Marlins Non-Tender Brian Anderson, Nick Neidert
The Marlins have non-tendered third baseman Brian Anderson and right-hander Nick Neidert, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald (Twitter links).
Anderson, 29, isn’t far removed from being a core contributor and potential extension candidate with the Marlins. The former No. 76 overall draft pick posted respectable numbers through 95 plate appearances at age 24 in his MLB debut back in 2017, and by the 2018 season he’d established himself as a fixture in the Miami lineup. From 2018-20, Anderson appeared in 341 games, tallied 1419 plate appearances and recorded a solid .266/.350/.436 slash line. He never posted huge home run totals — career-high 20 in 2019 — but showed plenty of doubles power in the Marlins’ spacious home park, logging 74 doubles in that time.
Originally a third baseman, Anderson spent much of the 2018 season in right field before beginning to split his time between right field and the hot corner in 2019. He’s logged average defensive grades across the board at third base in his career and been an above-average right fielder in the estimation of Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating (though Statcast, notably, pegs him as a below-average defender in right).
The past two seasons haven’t been as productive. Anderson has been dogged by oblique, shoulder and back injuries dating back to Opening Day 2021. He’s still managed a .233/.321/.359 batting line in that time (93 wRC+), but Anderson has only been healthy enough to take the field for 165 games/647 plate appearances over the past two seasons. Coupled with a projected $5.2MM salary in arbitration (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz), Anderson was cut loose by a Marlins club that is seeking offense upgrades at multiple positions. He’d have been a free agent next winter anyhow, given his five-plus years of MLB service time, but Anderson will reach the market earlier than scheduled and now be able to field interest from all 29 other clubs.
Neidert, 26 on Sunday, was a more straightforward decision. While he once ranked as one of the better pitching prospects in Miami’s system, he’s totaled 49 big league innings across the past three seasons and worked to a 4.59 ERA with just a 13.3% strikeout rate against an 11.8% walk rate.
Neidert has posted strong numbers in Triple-A over the past couple seasons, so it’s possible the Fish will take advantage of the fact that today is the only time of year a player can be cut loose without having to be subjected to waivers — immediately removing him from the 40-man roster and quickly looking to re-sign him to a minor league contract. Neidert has one minor league option year remaining, though, and could appeal to some pitching-needy clubs around the league.
Rockies Extend Tyler Kinley
3:47pm: It’s actually a $6.25MM total for the three years, Alexander clarifies, noting that the $750K buyout on the 2026 option is part of that sum. Kinley will be paid $1.2MM in 2023, $1.3MM in 2024 and $3MM in 2025. The 2026 option is valued at $5MM and comes with a $750K buyout. The 2025 and 2026 seasons contain escalators and incentives based on games finished.
2:34pm: The Rockies announced Friday that they’ve agreed to a three-year contract extension with reliever Tyler Kinley, spanning the 2023-25 seasons. The contract also contains a club option for the 2026 season. Kinley underwent elbow surgery in July that was expected to sideline him for around one year. Ari Alexander of KPRC first reported the agreement, adding that it’ll guarantee Kinley $7MM — $6.25MM in total salary from 2023-25, plus a $5MM option with a $750K buyout.
Kinley, 32 in January, appeared to be in the midst of a breakout season in Colorado prior to his injury. In 24 innings, he held opponents to just two earned runs on 21 hits and six walks with 27 strikeouts. That was good for a 0.75 ERA, 27% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate, and Kinley’s sky-high 16.7% swinging-strike rate seemed to portend the potential for even more strikeouts.
The hard-throwing Kinley, whose fastball averaged just shy of 96 mph in 2022, has steadily improved upon his command each season since 2019, dropping his walk rate from a ghastly 16.3% all the way to this year’s 6% mark. Unsurprisingly, the improved command has radically bolstered his results.
Whether Kinley can sustain that level of command remains to be seen. In addition to the general uncertainty that comes with any elbow surgery for a pitcher, Kinley’s 57% first-pitch strike rate in 2022 was actually worse than the 58.8% mark he posted back in 2019, when he walked more than 16% of his opponents. Sustaining such massive gains in walk rate while getting ahead in the count at a lesser rate than when he posted one of baseball’s highest walk rates will be a challenge.
Even if Kinley is able to sustain most of the improvements in his walk rate, there’s still surely some regression in store. The right-hander excelled at limiting home runs in 2019-20, but he didn’t yield a single long ball in this season’s 24 innings. It’s not realistic to expect any pitcher to completely avoid the home run ball, and even a regression to the strong 0.86 HR/9 mark Kinley yielded in 2019-20 would cause a notable uptick in his otherwise pristine ERA.
There’s obviously great risk in extending a 32-year-old reliever — particularly one who’ll miss at least half of the contract’s first season while recovering from elbow surgery. That said, the $7MM term of the three-year deal presents fairly minimal risk. Kinley would’ve been arbitration-eligible for the contract’s first two seasons, with the third year and the potential club option season representing would-be free agent campaigns.
MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $1.3MM salary for Kinley in 2023, and if he returned in good health late in the summer, he’d likely have earned a modest bump on that number. If we assume his final two arb seasons would’ve cost something in the neighborhood of $3MM combined, the Rox are effectively paying $4MM for the right to control his first two free-agent years — only one of which is actually guaranteed to him. Viewed through that lens, the Rox are effectively guaranteeing Kinley’s final two arb seasons for the right to pay him about $8.25MM in his first two free-agent seasons. If Kinley is able to emerge as even a solid middle reliever, that’ll be a justifiable price tag. If not, the sting will be generally minimal, given the affordable nature of the guarantee.
Yankees Claim Junior Fernandez From Pirates
The Yankees announced they’ve claimed reliever Junior Fernandez off waivers from the Pirates. Pittsburgh has designated him for assignment on Tuesday.
Fernandez will bring a blistering fastball to the Yankees — albeit one that has been difficult for the 25-year-old to command and that has not resulted in many strikeouts. Through 54 Major League innings to date, mostly with the Cardinls, Fernandez carries a tepid 5.17 ERA with a pedestrian 18.7% strikeout against a 13.9% walk rate. He’s generated a strong 13.6% swinging-strike rate in his career, however, and his average heater has crept up from 97 mph as a rookie in 2019 to a whopping 99 mph in this past season’s 18 2/3 frames.
Prior to the 2022 season, Fernandez relied exclusively on a four-seamer as his fastball. In 2022, however, he shifted away from that four-seamer in favor of a sinker, holding his sweltering velocity and enjoying an uptick in an already strong ground-ball rate. He’s induced grounders at a 49.4% clip in his career but sat at a gaudy 58.9% clip in 2022. The newly adopted power sinker and massive ground-ball rate is a profile for which the Yankees, in particular, have shown an affinity in recent seasons.
Fernandez is out of minor league options, so the Yankees will either need to attempt to pass him through waivers themselves at some point between now and Opening Day — or else commit to carrying him on their Opening Day roster. If he makes it through the winter on the 40-man roster, Spring Training will serve as an audition for him. In 83 career innings at the Triple-A level, Fernandez has a 4.12 ERA with a 27% strikeout rate against a 10.5% walk rate.
Tigers Claim Bligh Madris
The Tigers have claimed outfielder Bligh Madris off waivers from the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Bay designated Madris for assignment earlier in the week.
Madris, 26, made his big league debut in 2022, splitting the season between the Pirates and Rays. He didn’t appear in the Majors with Tampa Bay following a mid-September waiver claim but did log 39 games with the Pirates, struggling to a .177/.244/.265 batting line through his first 123 Major League plate appearances.
The lefty-swinging Madris, however, has been far better in Triple-A Indianapolis, where he notched a combined .297/.366/.510 batting line with 11 homers, 22 doubles and four triples. Because he was just selected to the 40-man roster this season, Madris has two option years remaining, so he can give the Tigers some optionable depth. Madris handled right-handed pitching particularly well in 2022, batting .272/.345/.492 between the big leagues and Triple-A. He’s played primarily right field but does have some experience in the other two outfield slots and at first base.
The Tigers don’t have a ton of outfield depth on the 40-man roster. Austin Meadows, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter loosely project as the starters, though Detroit will likely add some outfield reinforcements in some capacity this winter. Akil Baddoo and Parker Meadows — Austin’s younger brother — are the only other pure outfielders on the 40-man roster for Detroit at the moment, so Madris will give them another lefty bat with a nice Triple-A track record and a bit of defensive versatility.
Dodgers Claim Jake Reed
The Dodgers have claimed right-hander Jake Reed off waivers from the Red Sox, per announcements from both teams. Boston designated Reed for assignment earlier in the week, and he’ll now head back to L.A. for a third stint as a Dodger. With the addition of Reed, the Dodgers’ 40-man roster is now at 38 players (though one of the two vacancies will go to Clayton Kershaw, once his reported deal is finalized).
Reed, 30, has been with six different teams since June 2021, when he was released by the Angels. Upon being cut loose, he signed with the Dodgers and has since bounced to the Rays, to the Mets, back to the Dodgers, to the Orioles, to the Red Sox and now back to Los Angeles via a series of waiver claims.
It’s a dizzying sequence of transactions for Reed, who along the way has pitched just 26 2/3 innings at the MLB level. He’s been tagged for a 5.74 ERA in that time and posted a 19.2% strikeout rate, an 8.3% walk rate and a 39.8% ground-ball rate.
Even with those pedestrian numbers, Reed continues to intrigue clubs thanks to an atypical delivery and arm slot that’s helped him to confound right-handed batters. He also had a strong showing in Triple-A this past season and carries a solid 3.84 ERA and 25.6% strikeout rate at that level. Reed still has one more minor league option year remaining, so if he survives the offseason on the Dodgers’ 40-man, he can give them some flexible depth in the bullpen next season.
Mets Claim William Woods
The Mets have claimed right-hander William Woods off waivers from the Braves, per announcements from both clubs. Atlanta had designated Woods for assignment earlier in the week.
Woods, 23, tossed a pair of scoreless innings in his big league debut this season but was torched for a 6.04 ERA in 25 1/3 innings across three minor league levels as well. The former 23rd-rounder also gave up a dozen runs in 12 2/3 innings during this year’s Arizona Fall League.
Forearm and ankle injuries have limited Woods’ time on the mound across the past two seasons, and he was of course unable to pitch competitively in 2020 thanks to the canceled minor league season. His 2019 campaign showed a good bit of promise, as he tossed 51 innings of 3.35 ERA ball with a 26.6% strikeout rate in Class-A, though Woods also walked 13.3% of the hitters he faced that season.
Baseball America ranked Woods 21st and 25th in the Braves’ system over the past two seasons, noting that in single-inning stints his fastball can reach 100 mph. That pitch is complemented by a slider and changeup that, at times, look like potential above-average offerings.
Woods is the latest in a growing line of arms the Mets are stockpiling as they look to cultivate some depth in the upper minors. In addition to Woods, the Mets have claimed righty Stephen Ridings from the Yankees and acquired right-handers Elieser Hernandez and Jeff Brigham in a trade with the Marlins — all in the course of the past 72 hours. All four of those pitchers have minor league options remaining, which is surely key for the Mets.
It’s unlikely that any of that newly acquired quartet is viewed as a lock to make next year’s Opening Day roster, but Hernandez provides some depth at a time when Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker are all free agents. Meanwhile, the trio of Ridings, Brigham and now Woods create some optionable bullpen depth to a Mets club that has re-signed Edwin Diaz but has also seen each of Adam Ottavino, Seth Lugo, Trevor May, Trevor Williams, Joely Rodriguez and Mychal Givens reach the open market.
Mets To Acquire Elieser Hernandez, Jeff Brigham From Marlins
12:59pm: The clubs have each announced the deal. In addition to Sanchez, the Marlins will receive a player to be named later or cash.
10:39am: The Mets are set to acquire right-handers Elieser Hernandez and Jeff Brigham from the Marlins, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post. Minor league righty Franklin Sanchez is headed back to Miami in return. Both Hernandez and Brigham were designated for assignment by the Marlins earlier this week.
The acquisitions of Hernandez and Brigham will give the Mets some needed depth in both the rotation and the bullpen, where they’re currently faced with the prospect of losing significant chunks of their staff. Starters Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker are all free agents, and while the Mets already re-signed Edwin Diaz, they’ve also seen Seth Lugo, Adam Ottavino, Mychal Givens, Trevor May and Trevor Williams reach the open market.
Both Hernandez and Brigham have a minor league option year remaining — two, in Brigham’s case — and therefore shouldn’t be seen as locks to occupy a spot on next year’s Opening Day staff for the Mets. That said, Hernandez has four-plus year of MLB experience and Brigham has three, so they’re a bit more seasoned than the garden-variety DFA pickup.
Hernandez, in particular, has at times looked like a potentially solid big league starter. From 2020-21, he made 17 starts for the Fish and pitched to a 3.84 ERA with strong strikeout and walk rates alike — 26.4% and 5.7%, respectively. That came in a sample of just 77 1/3 innings, thanks largely to a series of injuries. A lat strain in 2020, follow by biceps inflammation and a quad strain in 2021, combined to limit Hernandez’s time on the mound. Still, for a righty who’d been pitching in his age-25 and age-26 seasons, it was an encouraging sample from which to draw.
The 2022 campaign, however, was another story. Hernandez opened the season in Miami’s rotation but lost his spot and wound up splitting his workload evenly between 10 starts and 10 bullpen outings. The end result was a dismal 6.35 ERA, fueled in part by his strikeout rate (21.6%) and walk rate (7.9%) trending in the wrong directions. Home runs have long been an issue for Hernandez but never more so than this past season, when he yielded a staggering 2.74 homers per nine innings pitched. Put another way, a stunning 6.8% of the hitters who came the plate against Hernandez connected on a home run.
Those red flags notwithstanding, Hernandez is a 27-year-old righty who’s only one year removed from quality rotation work spread across two seasons. Since he can be optioned to Triple-A, he’s likely viewed as a sixth or seventh option in the rotation, should injuries necessitate such a move. An excellent Spring Training could put him in the mix for a spot on the Opening Day staff, of course, but even if he’s ticketed for Syracuse to begin the ’23 season, he’s a better rotation fallback than many clubs have in the upper minors. Hernandez is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1.8MM in 2023. That’s more than some clubs might prefer to pay for a depth option, but the deep-pocketed Mets are likely more comfortable with that possibility (and could always look to sign Hernandez to a split contract with separate rates of pay in the Majors and Triple-A).
Turning to the 30-year-old Brigham, he’s coming off a more successful 2022 campaign. In 24 innings with the Marlins, he worked to a 3.38 ERA with a strong 27.7% strikeout rate against a 9.9% walk rate.
Brigham missed the entire 2021 campaign and much of this past season while dealing with a nerve injury in his right biceps, so durability is something of a concern, but dating back to 2019 he’s pitched about a full season’s worth of innings (63 1/3) with a 4.12 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate. This past season’s 94.7 mph average heater was down from its 96.6 mph peak in 2019, but the results were still sound. As with recent waiver claim Stephen Ridings, Brigham is likely viewed as an optionable depth piece who can perhaps vie for one of the final spots in what should be a new-look Mets bullpen this winter. He’s projected for a modest $800K salary in 2023.
As for the Marlins’ return, they’ll acquire the 22-year-old Sanchez, who posted a combined 3.79 ERA in 35 2/3 innings across two Class-A levels in 2022. Sanchez fanned 27.1% of his opponents, a strong mark, but also walked an untenable 13.5% of hitters he faced. The Marlins sent him to the Arizona Fall League, where he was tagged for nine runs in 7 1/3 innings and walked more hitters (six) than he struck out (five).
Sanchez didn’t rank among the Mets’ top prospects at any Baseball America, FanGraphs or MLB.com, though that’s not really a surprise for a pitcher who’s being swapped out for a pair of recent DFAs. He’ll give the Marlins a young arm with bat-missing capabilities but also some glaring command issues — the type of project arm often included as a lottery ticket in minor swaps of this nature.
Billy Beane Moves To Advisory Role With Athletics; GM David Forst To Oversee Baseball Operations
The A’s announced Friday that longtime executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane is transitioning into a new role — a senior advisor to managing partner John Fisher. He’ll “work closely with Fisher on strategic decisions,” per the press release, and will also “support the work of baseball operations now headed by general manager David Forst.”
“Billy is and will always be an Athletic,” Fisher said in a statement within today’s press release. “He is a trusted advisor to me and I look forward to continuing to work closely with him on strategic initiatives that impact our Club. This position at the ownership level allows Billy to pursue other non-baseball sporting interests while continuing to hold an important role with the A’s and me. I am also excited for David Forst to now serve as the head of baseball operations, while still continuing his long and successful partnership with Billy.”
Prior to this transition, Beane had been the longest-tenured baseball operations leader in the sport, having ascended to the post of general manager back in 1997. (That distinction now falls to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who’s been running baseball ops in the Bronx since 1998.) Though Beane’s Athletics have never won a World Series, they’ve been a remarkably competitive club over the years in spite of working under some of the most stringent payroll restrictions in the game.
The A’s are one of three teams to never reach a $100MM payroll in a single season — arguably one of two, as the Pirates were a rounding error away from $100MM in 2016 when they had a $99.945MM. Only Oakland and Tampa Bay have never come within a stone’s throw of $100MM. The Athletics’ franchise-record Opening Day payroll was $92.2MM in 2019.
Despite rarely being able to keep his homegrown stars and what ostensibly appears to be an ownership-level aversion to extending pre-arbitration players on long-term contracts — the team’s most recent pre-arb extensions were Sean Doolittle in 2014 and Trevor Cahill in 2011 — Beane’s Athletics have reached the playoffs 11 times in a span of 25 years. Moreover, even amid the constant teardowns, rebuilds and transitional phases, the A’s never endured more than three consecutive losing seasons under Beane’s guidance.
“I’m incredibly proud of the 33 years I’ve spent here in Oakland, and I look forward to continuing with the A’s in this new role,” Beane said in his own statement. “I am eager to help guide the direction of the organization alongside ownership. If I have done anything well during my time at the A’s it is to create a succession plan, and no one is more prepared to take the helm than David. It has been a privilege to work alongside him for all these years and I look forward to continuing to be a resource for him.”
Forst, 46, has been with the Athletics since 2000, rising from the team’s scouting ranks to become an assistant general manager and, in conjunction with Beane’s promotion to EVP, the team’s general manager. He’s held that title since 2015, but Beane has remained atop the team’s baseball operations hierarchy until now — effectively serving in the same “president of baseball operations” role that’s become commonplace throughout the industry, albeit with slightly varied wording.
Like Beane, Forst has long been eyed by other clubs as a potential baseball operations hire, but he’s remained entrenched in Oakland in spite of interest from other organizations. The Mets and Angels were reported to have some interest back in the 2020-21 offseason, and the Twins held interest in Forst back in 2016. Forst declined to speak with all three teams, opting to instead remain in Oakland, where he’ll now be granted baseball autonomy after a 22-year climb through the front office ranks.
Yankees Have Made New Offer To Aaron Judge
Aaron Judge entered free agency on the heels of the best platform year we’ve seen in decades, having proven the decision to turn down the Yankees’ seven-year, $213.5MM extension offer back in Spring Training to be a wildly successful bet on himself. Judge, who naturally declined a qualifying offer last week, is now free to field interest from teams throughout the league, but Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner both voiced hope of getting a deal done and keeping Judge in the Bronx long-term.
Cashman confirmed to reporters last night that the team has already made a new offer to Judge (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com), stating that because Judge’s free agency is playing out “in real time… we’re certainly not going to mess around.” Steinbrenner backed Cashman’s sentiment, stating that he’s met with Judge multiple times since the season ended and “absolutely conveyed” that he wants him “to be a Yankee for the rest of his life” (via Newsday’s David Lennon)
Naturally, because Judge is an active free agent, Cashman didn’t disclose the terms of any new offer(s) — as opposed to his surprisingly candid Spring Training press conference, wherein he publicly announced the financial details of the Yankees’ final extension offer to Judge.
Judge is widely expected to top that spring extension offer handsomely, perhaps establishing a new average annual value record for position players and/or a new free-agent contract record in the process. At present, no position player has topped the $36MM AAV on Mike Trout‘s 10-year, $360MM extension with the Angels (though Max Scherzer‘s $43.33MM AAV is the overall record among big leaguers). Bryce Harper‘s $330MM contract is the largest ever signed in free agency (though not the largest contract ever, as there have been a handful of extensions promising larger total sums).
Even with some form of record payday likely looming for Judge — MLBTR predicted an eight-year, $332MM contract on last week’s Top 50 rankings — Steinbrenner went on to note that he’s made clear to Judge that there’s ample payroll space to not only re-sign the recently crowned AL MVP but also make further additions to supplement the roster (via Lennon).
Even without Judge, the Yankees are projected for a bottom-line payroll north of $206MM, per Roster Resource, and a luxury-tax bill that’s already at nearly $223MM. Judge alone would push the Yankees into the second tier of luxury penalization, and any subsequent moves of note would then likely push the team into the third or possibly even newly created fourth tier of luxury penalties. Of course, those figures assume that the Yankees will tender contracts to and subsequently keep all 14 of their arbitration-eligible players, which seems unlikely. At least some of that group figures to be non-tendered before tonight’s 8pm ET deadline or tendered but subsequently traded, which would obviously alter the calculus.
Latest On Potential Trade Scenarios For Marlins’ Rotation
It’s been widely reported over the past several months — really, dating back to last offseason — that the Marlins are open to dealing from their wealth of starting pitching depth in order to solidify other needs on the roster. That’s led to righty Pablo Lopez, who drew strong interest from the Yankees and the Dodgers at the trade deadline, being one of the most heavily speculated-upon trade candidates of the 2022-23 offseason. However, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes in his latest Marlins notebook column that the team may be more open to moving left-hander Trevor Rogers than Lopez.
The 25-year-old Rogers is coming off a down year — nowhere near the excellent season enjoyed by Lopez — but would appeal to other teams in a different capacity. While acquiring Lopez would likely require trading a bevy of prospects for a pitcher at his value’s peak, Rogers is more of a buy-low option on the heels of a down 2022 season. The former first-round pick was an All-Star and the NL Rookie of the Year runner-up to Jonathan India in 2021, when he tossed 133 innings of 2.64 ERA ball with a hefty 28.6% strikeout rate and a solid enough 8.4% walk rate.
The 2022 season was a brutal sophomore campaign for Rogers, however. Back spasms and a lat strain prompted a pair of IL stints for the 6’5″ lefty, and his results when healthy enough to take the mound didn’t even come close to that brilliant rookie output. In 107 innings, Rogers worked to a 5.47 ERA that was more than double his 2021 mark, and his strikeout rate fell by more than six percentage points (to 22.2%) while his walk rate crept up to 9.4%. After allowing just 0.41 homers per nine innings in 2021 (1.1% of his opponents took him deep), Rogers yielded an average of 1.26 homers per nine frames (3.1%).
In addition to the discrepancy between the pair’s 2022 seasons, Lopez is under team control for only two more years and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $5.6MM in his second year of arbitration. Rogers, meanwhile, is not yet arbitration-eligible and can be controlled for another four seasons. Both players would be highly appealing to the majority of clubs seeking rotation help this offseason, but a win-now club might feel better about plugging the veteran Lopez into its rotation, as he’s coming off a career-high 180 innings and has worked to a combined 3.52 ERA (3.48 FIP, 3.69 SIERA) over his past three seasons.
As was the case last offseason, it’s not a lock that the Marlins will trade any of their current big league rotation options. Many similar rumblings echoed throughout the 2021-22 offseason, but at the end of the day, the most notable arm the Fish had moved was right-hander Zach Thompson, who’d been their fifth starter. That the Marlins are open to moving Lopez and perhaps even more open to moving Rogers is notable, but that hardly means they plan to shop either pitcher and trade him for the best offer.
Rather, Miami appears likely to again set its sights on solidifying its center field vacancy this offseason. That didn’t transpire last year, and the team instead relied entirely on in-house options — most of whom were corner outfielders that were clearly miscast in center. Jesus Sanchez, former top prospect JJ Bleday and Bryan De La Cruz all logged significant time in center, but none of that trio drew particularly strong defensive grades for their efforts there.
Looking ahead to 2023, Miami will have to hope for better results from Avisail Garcia in one corner outfield spot and could again look to the trio of Sanchez, Bleday and De La Cruz as outfield components — though this time more likely in whichever corner is not occupied by Garcia. Jackson writes within his column that the bulk of Jorge Soler‘s playing time will likely come at designated hitter next season, so he looks like an occasional outfield option, at best.
While center field is perhaps the most obvious area of need, Miami could also use upgrades at a variety of positions. Third base seems like another possible focus, and Miami lacks an obvious first baseman aside from Garrett Cooper, who’s been a candidate to be traded himself dating back to the deadline.
Of course, most fans salivate over the mere notion of 2022 NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara being made available in a trade, but with four years remaining on an affordable contract, there’s little to no hope of such a scenario actually transpiring. Alcantara is a veritable lock to be Miami’s Opening Day starter in 2023, and if Lopez isn’t traded, he’ll presumably slot into the second spot in the rotation. The Marlins will also lean on a resurgent Jesus Luzardo and hard-throwing righty Edward Cabrera — a longtime top prospect who broke out with a 3.01 ERA in 14 starts last year.
Rogers and fellow southpaw Braxton Garrett are the favorites to occupy the fifth spot in the rotation, particularly with top prospects Max Meyer (Tommy John), Jake Eder (Tommy John) and Sixto Sanchez (shoulder) all recovering from surgery. Right-hander Eury Perez reached Double-A at just 19 years of age in 2023 and could be another rotation option before long; he’s widely considered to be among the ten best prospects in all of baseball and, unsurprisingly, is considered squarely off the table (as is the case with Alcantara), per Jackson’s report.