The Marlins have yet to sign a major league free agent to a fully guaranteed deal this offseason. (They signed former Angels farmhand Eric Wagaman to a major league pact, but that’s a non-guaranteed/split contract.) That could change in the near future, however, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Fish are considering a late-offseason addition of “a veteran starter or two.”
Miami lost lefty Braxton Garrett to UCL surgery and traded Jesus Luzardo to the Phillies this offseason. They’re not going to rush star prospect Eury Perez back from last April’s Tommy John surgery. Their once-vaunted rotation depth has been gutted by injuries and trades of several young arms.
As things stand, Miami projects to open the year with a rotation headlined by returning former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (who missed the 2024 season due to Tommy John surgery) and also including lefty Ryan Weathers, righty Edward Cabrera, and former No. 3 overall pick Max Meyer. Among the candidates for the final rotation spot are righties Valente Bellozo and Adam Mazur and southpaw Robby Snelling. Lefty Dax Fulton is also on the 40-man roster and once ranked as one of the system’s best arms, but he missed all of 2024 with the second Tommy John procedure of his young career.
Despite the trade of Luzardo and myriad question marks up and down the pitching staff, the Marlins have yet to make any big league additions and haven’t even been active in adding depth options on non-roster deals. It’s generally been a silent offseason for a Miami club that RosterResource currently projects for a paltry $67MM Opening Day payroll (with just $84MM of CBT obligations).
With a basement-level payroll (even by their standards) and plenty of fringe big leaguers on the current 40-man roster (plus the ability to put Garrett and/or Perez on the 60-day IL when camp opens), Miami has no real roadblocks to signing a starter or taking on a veteran via trade — other than whatever self-imposed spending limitations are in place. There are plenty of options to consider both via trade and free agency.
The Yankees, for instance, are eager to move sixth starter Marcus Stroman and willing to pay down some of his $18MM salary, though Miami might balk at the $18MM vesting player option that’d kick in if Stroman reached 140 innings. The D-backs would welcome trading a portion of Jordan Montgomery’s remaining year and $22.5MM. Ditto the Phillies and the remaining two years and $36MM on Taijuan Walker’s contract or the Cardinals and the $12MM they still owe to Steven Matz.
While the Fish could opportunistically use a Stroman, Montgomery, Matz or Walker trade as a means of effectively purchasing a prospect or two, the likelier and more straightforward path would be to finally venture into free agency. Miami isn’t going to surrender a draft pick to sign Nick Pivetta, but virtually any of the other remaining rotation arms could make sense. Among the yet unsigned names are Andrew Heaney, Kyle Gibson, Patrick Corbin, Cal Quantrill, Jose Quintana, Spencer Turnbull, Ross Stripling, Lance Lynn, Jakob Junis and Alex Wood. There also some post-injury rehab candidates to consider (e.g. Anthony DeSclafani, John Means, Jose Urquidy).
The Marlins are only in their second offseason under president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, but free agency essentially hasn’t been utilized during his tenure. Tim Anderson is the only guaranteed deal given out by Bendix in nearly two full offseasons at the wheel.
Miami call Yankees for Stroman ASAP!!! You can even have Stanton back. 🙂
In every possible way Stroman is perfect for them. Maybe Stroman for Bruján?
Brujan who was traded to the Cubs already?
Much cheaper options on the market right now. Unfortunately I can’t imagine the Marlins taking Stroman when they can have at least two of the dudes out there for less without giving anything away.
Just a thought:
Could the Marlins ownership group, just decide to disband? Skip the season, sell the players and call it a day. Cash in the chips!
Would anyone even notice?
The players on scheduled teams would get a nice little break during the season, right.
Stanton certainly has his problems but it ain’t the smartest idea to get rid of one of the only guys that can hit in the post season.
@mlbnyyfan
Fish might take that deal… as long as the Yanks pay their entire salaries. lol. I think the Yanks should wear those oopsies the full term.
The marlins need to get the most out of Cabrera. I don’t think Mel’s firing was the right call, but he needs to take that next step to cement his next contract.
Mel’s firing is the 1 main part of the direction I’m annoyed with; hopefully that’s not something we’re still talking about in 3 years from now
Pat Rapp time, baby!
Throw those free agent names in a hat and just pick one.
Spencer Turnbull is a good pick.
Just take on two of those bad contracts with prospects. There’s no point in giving a similar pitcher money to just eat innings.
It seems the small markets are waiting for the free agent SP to drop into the 4-6M range.
Really too bad that they Marlins lost out on Ohtani and Yamamoto last year and Sasaki this year.
I thought they’d add 1-2 SPs that can give them some innings, 3 bullpen arms, hopefully arms that can be flipped, and maybe 1-2 bats that could make sense…all relatively cheaply, but they haven’t done any of it
Most of those people are still available though…
Trading a non-prospect for Montgomery plus a legit prospect and paying his whole salary gets Miami over the potential grievance line of $105 million cap money, gives them a veteran future trade chip, and a prospect.
Sadly, this article doesn’t even mention the CBA grievance line. If the Marlins add salary, that’s the only reason they’re doing it.
BTW, there is barely any reporting anywhere about these MLBPA “soft floor” grievance percentages.
This MLBTR article from December about the A’s explains it the best, but its only about the A’s.
mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/athletics-risk-mlbpa-gr…
I kinda feel bad for Pivetta, I don’t see how he will beat the QO AAV at this point. And I’m sure that without that QO, he’d already have a new team too.
He’s screwed. But you can’t feel too bad for a guy who stuck his nose up to $21MM this year.
The wording suggests that Stroman’s opition would kick in if he pitches 140 innings.
But, his option has already kicked in because he pitched over 140 innings in 2024.
Stroman’s player option kicks in only with 140 innings in 2025. The article is correct.
Didn’t know that. Then baseball reference needs to fix it on their end.
That payroll tho!! I am so glad I’m not one of the 4 Marlins fans. The Florida teams need to move. Florida is transplants that root for other teams and many go home during the summer anyway.
Hey man, it’s not fun
Payroll isn’t the problem; it’s abhorrent clownshow smug decision making, but hopefully they’re in the right direction finally, and won’t mess it up again when the time comes
Gibby might not want to go to Miami though…
Jacob Junis would be an absolute bargain and STEAL. I watched him fi ushed the season with the Reds firsthand last year after the trade and he was absolutely rock solid. Im furious they haven’t resigned him, even as a bullpen option. He deserves a full time starting opportunity and if he pitches like he ended 2024, the return they could get for him at the trade deadline would be cashing in, especially if they sign him to a 2yr contract for say $16-18mil (8-9 per year). That extra year of control would get them a top 10 prospect from a team around the deadline if he’s starting and even potentially as a reliever. If he doesn’t light it up, you’ve got a 4/5 starter who will eat up innings at a very reasonable contract for two years. He wants to be a starter and that’s the only reason he hasn’t signed so far.far
That seems like a really good fit. Sign Heaney and Junis and call it a season.
This franchise tries even less than the pirates. At least the A’s spent some money and the Rays are always relatively competitive.
What is the goal of the Miami Marlins franchise? How do they market their team? Which of these seem appropriate – We are likely better than any AA team? We are collecting a bunch of revenue-sharing and then we will file bankruptcy? Despite being stupid and incompetent somehow by dumb luck we will be successful? We thought we bought a soccer team?
Just a pathetic ownership and management team.
Continue to wait until some position prospects pan out and trade away increasing cost pitching. I think Sherman will spend as soon as they can find a lesser version of the Rays’ (former elite talent) Wander Franco to build/market around. They’ve just had no luck in that dept. yet. Unfortunately for Marlins fans, the revenue-sharing checks afford him patience.
Goal? Line the pockets of the ownership group with profits. Mostly from the revenue sharing check they get from the other teams.
Same as John Fisher.
“What is the goal of the Miami Marlins franchise? How do they market their team?”
By repeatedly purging their roster and blaming their fans for not wanting to see a perennial dumpster fire.
Fixed headline “Marlins considering participating in the 2025 season.”
Too bad the SP market is pretty well picked over by now. Heaney is probably the best of the lot.
Maeda is free and you can include javy . Would sell tickets at least
Wood and Stripling appear to come as package deal so a 2 for 1 special might be right up Sherman’s ally…
The Miami Marlins are putting all their hopes on the prospect that next year’s CBA will result in a salary cap shared revenue system wherein they will take other franchises well-earned money to use against them while in the meantime putting forth the most pathetic baseball product possible. This ownership group led by Sherman are fraudulent scoundrels of the highest order. They are gutting baseball in one of the biggest baseball markets in America harder than it has ever been gutted before and it’s been continually gutted for decades.
I strongly oppose a salary cap revenue sharing MLB for many reasons, but seeing these greedy despoilers get their way is an additional motivation. As a longtime Marlin fan from a young child, I couldn’t despise the Marlins or any sport franchise more than I despise the Marlins right now. I wish they’d get shipped out of here to anywhere else and the city, who owns Loan Depot Park, can give it to another baseball club with owners who give a d*** about baseball and the fan base or we could give it to Inter Miami CF.
All those teams “desperate” to move an SP would probably wait until late Spring Training to make a move, just in case one of the other starters gets injured. If so, this also benefits the Marlins coz the other teams would be more desperate to move money, so better prospects should be attached.
If no trades happen, then they will go for the cheapest option possible (DeSclafani or so), just because.
What was the A’s minimum salary outlay to qualify for revenue sharing? Are the Marlins and their $84M at that number yet?
fun fact… in 2 off seasons as GM… Peter Bendix has signed exactly ONE MLB contract…… Tim Anderson.
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Bendix and current ownership are awful. Pushed out Kim Ng (who was building a winner) just to turn the club right back into the same pathetic Fish. Constantly rebuilding, signing nobody, tiny payroll, lose 100 games, and collect revenue sharing (and pocket it). Rinse, repeat.
Kim Ng struck out on half her free agent signings and drafted quite poorly, so while there was a degree of success I wasn’t surprised she balked at someone cutting into her authority. She couldn’t draft effectively, but her trades were good to great. I feel her hands were tied on FA possibilities. Meaning she couldn’t go after grade A targets and had to settle for B or C FAs. Skip Schumacher was a fantastic hire and the Marlins will never see his like again.
Sherman hired Bendix specifically to spend as little money as possible and try to emulate the Rays, but on an even tighter nearly invisible budget.
When you plan to fail, you’re sure to succeed.