Why the Miami Marlins decided to designate Wei-Yin Chen for assignment
The decision was solely baseball related, Michael Hill said. The Miami Marlins’ president of baseball operations is thinking toward the future, keeping the rebuild on track and making sure this franchise has a chance to compete in the future.
They had a half-dozen top prospects that they knew they needed to protect from the Rule 5 draft and only five open spots on the 40-man roster.
With that, the Marlins dropped the hammer.
They designated veteran pitcher Wei-Yin Chen — due $22 million in the final year of his contract — for assignment on Wednesday.
“This decision was not about money. It was about building the best and deepest 40-man roster to allow us to compete in 2020 and beyond,” Hill said on a teleconference Wednesday shortly after the move was announced. “That’s our job, to try to manage our roster to the best of our ability and we knew what was involved with Wei-Yin Chen.”
Put another way: The Marlins aren’t holding a roster spot hostage for a player who is not performing up to standard solely because he is owed a bunch of money.
The Marlins signed Chen to a five-year, $80 dollar contract before the 2016 season. The hope was that he would be a serviceable starter like he was for four years with the Baltimore Orioles, with whom he had three double-digit win seasons, started 117 games and had thrown at least 137 innings each season.
They did not get that.
After putting up a 4.96 ERA over 123 1/3 innings in his first year with the Marlins in 2016, Chen was limited to nine games (five starts) in 2017 due to left elbow issues.
Chen struggled again in 2018, going 6-12 with a 4.79 ERA over 133 1/3 innings — and putting together one of the wildest home-road differentials in MLB history (9.27 ERA in 13 road starts, 1.62 ERA in 13 home starts).
Chen was moved to the bullpen for the 2019 season following spring training to allow the Marlins’ rising young starting pitchers to get extended opportunities. The 34-year-old showed some bright spots after a rough start to the season, but for the most part was underwhelming and ultimately limited to mop-up duties as the season progressed. He finished with a 6.59 ERA over 45 relief appearances.
Four seasons, a 5.10 ERA, a -1.4 Wins Above Replacement mark.
“We just felt like as we looked to 2020 and beyond that we have to make tough decisions,” Hill said, “but in the end, we felt like this was the best use of our 40-man roster spots and one that put us in the best position in the near future.”
Designating Chen for assignment, while costly as the Marlins still have to pay him that $22 million, allowed the Marlins to add six of their top-30 prospects to their 40-man roster.
Those players, who are now protected from December’s Rule 5 draft: pitchers Sixto Sanchez (the Marlins’ No. 1 prospect and the No. 23 overall prospect in basaeball according to MLB Pipeline), Edward Cabrera (No. 6 in Marlins organization, No. 99 overall), Nick Neidert (No. 11) and Humberto Mejia (No. 29); shortstop Jazz Chisholm (No. 4 in Marlins organization, No. 54 overall); and first baseman Lewin Diaz (No. 12).
With the exception of Mejia, who finished the season with Class A Advanced Jupiter, all of those prospects figure to be part of the Marlins’ big-league plans over the next two seasons.
“I just think it shows the commitment of this ownership group to building this the right way and protecting and giving us the opportunity to secure our best talent — our talent that’s going to help us not just in the near future, but, as we compete for multiple championships, pieces that we think are going to be right in the mix of it,” Hill said. “... For ownership to give us the flexibility to do that is a tremendous statement and I think it speaks to our commitment to building a sustainable product where we’re not just thinking in the near term. We’re thinking long-term success and long-term depth within our organization.”
The Marlins now have seven days to either outright him to a minor-league affiliate, trade or release him.
“We’ll see if we can find him a new home,” Hill said.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 9:04 PM.
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