera’s ERA at 4.79 for the year.
Despite once having a rotation surplus, the Marlins have seen that thinned out this year. They traded Pablo López to the Twins in the offseason and currently have Trevor Rogers and Max Meyer on the 60-day IL. Their rotation mix is now Sandy Alcantara, Jesús Luzardo, Johnny Cueto and Braxton Garrett. With Cabrera nudged out, it’s possible that his spot goes to Ryan Weathers, who was just acquired from the Padres in the Garrett Cooper trade yesterday. Eury Pérez has been optioned himself to monitor his workload, but he could be back up at some point.
This option will likely put the Marlins and Cabrera in a bit of a bind since he only has one option season remaining. Once he spends 20 days on optional assignment, he will burn that last option, meaning he will enter 2024 out of options unless he’s quickly recalled in the coming weeks. It’s unlikely to affect his path to free agency, as he came into this season with 168 days, just under the 172 required for a full year. He’s already gone well beyond that one-year mark, though his chances of reaching Super Two status after 2024 might slip depending on how long he’s in the minors.
The Marlins have a bit of time to decide what to do. If they still believe Cabrera is capable of reining in his control and taking a step forward as a major league starter, they can keep him in that role. Cueto is likely to return to free agency this winter as his $10.5MM club option for 2024 will probably be spurned in favor of a $2.5MM buyout, since he’s mostly been injured and not at his best this year. That could reopen a spot for Cabrera next year, though Rogers and Meyer might be healthy and back in the mix by then as well.
If they think his true future is in the bullpen, they could consider giving him some time in that role now so that he goes into 2024 with a bit of preparation, but doing so would give them a bit less starting depth for the final months of this season. Once the offseason rolls around, they could perhaps pursue trading Cabrera to a rebuilding club with more willingness to give him a starting job at the big league level, though that will be an avenue to pursue in the future. For now, the Fish seem to be at a turning point with the former prospect, which will be an interesting situation to monitor.
This man is single-handedly responsible for giving many MLB The Show players PTSD.
On Monday he was pitching like he had 0 BB/9 and 99 Pitching Clutch
Marlins depth of above average pitching is enviable.
Wait….
How is it possible that a “Top 25” prospect can’t be anything but a star?
And to think the Mets paid over $100m the other day and didn’t get anything like a “Top 25” prospect.
I don’t think there’s anyone who considers every top 25 to be a sure fire star
Despite the Arraez trade, Kim Ng’s track record so far with the FA signings of Avi Garcia, Segura, and Cueto are pretty egregious. What was she thinking?
Eder for Jake Burger will look terrible in time too…
Cueto got hurt. Garcia and Segura were awful but the Arraez trade looks fantastic. Many GMs make bigger mistakes they just have more money to spend.
Ng has had mixed results.
She has had more bad signings than good.
She’s done solid in trades more than not. Arraez has gone well. Also, giving Yimi Garcia as a rental for Bryan De L Cruz is a win. Trading Rojas for Amaya looks like we’ll be breaking at least even, but look like a possible win there.
As of yesterday, I do have concerns about giving up Eder and Watcon in the trades, but I’m happy with the players we acquired. I’m thrilled at finally ridding ourselves of Cooper and getting a young pitcher with upside in Weathers – which kind of offsets trading Eder. I love the previous trade of grabage switching of Floro for Lopez. I’m happy with getting Robertson because he was a need – even though he blew last night’s game.
I’m just happy Ng kept all future compensatory picks and International pool funds.
In addition there entire farm system is a wreck right now they need to clear house on player development side
Dude the Marlins just drafted the 2 best high school pitchers in the last draft.
Im all making fun of the Mets, but what does this story have to with them?
More service time manipulation by the Marlins. They are truly shameless.
Look at his games played. He was headed for super 2 status. And now he won’t be.
This should be illegal.
Billionaires cheating millionaires. Look at ticket prices, they are all cheating us.
Do people actually go to Marlin games? Not that many do.
This is a team fighting for the playoffs and they just optioned a guy who is good enough to start for them right now so they could save money. That should not be allowed.
A lot to do in Florida. The Rays have a similar problem.
21 walks in the last 30 innings isn’t good enough to start for an mlb team.
That’s a worn out argument. The 21 walks in the last 30 innings is the real story.
Could be that he’s gone 10 innings in his last 3 starts with 11 walks to 9K’s. Decent 5 inning start against the Royals AAA lineup. But they may just want him to work on something specific that they can’t afford to tinker with considering their small margin of error to make the playoffs.
Yeah, walking a bunch of hitters and being sent down to work on his control just wreaks of service time manipulation.
Name 5 starters on the Marlins better than him.
I didn’t say we had 5 better. I’m just pointing out trhe facts that led to him being sent down. Sorry, but no matter how a person rates, when he’s walking everything in site, and can’t go far in recent outings, you can’t complain when they send you back down. The Marlins are looking after their kids long term. Why keep him up and continue to struggle when he can go back and work on things? The Marlins are highly unlikely to win a championship this year, so the urgency to have Cabrera up now is not there. And since they are trying to get into the playoffs, they can’t afford to dabble with him struggling while they’re trying to get in.
If you don’t have 5 better what on earth did he get sent down for???
Probably weathers and a bullpen game if he’s not straightened out. Cabrera can’t throw strikes
Or they bring Perez back who is certainly better than Cabrera.
Shut the hell up already! Service time manipulation my ass. The guy cant throw a strike. He shouldve been sent down months ago, he is fortunate to even have been up this long.
Name 5 better starters
Off the top of my head…Cole, Strider, Sandy, Eury, Gallen.
I can name more if you need it.
On the Marlins dude……
Marlins are fizzling out. Ng got lucky with the Arraez trade. Expect a 3rd place finish from the fish.
And that is a happy result for us. Even falling to 4th, while it would be disappointing, we have had a nice season to build upon.
Can the Mets pick him up we need pitchers lol, since we traded 2 and didn’t get any back lol
Yup…soooooo much depth
They were in on Flaherty, but that failed. I think they know they have to make sure they have a full staff.
Whatever. They pulled an instant replay of 2014-2017 over the last 3 years, and now our only assets are 17 year olds in the Dominican summer league or rookie ball
Ah, OK. I understand why you’re upset and concerned about them.
At this point, all we can do as fans is enjoy what’s there. You know I’ve been critical of Ng, so I’m not the biggest fan of what has been going on in her time, but I know there’s not much we can do until she’s not there. But, to be fair, I will commend her when I like something that’s done.
I know it may not give much comfort, but here are some positive sides to the situation under Ng. At least she’s not as bad as Mike Hill (which isn’t a ringing endorsement). And she seems to be learning a little bit – even though we need a GM that isn’t learning as they go along. And her contract expires after this year if I remember correctly – so there’s hope that if things aren’t satisfactory to Sherman’s expectations, someone new will be here afterward.
Well, looks like the Marlins bullpen problem is still there.
Makes me wonder what’s going on to lead to that. I mean, Robertson wasn’t even on the team until a few days ago. Can this be a catcher problem? I know each of the Marlins broadcasters have questioned pitch selection, and when I’ve been at games, I have questioned sometimes about why certain offspeed pitches after batters were clearly struggling to catchup with fastballs on the previous pitch.
May be a thing to keep an eye on if new guys are coming from elsewhere and are having the same problems that didn’t exist with their previous teams.
Yep, something definitely wrong somehow with our bullpen situation. Robertson is new to the team and now having problems too.
Now if I was looking to question if it’s a catcher situation, Stallings came in to catch Robertson. He was the catcher last night too with Robertson. Fortes didn’t have an issue with Robertson. I’m not saying anything just yet, but just taking note of it. I;m curious who was catching in our previous blown saves, particularly when Puk hit his bad groove to lose his job.
And particularly, the blown games off HRs.