The Marlins remain one of the clearest cut sellers as the deadline approaches. While Miami has somewhat quietly played well since the beginning of June, they remain in the middle of a multi-year rebuild. They’re still seven games under .500 and have almost no shot of making the playoffs this year.
It therefore comes as no surprise that Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes that the Fish plan to entertain offers on Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Jesús Sánchez and Anthony Bender in the coming weeks. All four players appeared among MLBTR’s list of the top 40 trade candidates earlier this month; Alcantara was in the top spot. Jackson adds that the Marlins are shopping impending free agent starter Cal Quantrill, though he’d have less trade value than the rest of the group.
Perhaps more interestingly, Jackson writes that the Marlins would be satisfied running it back with their current middle infield tandem of Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards next season. That’s not to say either player is untouchable, but they’re less likely to move than any of the four Miami players who made our trade candidates writeup. The 26-year-old Lopez is hitting .250/.320/.392 while taking over at shortstop. Edwards, who moved to second base, owns a .288/.352/.347 slash with 16 stolen bases. Both players are controllable for another four seasons.
[Related: Miami Marlins Trade Deadline Outlook]
Alcantara’s availability has been expected for months. He’s making $17MM this year and next, and he’s guaranteed a $2MM buyout on a $21MM club option for 2027. That’d be a bargain rate if he recaptured his ace form, but he has had a poor first season back from Tommy John surgery. Alcantara carries a 7.22 ERA with a diminished 17.3% strikeout rate over 18 starts. He had his best month in June (4.34 ERA) but has given up 11 runs in as many innings over his past two appearances. There’s little reason for the Marlins not to listen to offers, but it’s not a given that they actually pull the trigger on what would be a sell-low trade.
Moving Cabrera this summer would arguably be selling high. The 27-year-old former top prospect has posted a 2.54 ERA while striking out more than a quarter of his opponents in his past 12 starts. He’s making less than $2MM and under arbitration control for another three seasons. Miami would demand a significant return for their top realistic trade chip.
Jackson notes that the Marlins are nevertheless willing to consider offers in part because of Cabrera’s injury history. Shoulder problems sidelined him in both 2023 and ’24. He has yet to reach 100 innings in an MLB season. Cabrera departed his final appearance before the All-Star Break with elbow fatigue. While that’s not considered a serious issue — an MRI has already come back clean and he avoided the injured list — it’s the latest reminder of the injury risk for any pitcher, especially one with a mid-upper 90s fastball.
Sánchez and Bender are each controllable role players who should draw interest. Sánchez is a lefty-hitting corner outfielder who has been a league average regular over the course of his career. This season’s .259/.321/.410 slash line is par for the course. He’s making $4.5MM this year and will go through arbitration twice more.
Bender is a 30-year-old righty reliever who also has two and a half seasons of club control. He owns a 2.06 ERA in 39 1/3 innings, though that obscures unimpressive strikeout (18.9%) and walk (10.7%) numbers. Bender gets a lot of ground-balls and has gotten fantastic results on the mid-80s breaking ball that he uses as his primary pitch. He’s playing on a $1.42MM salary that’ll make him a viable fit for any contender.
As for Quantrill, the Marlins signed him with hopes of flipping him midseason. He’s making $3.5MM on a one-year free agent deal. Quantrill has below-average numbers for a third consecutive season, though. He carries a 5.62 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate over 81 2/3 innings. He’d profile as a sixth/seventh starter or long reliever on most contenders. There’d be minimal interest, but Quantrill is affordable enough that perhaps a team navigating multiple rotation injuries will take a flier. If they can’t find a trade partner this month, Miami could place him on waivers at some point in August in hopes of shedding the final few weeks of his salary.
I think the Marlins should keep Sandy unless they are offered two MLB top 100 prospects one one top 30 overall. If he regains his form they can get even more. I agree with trading all of the others except Xavier.
They won’t get that at this point. He’s a 7 ERA starter. If they got one top 100 prospect that’d surprise me. They should really hold unless they think he’s broken:
That kind of haul isn’t even in the right zip code for Alcantara given his current performance. Contending teams are looking for someone who can be dropped into the top end of the rotation right away, not a rehab project. He’s going to stay put. Somebody is going to like Bender’s bender, though.
Yup. No contenders are interested in watching Sandy pitch terribly in 2025.
He probably nets a better return over the winter with many more teams being interested.
Exactly. They likely will see a better market for him this winter. It isn’t as if he could pitch much worse for the rest of the season than he has so far. Most teams wouldn’t even keep him in the rotation now.
Alcantara is expensive. Sure they could get more at next years trade deadline IF he bounces back but if he doesnt they won’t get squat. And they will have to pay his salary until they trade him.
Too much right now. They could drive up bidding by just being real if they want to deal him. They could even target prospects on smaller market teams who think they see some kind of window opening. Absolutely NO one is going full bore on all those Top 100s and Top 50s right now. A team acquiring is taking a little risk.
The only reason not to hold him now would be there a larger market probably. Which means your pro scouts have a broader range of targeted talent in their systems.
Buddy it’s going to look more like this two top 300 prospects or 1 top 100 (maybe not even that)
I think they should wait and see where they are closer to the deadline. They are playing pretty good right now. What we learned from the Tigers last year. If you want to make up ground all you have to do is win.
There is no need to wait until the deadline. With a -55 run differential the Marlins are totally open for business. Any glimmer of hope for contending is a complete mirage.
Bendix won’t be clinging to any short runs of success.
Marlins don’t have the Tigers talent 1-26 or on the 40 man roster.
I think the Marlins definitely should trade Cabrera. He’s never pitched better. He has a history of injuries and inconsistency maybe his stock goes higher but its high right now and hes risky I would trade him.
Alcantara who knows. He’s expensive so if he doesnt start playing well soon hes going to have negative trade value. I think he makes sense for fringe contenders that need a long shot to compete. I dont think he makes such sense on a sure fire contender.
Once again if anyone forgot, Cal is available 🤣
Cal Raleigh!
If only.
Ramirez ain’t bad himself. We’ve seen quite the surge in power hitting catchers lately.
That’s always good for baseball.
If we had Cal Raleigh, why would we trade him?
Marlins sell. Selling high is no different here.
Trolling with lazy tired, old narrative I see.
Is Janson Junk someone they’d move? I’d think so
At age 29, I believe they will too.
I bet the only guy they trade from this article is Quantrill for the proverbial bucket of balls. They’d be lucky to get salary coverage for Sandy, and I have doubts they’ll be offered much for Cabrera—they might get 20 offers in the neighborhood of last years Erick Fedde return (aka just about nothing). Even if a front office is bullish about him turning a corner, only an idiot would deal high quality prospects for that injury sheet.
Hey Brad, if Cabrera has 2 good starts after the Break I guarantee you will be calling the GM/PoBO who emerges with Cabrera a total idiot
Well, I guess let’s see what he costs. A quantity-based offer might be worth the risk. The chance that Cabrera doesn’t finish the season (let alone provide value through his control years) is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60%. That’s scary when the Marlins are going to be asking for first-round caliber, near-Majors talent.
I just don’t see how a WS contender can trust a guy with a 7 era ?
Someone might get a steal for Alcantara right now if the Marlins want to take a ding on a low sell. Every smaller market team should be trying to flip for him. They’re in this realm possibly.
Dock, I don’t think Bendix trades Sandy at the deadline. He warrants more time to build value back
I don’t think so either. Im just considering why it MIGHT be prudent to consider the deal now. You cut his value down from that 100% when hes built his value fully back…and trade the risk over potentially to a more unlikely typical suitor. Im thinking similar to maybe how the Royals dealt for James Shields. An early strike for a soon contender. You take your prospects off that team now if theyre there…and not just the tight system a team like the Yankees have now. Just a thought. Im not suggesting it SHOULD happen. But that’d be a reasoning.
Trade Bender, Faucher, and Quantrill (if anyone interested). Maybe Jeezy if they dare to give a chance to Johnston or Marsee in RF.
Keep everyone else: Sandy is selling at the lowest, Eddy is still controllable when the team gets competitive, plus, there is no clear SP to take over his spot (maybe Mazur, with a lot less potential)
Don’t see anyone trading a good return given Alcantara’s poor results. They are better off keeping him and hoping for a strong 2nd half (then move him in the off-season.
Imagine they’ll find a deal for Bender and maybe even Faucher…but hold on to Henriquez. Nardi would have drawn interest if he wasn’t hurt.
The only way Alcantara gets traded at this deadline is if someone gets really desperate to trde for a pitcher, then looks past the current performance and offers the Marlins max Alcantara value. Otherwise, we’ll have Sandy for the remainder of the year.
But if someone comes in and offers a high return, I sell sell sell…because I have a concern that Sandy’s situation looks eerily similar to when we had Josh Johnson.
I’m still puzzled how a team that is about 7 1/2 games out of the Wild Card spot with a couple of weeks left until the trade deadline as they are playing very well, is described as “..remain one of the clearest cut sellers as the deadline approaches.”
If this were a big market team, I sense that they’d be described differently.
Will they still “..remain one of the clearest cut sellers as the deadline approaches”, if they continue on their recent trend of the last couple of weeks, and move within 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 games back of the Wild Card by the deadline?
If you want to die on that hill go right ahead. You have to play well the whole season and a few weeks of good baseball doesn’t negate the tough schedule that the Marlins have remaining and the shoddy baseball they played in April,May,and June. It’s not the market. It’s the way they are run and the product on the field year in year out that makes them a laugher. 7 1/2 isn’t 4 1/2. A lot has to go wrong with the NL and right with the Fish to even think about that. Crazy things do happen. I totally understand the glass half full way of thinking.
Without dying on any hills: Only six teams have current playoff probabilities of under one percent. The Marlins are easily the best of that sorry bunch. The main reason they are so far out of the running is the number of teams they have to climb over to qualify for the postseason. They probably finish ten games out of a wildcard with 4-5 teams ahead of them.
Your absolutely right. The NL east is very competitive as is the rest of the league. But if your telling me it’s under 1%? I knew Florida was bad I didn’t realize they were that bad. But I get what you are saying. Cheers.
According to PECOTA (Baseball Prospectus), Miami’s playoff probability currently stands at 0.2%. Wildcard rankings supersede the divisions, so the better teams in all three divisions stand in their way. They are also projected for a -100 run differential over the entire season (currently, -55). Pretty hard to get anywhere with that number.