Marlins Designate Preston Guilmet For Assignment
The Marlins have designated right-hander Preston Guilmet for assignment, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. Outfielder Monte Harrison has been recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville to take his spot on the active roster.
Guilmet has been selected to the Miami roster a few times this year, but he hasn’t made it into a game. The 33-year-old has otherwise spent the year with Jacksonville, tossing 25 1/3 innings of 3.55 ERA ball with very strong strikeout and walk rates (34.3% and 6.1%, respectively).
The right-hander has appeared in parts of four major league seasons (2013-15, 2018). Altogether, he’s made 27 appearances at the highest level and thrown 33 innings with a 9.27 ERA and a 4.28 SIERA.
Marlins Select Preston Guilmet, Designate Shawn Morimando For Assignment
The Marlins have designated Shawn Morimando for assignment and selected the contract of Preston Guilmet, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (via Twitter).
Guilmet first appeared in the Majors back in 2013 as a 25 year old for the Indians. Since then, he’s dressed for the Orioles, Rays, Brewers, Cardinals, and Blue Jays for a total 33 innings across 27 appearances. He has not, however, appeared in the Majors since 2018, and he currently owns a 9.27 ERA/6.61 FIP for his career. Now 33, Guilmet has a 3.55 ERA in 12 games for Triple-A Jacksonville this season.
Morimando, 28, was a 19th round draft pick of the Indians back in 2011. He did eventually make his Major League debut in Cleveland, but with just two appearances in 2016.
His next two appearances in the Majors came this year with the Marlins. He allowed four earned runs on seven hits and five walks while striking out five over 5 2/3 innings. The southpaw doesn’t have great numbers in Triple-A the past few seasons, though he has worked almost exclusively as a starter, so it’s possible he could find new life as a reliever somewhere. That said, it certainly means something that none of the three organizations he’s been a part of have viewed him as an asset in that capacity.
Marlins Select Shawn Morimando
The Marlins announced they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Shawn Morimando. Right-hander Nick Neidert was optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville to create active roster space, while lefty Daniel Castano was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
It’s the second time Morimando has been selected to the big league roster this season. He was added in late May but designated for assignment and ultimately passed through waivers not long thereafter. He’s spent the bulk of the campaign in Jacksonville, where he’s made nine starts. Across 44 1/3 innings, Morimando has pitched to a 4.87 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk rates (20.5% and 10.3%, respectively). He has, however, racked up ground balls at a lofty 53.4% clip with the Jumbo Shrimp.
In addition to his one appearance with the Marlins this year, he pitched in a pair of big league games with the 2016 Indians. Morimando will be on hand as a potential multi-inning relief option tonight. The Fish were originally scheduled to hand the ball to Zach Thompson. Manager Don Mattingly told reporters (including Craig Mish of SportsGrid) that the righty fell under the weather, forcing Miami into an impromptu bullpen game.
Castano landed on the 10-day IL on June 8 with a left shoulder impingement. Today’s transfer rules him out for sixty days from that date, so he won’t be eligible to return until early August. The 26-year-old has made four starts for the Marlins this season, tossing 17 1/3 innings of 5.19 ERA/5.60 SIERA ball.
Marlins Pick Up Don Mattingly’s Option For 2022 Season
Don Mattingly will return as the Marlins’ manager in 2022. General manager Kim Ng announced on today’s broadcast that Mattingly’s mutual option for the 2022 campaign has been picked up by both parties (Twitter link, with video, via Bally Sports Florida).
“Donnie’s been steady at the helm,” Ng said when asked about the job Mattingly has done. “I think that’s one of his greatest attributes. He’s incredibly patient. I think he’s got a great way with the young players. He’s very positive with them.”
The 2022 season will be Mattingly’s seventh as the Marlins’ manager. He joined the Fish in 2016 on the heels of a five-year run as the Dodgers’ skipper and has since managed the team to a 345-446 record. Of course, the manager of a club that has gone through yet another broad-reaching fire sale, turned over its front office and gone through an ownership change can’t be judged solely on wins and losses. Mattingly has stuck with the club through all of those sweeping changes, convincing multiple front offices and ownership groups alike that he’s the right person to be leading an up-and-coming Marlins club.
Mattingly’s Marlins made a surprise postseason bid last year in the expanded format and did so in spite of a Covid outbreak that gutted the roster and left him with a host of replacement players for several weeks. That unexpected playoff berth contributed to Mattingly’s first NL Manager of the Year win. His club toppled the NL Central champion Cubs in the Wild Card round of play before falling to the Braves in the NLDS.
The 2021 season hasn’t gone exactly according to plan for the Marlins, who’ve fallen into a prolonged stretch of losses and dropped to 38-47 in the standings. The loss of touted young right-hander Sixto Sanchez due to shoulder surgery has been a particularly tough hit for Miami, and they’ve also been without third baseman Brian Anderson and promising righty Elieser Hernandez for much of the 2021 campaign as well.
Still, there are some important pieces in place for the franchise moving forward. Jazz Chisholm is enjoying a nice season in the middle infield, and the Marlins’ rotation has the makings of an impressive group, headlined by Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and 2021 Rookie of the Year candidate Trevor Rogers. Miami has several interesting prospects just breaking into the Majors or on the cusp of doing so, including outfielders Jesus Sanchez and JJ Bleday. Last year’s first-round pick, righty Max Meyer, has utterly dominated the Double-A level and could be a quick-to-the-Majors arm.
Mattingly will get the chance to work with that upcoming wave of talent, and if all goes according to plan next season, it wouldn’t at all be a surprise to see Ng, principal owner Bruce Sherman and CEO Derek Jeter extend Mattingly beyond the 2022 campaign.
Sixto Sanchez To Undergo Shoulder Surgery
TODAY: Marlins general manager Kim Ng provided some more detail on Sanchez’s timeline, telling MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters that the team is hopeful Sanchez will be able to resume throwing in three months. Pitching in winter ball, however, is “probably not in his cards,” Ng said.
JULY 5: The Marlins announced Monday that right-hander Sixto Sanchez will undergo season-ending surgery after an MRI revealed a small tear in the posterior capsule of his right shoulder. The hope is that he’ll be ready for Spring Training 2022.
It’s an awful development for the Marlins and for Sanchez himself, who has long been touted as one of the game’s most promising young arms. That potential was on full display in 2020, when the Fish called Sanchez up for his MLB debut and he turned in a 3.46 ERA through his first seven big league starts — despite having just turned 22 years of age.
Sanchez averaged 98.8 mph on his power sinker, and while he didn’t rack up strikeouts at the level some might’ve hoped (20.9 percent), he showed above-average control (seven percent walk rate) and ranked seventh among 158 MLB starting pitchers (min. 30 innings) with a 58 percent ground-ball rate. There was certainly some hope for more missed bats down the line, too. Sanchez’s 12.8 percent swinging-strike rate was quite sound for a starting pitcher, and his 38.7 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone ranked fourth in that same set of 158 starters.
Unfortunately, Sanchez won’t end up throwing a single pitch for the Marlins in 2021. His start this spring was delayed due to Covid protocols, and the Marlins optioned him late in camp after he threw just 8 1/3 innings in Spring Training. While many immediately jumped to the service time argument, it was clear that wasn’t the case. Sanchez would’ve needed to be held down until the end of this month in order to push back his free agency, and there’s no chance that’d have happened had he been healthy. (They also had no qualms about top prospect Jazz Chisholm breaking camp as the everyday second baseman, even though it’d have been far easier to delay his free agency than that of Sanchez.)
The target for Sanchez was a mid-April 2021 debut, but he cut a workout at the team’s alternate site short in early April after complaining of shoulder discomfort. His throwing program was paused for more than a month. Upon restarting, Sanchez again quickly pushed pause, although this time general manager Kim Ng (in retrospect, somewhat ominously) indicated that the new discomfort Sanchez had felt was unrelated to the initial inflammation with which he was diagnosed back in April.
The end result of the entire sequence, unfortunately for Sanchez, is that he won’t accrue big league service time in 2021. If he indeed sustained his injury while throwing on the minor league side, that would seem to boil down to little more than awful timing. The Miami Herald’s Craig Mish tweets, however, now suggests that a tear was discovered in Sanchez back in March, but rehab was recommended. Sanchez was optioned to the team’s alternate site on March 29. If there’s some form of documentation indicating that a tear was discovered prior to being optioned, that sort of situation is the type that will often result in a service-time grievance.
It should be noted that it’s still possible for Sanchez to reach a full year of MLB service in 2021, however. He entered the season with 103 days of service time, meaning he’d only need 69 days on the MLB roster in order to pass one full year of service and remain on track for free agency after the 2026 campaign. If the Marlins were to call Sanchez to the MLB roster and place him on the 60-day IL in order to open a 40-man roster spot, he’d receive service time for any days spent on the Major League injured list. Were such a move to happen on or before July 26, he’d still end up with a year-plus of service time (though his camp could conceivably still push for retroactive service to secure MLB pay for the season’s first few months).
To be clear, none of this is to imply any nefarious plot on the Marlins’ part. The team, after all, called Sanchez up in the first place last year when it could’ve at least defensibly kept him at the alternate site. The aforementioned Chisholm promotion is another example of forgoing service time manipulation when an opportunity otherwise presented itself.
The timing of the tear’s discovery, relative to the timing of Sanchez being optioned out of big league camp, will prove crucial. So, too, will the timing of a theoretical placement on the MLB 60-day IL — if the Marlins go that route at all. Opting not to do so would be tantamount to finishing out the season with a 39-man roster, however, so it’s in their interest to make such a move at some point. The question is just whether it’s made in time for Sanchez to reach one-plus years of service in 2021.
Marlins Have Made Extension Offer To Starling Marte
The Marlins have presented a multi-year extension offer to star center fielder Starling Marte, report Jordan McPherson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald. Terms of the offer are unknown, although McPherson and Mish hear Marte and his representatives at Rep 1 Baseball are seeking a “three- or four-year deal in the $50 million range.”
Marte, who is playing out the season on a $12.5MM contract, is slated to hit free agency at the end of the year. Last month, he expressed a desire to work out a long-term deal to stay with Miami rather than test the market. Theoretically, the two sides have until the conclusion of the season to work out an extension, although McPherson and Mish suggest the July 30 trade deadline could function as a de facto extension deadline as well. If the Marlins and Marte don’t work out a long-term deal in the next few weeks, the 35-47 Marlins are expected to trade him, according to the Herald duo.
The Fish could also hold onto Marte through the end of the year and make him a qualifying offer going into the offseason. He’d almost certainly reject the QO, entitling Miami to 2022 draft pick compensation were he to sign elsewhere. However, Marte is playing well enough this season that a contender would likely offer the Marlins a prospect package more valuable than the compensatory pick they’d receive if he turned down a QO.
While a rib fracture cost Marte a month of action earlier in the year, he’s arguably playing at a career-best level when healthy. The right-handed hitter has slashed .294/.401/.453 across 202 plate appearances. His resulting 143 wRC+ (which suggests he’s been 43 percentage points better than the average hitter after park-adjustments) is the best mark of his ten-year career. That’s driven primarily by a demonstrably more patient approach, as Marte is walking at a 13.4% clip that’s nearly triple the 4.9% career walk percentage he carried into the season.
Considering Marte’s performance this year, his reported preference for a deal in the $50MM range seems more than reasonable. He’s set to turn 33 years old in October, which will cap the deal’s length. Still, he’s tracking as the unquestionable top center fielder on the market and has been among the top performers regardless of position.
Among position players scheduled to hit free agency, only Carlos Correa, Marcus Semien and Nick Castellanos (who’s almost certain to opt out of the final two years of his deal) have an fWAR greater than Marte’s 2.8. Castellanos, Correa, Nelson Cruz and J.D. Martinez (who has a player option) are the only members of that group (minimum 100 plate appearances) to have outhit Marte this season.
Marlins Outright Luis Marte
JULY 3: Marte has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Jacksonville, per his transactions log at MLB.com. He’s apparently accepted the assignment, as he’s listed on the Jumbo Shrimp active roster.
JUNE 30: The Marlins have designated infielder Luis Marte for assignment. The move makes way for infielder Joe Panik (acquired in yesterday’s four-player trade with the Blue Jays) to be added to Miami’s active roster.
This is the second time this month that Marte has been DFA’ed, with the first move coming after Marte had appeared in just one game with the team, making his Major League debut. After being outrighted off the 40-man roster, Marte had his contract selected again on June 19, this time seeing action in three games and collecting his first hit as a big leaguer.
Marte joined the Marlins on a minor league deal this past offseason, following a decade of action in the Rangers and Braves farm systems. The 27-year-old native of the Dominican Republic was originally signed by Texas in November 2010, and Marte has hit .249/.270/.337 over 3184 career PA in the minors. Because this is his second DFA of the season, Marte has the option of declining another outright assignment if he chooses to test free agency.
Marlins Trade Justin Sterner And Cash Considerations To Rays For David Hess
The Marlins and Rays have agreed on a swap of right-handed arms. Miami will send Justin Sterner and cash considerations to Tampa Bay for right-hander David Hess. The Marlins have selected Hess’ contract in order to add him to the active roster. To make room, Jordan Holloway was optioned to Triple-A.
For the Rays, this is a classic case of swapping out depth to take a chance on a younger arm. Sterner, 24, moved from Single-A to High-A this season, his first in pro ball after playing three seasons at Brigham Young University. He went undrafted out of BYU, signing with the Marlins in July, 2020.
Hess appeared in the bigs with the Orioles each season from 2018 to 2020. In total, he made 47 appearances (33 starts) totaling 190 1/3 innings, earning a 5.86 ERA/6.41 FIP, 16.8 percent strikeout rate, 8.1 percent walk rate and 33.7 percent groundball rate. Surrendering fly balls as he did, Hess yielded an unsightly 6.0 percent home run rate with Baltimore, a mark he’ll need to improve upon to add much value to Miami.
He did not appear in the Majors for the Rays, but given his numbers with the Durham Bulls this year, it’s not hard to understand Miami’s interest. Hess has a 2.81 ERA/3.96 FIP over 32 innings in Triple-A. He’s still a fly ball pitcher, but a 28.9 percent strikeout rate and 3.9 percent walk rate are promising numbers nevertheless.
As for Holloway, he’ll head back to Jacksonville with a 4.35 ERA/4.13 FIP in 20 2/3 innings. Holloway was knocked around in his last outing, giving up five earned runs in three innings on Wednesday. More to the point, with Pablo Lopez getting tossed after just one pitch on Friday, the Marlins are likely to move some pieces around to reset their rotation and account for the impromptu bullpen game.
Blue Jays Acquire Adam Cimber, Corey Dickerson
In one of the first deals of the summer trade season, the Blue Jays announced they’ve right-handed reliever Adam Cimber and left-handed-hitting outfielder Corey Dickerson from the Marlins in exchange for infielder Joe Panik and minor league righty Andrew McInvale. The swap comes barely a week after Toronto GM Ross Atkins acknowledged a desire to add bullpen help (and after the team was reported to be seeking left-handed bats on the trade market).
It’s a bit of a surprise move on a number of levels. Dickerson is presently on the 10-day IL with a foot injury, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to the field (although he’s eligible at any time having already spent more than 10 days on the shelf). Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets that Dickerson is still in a walking boot but feeling good as he progresses through rehab. Meanwhile, it’s a bit unexpected to see the Fish taking back a struggling veteran infielder such as Panik, but Miami does have a pair of infielders (Brian Anderson, Jose Devers) on the injured list at the moment.
What’s not surprising, from a broader perspective, is that the Marlins would be seeking a trade partner for Dickerson. The 32-year-old has been a roughly league-average bat since signing a two-year, $17.5MM deal with Miami in the 2019-20 offseason and is hitting .263/.324/.380 through 225 trips to the plate in 2021. But the Marlins have multiple young outfielders they’d like the chance to evaluate for the remainder of the 2021 season, including Jesus Sanchez, who now figures to get the bulk of the time in left field. The 23-year-old decimated Triple-A pitching, slashing .349/.400/.643 with nine homers, five doubles and three triples through 140 plate appearances prior to his promotion. He now has a clearer path to everyday at-bats in Miami than he would’ve with a healthy Dickerson eventually returning from the injured list.
For the Blue Jays, Dickerson figures to slide into a part-time outfield role. Toronto currently has Lourdes Gurriel Jr., George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez and Randal Grichuk in the mix for outfield and DH at-bats, but all four bat right-handed. Dickerson’s left-handed bat makes for a nice fit, particularly given his longstanding platoon splits. He’s held his own against lefties in his career, hitting .268/.305/.408, but has thrived against right-handers with a .287/.333/.514 output.
While Dickerson is the more recognizable name of the two going back to the Jays in this deal, Cimber is perhaps the key piece of this trade for the Blue Jays. The 30-year-old sidearmer has pitched in 34 1/3 innings so far with the Marlins and notched a 2.88 ERA — albeit primarily in low-leverage situations.
Cimber doesn’t miss many bats, but that’s often the case with sidearm and submarine pitchers. He’s posted just a 15.9 percent strikeout rate so far in 2021 — about nine percent lower than league-average — but also sports better-than-average walk and ground-ball percentages (7.9 and 49.5, respectively). He rarely gives up premium contact, sitting in the 81st percentile of MLB pitchers in terms of opponents’ average exit velocity and the 96th percentile in terms of opponents’ barrel rate, per Statcast.
For his career, Cimber has been far more effective against righties than lefties, but he’s been an absolute nightmare for left-handed opponents so far in 2021. It’s a sample of just 55 plate appearances, so the small-sample caveat certainly applies, but left-handed opponents have posted just a .196/.327/.283 slash against him. Right-handers, meanwhile, are slashing .269/.329/.333 against him.
Dickerson is a free agent at season’s end, so he’s a pure rental for the Blue Jays whenever he’s able to return to the field. Cimber, on the other hand, is controllable via arbitration through the 2024 season. He’s playing the current year on a $925K salary after avoiding arbitration as a Super Two player over the winter and will have three more trips through the arb process before he qualifies as a free agent. His inclusion in the deal gives the Jays a reliever with a career 3.69 ERA and 4.01 SIERA both for the remainder of the 2021 season and perhaps for multiple years to come.
Looking at the Marlins’ end of the swap, Panik will give them an experienced bench option and help provide some cover for those injuries and any others that may arise. (Both Miguel Rojas and Jazz Chisholm have already spent time on the IL in 2021.) He could also see increased time at third base, freeing versatile Jon Berti up to bounce around the diamond as he has in seasons past. Panik was productive in the first couple years of his career with the Giants, but he’s settled in as something of a journeyman utility player. Dating back to 2018, the former first-round pick is batting .246/.313/.332 — including a .246/.293/.351 hitter in 123 plate appearances so far in 2021.
Panik’s inclusion in the deal also serves as something of a financial counterweight to the Blue Jays’ additions of Dickerson and Cimber. The Marlins are also sending the Jays about $2.65MM as part of the trade. Overall, the Jays are adding about $4.4MM of Dickerson’s remaining salary and $482K of Cimber’s remaining salary, but shedding the remaining $982K on Panik’s deal and getting this $2.65MM in cash considerations. That leaves about a $1.3MM sum remaining to be added to the Toronto payroll.
As for the 24-year-old McInvale, he’ll add another arm to the upper levels of the Miami system. Although he was one of the Blue Jays’ final picks in 2019 (37th round and No. 1107 overall), McInvale has risen to Double-A and fared quite well this season. He’s pitched 20 2/3 innings out of the bullpen an impressive 31.8 percent strikeout rate and a massive 63.6 percent ground-ball rate. Command has been an issue, however, as McInvale has walked 13 batters (14.8 BB%), hit another pair and tossed three wild pitches.
McInvale didn’t rank among the Jays’ best prospects, as one would expect for a recent 37th-rounder who didn’t pitch in 2020. However, the Marlins are parting with an outfielder they’ve deemed superfluous and a right-hander they acquired from the Indians this past winter in exchange for cash ($100K, to be exact). Saving some of Dickerson’s salary and adding a pitcher who’s performed well at the Double-A level seems like a solid outcome to the whole gambit for them. As for the Jays, they’re effectively purchasing an experienced righty and rolling the dice on a veteran hitter with a strong track record against right-handed pitching. It’s not the flashiest of trades we’ll see this summer, but it’s one that ultimately feels fairly sensible for both clubs — even if it looks a little odd at first glance.
Craig Mish of the Miami Herald first reported that Dickerson was being traded to the Blue Jays and that the Marlins were sending some cash (all Twitter links). MLB Network’s Jon Heyman then added that Cimber, Panik and a Jays minor league pitcher were in the swap. The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath first reported McInvale’s inclusion. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported (via Twitter) the Marlins’ inclusion of salary.
Ng: Marlins Have Begun Extension Talks With Starling Marte
The Marlins have been in talks with outfielder Starling Marté about a potential contract extension, general manager Kim Ng told reporters (including Craig Mish of SportsGrid) this afternoon. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t elaborate on how far along those discussions were or handicap their odds of ultimately resulting in a deal.
Nevertheless, the presence of any midseason talks with Marté are notable, given Ng’s prior comments. Earlier this month, she told reporters the team hadn’t approached the star outfielder about a potential long-term deal. Marté suggested then that his preference was to come to an agreement with the Marlins on a contract that took him through the end of his career. It seems the front office and his representatives at Rep 1 Baseball have now at least opened those talks.
Marté is on track to hit free agency at the end of the season, and he’s presently amidst a career year at the plate. He’s hitting .293/.402/.473 with six home runs across 179 plate appearances. The resulting 148 wRC+ is the best mark of his nine-plus seasons. Excepting 2017, Marté has been an above-average hitter in every year of his career, but he’s getting on base at an unprecedented level this season.
Before 2021, Marté had never drawn walks in more than 6.1% of his plate appearances. This year, he’s bumped his walk rate to a stellar 13.4%. That seems to reflect a deliberate decision to be more patient, as the right-handed hitter is swinging at a career-low 46.5% of pitches he sees. (He’s also swinging less often than ever at pitches outside the strike zone). That increased selectiveness hasn’t resulted in any sort of uptick in strikeouts or impacted his power potential.
Marté presents something of a tricky evaluation for the Marlins (or potential free agent suitors). He’s always been productive, but he looks to have revamped his approach nearly a decade into his career. Whether he’ll continue to be this patient after such a long run of being a highly-aggressive hitter is unknown.
There’s also the matter of Marté’s age to consider. He turns 33 years old in October, which could give Miami some pause. He hasn’t shown much sign of slowing down, though. Marté’s not quite as fast as he was in his 20’s, but he still has 86th-percentile peak speed, according to Statcast. His defensive metrics in center field remain positive. And his rate of hard hit balls (those that leave the bat over 95 MPH) is at 36.2%, right in line with his career mark. A handful of mishits have brought down his average exit velocity to a career-worst 85.6 MPH, but there’s no indication he’s suffered any sort of drop in bat speed or raw power.
If Marté and the Marlins don’t make progress on an extension in the coming weeks, he’d be one of the more obvious trade chips on the market. At 33-44, the Marlins don’t look likely to contend in 2021. They’re planning to move some of their impending free agents, a process they began this morning by sending outfielder Corey Dickerson (along with controllable reliever Adam Cimber) to the Blue Jays. As perhaps the premier center fielder who could be available, Marté would draw no shortage of interest, especially since he’s only due the balance of an affordable $12.5MM salary for the remainder of the season. The Marlins could offer Marté a qualifying offer if they hold onto him until the end of the year but don’t agree on an extension, but the value of a midseason trade package seems likely to exceed that of a compensatory draft pick.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas would also draw plenty of interest from contenders if made available, but it doesn’t seem the Marlins are particularly eager to move him. Ng suggested (via Mish) that Rojas was more likely than not to remain in Miami past the July 30 trade deadline. His contract contains a $5.5MM option for 2022 that vests if he accrues 500 plate appearances this season. He’ll need a manageable 271 trips to the plate over Miami’s final 85 games (3.19 PA per game) to lock in that money, although it seems likely the Marlins would exercise the option even if it doesn’t vest.
Rojas is a beloved member of the clubhouse who’s amidst a third consecutive productive season. The 32-year-old is hitting a league average .256/.328/.406 this year while playing quality defense at shortstop. That’s valuable enough even before considering his off-field importance to the organization.