Last winter's offseason trade market featured mostly "baseball trades," swaps of big leaguers at positions of need between contenders. The handful of rebuilders had torn the roster so far down that they didn't have much to offer in the more common type of deal -- a quality player being dealt from a bad team to a good one in exchange for prospects.
The Jesús Luzardo trade was probably the biggest exception. The Marlins dealt him to the Phillies in the middle of December for a pair of low minors prospects, shortstop Starlyn Caba and center fielder Emaarion Boyd. A talented player down to his final two seasons of arbitration control on a team that lost 100 games is generally an obvious trade chip. Luzardo's candidacy was made more complicated by his injury history, most notably a back problem that ended his '24 season in June.
Miami's front office faced a risk-reward calculus. Should they hold Luzardo until the deadline? A strong first half could make him the best controllable starting pitcher available. Another injury would sap most of his remaining value. An offseason trade was the safer play, but it also came with lower upside as a bit of a sell-low move. For slightly different reasons, they may be faced with a similar decision two months from now on Sandy Alcantara.
It's too soon to render definitive judgments on the Luzardo trade. The southpaw's first eight starts with the Phillies couldn't have gone much better, though. He took a 2.11 ERA into this afternoon's start against the Cardinals, in which he fired another seven innings of one-run ball. Luzardo has struck out 26.6% of opposing hitters. His stuff looks as sharp as it did before last year's elbow and back issues. He's performing at a top-of-the-rotation level.
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Seems simple to me. Unless another team is offering one top 30 overall or two top 100 overall prospects, Marlins play the waiting game.
Alcantara should be fine but it may take months or over a year. Marlins can afford to run the experiment until the return is large enough to justify.
I agree, no way would I be trading him without a haul that includes top prospects. Still under contract for 2026 and 2027.
Keep in mind the Marlins have to pay his salary which is 17.3 million in 2025 and 2026 and then either 21 million in 2027 or a 2 million buyout. He’s not cheap. And he’s pitching poorly no doubt about that. I think if they get a package similar to what they got for Luzardo or Rogers they should probably take it. No guarantee he’s going to bounce back. Luzardo has but Rogers has not.
Luzardo package was god awful.
Caba is the 69th overall prospect on the recently updated top 100 list. Thats not bad at all. Obviously Luzardo has bounced back and is pitching amazing but he might turn into Trevor Rogers instead. You just don’t know.
Better idea
Sell the damn Marlins to a Owner who is actually going to spend money on FA