The Marlins have lengthened their lineup. Fixing their bullpen now becomes top priority.
The Miami Marlins’ goal this offseason has been simple: Get better.
After finishing with a National League-worst 57-105 record in 2019, improvement in 2020 is essentially required.
The latest step in that roster reinforcement came Tuesday when the Marlins officially announced they had signed outfielder Corey Dickerson to a two-year deal. He joins Jonathan Villar and Jesus Aguilar as new bats in a lineup that desperately needed some added pop.
The Marlins finished last in slugging percentage (.375), on-base plus slugging (.673) and home runs (146) in 2019 while also finishing second to last in runs scored (615).
“We wanted to add another bat to our lineup just to give it more depth,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said Tuesday during a teleconferene. “Give it more production. Give it more opportunity to score more runs.”
Just how much could the three new additions help? Consider this:
The trio of Villar, Dickerson and Aguilar, in 1,216 at-bats during the 2019 season, combined to have a .271 batting average, a .461 slugging mark and 48 home runs (one every 25.3 at-bats) last season. All three had at least 12 home runs and 50 RBI, while Dickerson and Villar had .303 and .274 batting averages, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Marlins have nine players on their 40-man roster who took at least 175 at-bats with the team last season: Jorge Alfaro, Brian Anderson, Jon Berti, Lewis Brinson, Garrett Cooper, Austin Dean, Isan Diaz, Harold Ramirez and Miguel Rojas.
Their combined stats last season in 3,014 at-bats: A .256 batting average, a .400 slugging mark and 86 home runs (one every 35.9 at-bats). Anderson, Cooper and Alfaro each drove in at least 50 runs while hitting at least a dozen home runs.
Villar, one of five players to appear in all 162 games last season, stole 40 bases in 2019, the third-highest mark in baseball.
Those nine Marlins regulars together only combined to steal 37 bases.
“There’s no substitute for talent,” Hill said. “We’re extremely excited with the talent that we’ve been able to add at the major-league level that’s going to help us this season.”
With three impact bats signed, the Marlins’ focus down the stretch of the offseason is to continue revamping its bullpen.
To make room for Dickerson on the 40-man roster, the Marlins designated relief pitcher Austin Brice for assignment Tuesday.
Brice, 27, went 1-0 with a 3.43 ERA and 46 strikeouts against 18 walks through 44 2/3 innings last season. He started to emerge as one of the Marlins’ more reliable relievers in the middle of the year, posting a 0.53 ERA (one earned run in 17 innings) during 15 appearances in June and July.
But two separate injuries down the stretch — a right forearm flexor strain in mid July and a right forearm strain in late August less than three weeks after his return — caused for a sluggish finish to the season.
The Marlins since July have waived, designated for assignment or traded six of their primary 11 relief pitchers from last season: Brice, Sergio Romo, Wei-Yin Chen, Tyler Kinley, Nick Anderson and Tayron Guerrero.
The survivors of the bullpen purge, so far, that appeared in at least 20 games for Miami: Jarlin Garcia, Adam Conley, Ryne Stanek, Jeff Brigham and Jose Quijada. Drew Steckenrider, who missed most of 2019 with right elbow inflammation, is still around, too. So are Jose Urena and Elieser Hernandez, who both started and came out of the bullpen in 2019.
The team has also signed former Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Yimi Garcia and selected Washington Nationals prospect Sterling Sharp in the Rule 5 draft.
“There’s still a month left before spring training. We’re not done with our offseason additions,” Hill said. “We’ve added a number of different bullpen looks. ... We’ll continue to try to be opportunistic and add additional pieces to our bullpen before we report to Jupiter next month.
Finalized coaching staff
In addition to signing Dickerson, the Marlins also announced their full coaching staff for the 2020 season.
Three members from last year’s staff have been retained in Mel Stottlemyre Jr., Trey Hillman and Eric Duncan.
The five new additions: bench coach Tim Rowson, first base coach/outfield coach Billy Hatcher, assistant hitting coach Robert Rodriguez, bullpen coach Wellington Cepeda and catching coach Eddy Rodriguez.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 1:18 PM.
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