Details on Marlins’ recent player inquiries — those that materialized and those that didn’t
Here’s one thing that will be interesting to watch this season: Whether the Marlins’ Adam Duvall or the Kansas City Royals’ Andrew Benintendi produces bigger numbers.
That’s because the Marlins ultimately had a choice between the two outfielders and opted for the one that didn’t require trade compensation.
According to a source, the Marlins could have had Benintendi as part of a three-team deal that would have involved the Marlins trading a position player, a veteran who isn’t assured of a starting spot.
Instead Miami opted to sign Duvall, who has more pop than Benintendi but much less consistency making contact. Benentendi had a .273 career average, compared with .233 for Duvall.
Benentendi has struck out in 19 percent of his career plate appearances, compared with 27.1 percent for Duvall.
Duvall has the edge in power: 5.2 home runs every 100 plate appearances, compared with 2.4 every 100 for Benentendi.
After the Marlins opted to pursue Duvall instead of accept Boston’s offer, the Red Sox traded Benintendi to the Royals in a deal that sent outfielder Franchy Cordero, pitcher Josh Winckowski and three players to be named later to the Red Sox and outfielder Khalil Lee to the Mets.
Duvall, incidentally, lowered his strikeout rate to 25.8 percent last season. But while his 16 homers were second among National League outfielders, his .237 batting average was tied for 23rd among NL outfield qualifiers.
We hear the Marlins plan to play Duvall 130 to 140 games in right field. He could move to left field if Corey Dickerson is unavailable due to injury or traded at some point this season.
Duvall will make $2 million in 2021, and the Marlins then have an interesting decision: pay him $7 million in 2022 (that’s a mutual team/player option) or buy him out for $3 million.
MORE TRADE FALLOUT
What we heard on Marlins talks involving three other trades, only one of which materialized:
▪ The Marlins had targeted Dodgers right-handed reliever Dylan Floro for more than two months before the teams finally agreed to a deal last Friday.
The holdup — during that time — was the Marlins’ reluctance to give up right-hander Jake Eder, a player the Dodgers coveted.
Eder, the Marlins’ fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, went 4-5 with 4.00 ERA and four saves in three seasons at Vanderbilt, with 105 strikeouts in 92 innings. The Marlins were determined to hold onto Eder, who grew up in Boynton Beach and was very impressive in the Cap Cod League before Miami drafted him.
Last week, the Dodgers finally relented and agreed to take two other pitchers: Alex Vesia and 2020 fifth-round pick Kyle Hurt — in exchange for Floro.
The Marlins like that they have two relievers particularly adept at coaxing ground balls in Eder and side-armer Adam Cimber.
Though there will be competition in camp for all these roles, the likelihood is Cimber and Floro will pitch in the seventh inning of games that the Marlins are leading, tied or narrowly behind; Yimi Garcia will pitch the eighth; and Anthony Bass will be the favorite for the closer’s job.
▪ Though the Marlins also spoke with Baltimore about outfielder Anthony Santander, the deal never got close. The Orioles asked for a highly touted Marlins prospect.
▪ Marlins’ discussions with the Cubs about catcher Willson Contreras also never came close to materializing. The Cubs asked for more than one of the Marlins’ top 20 prospects.
ROSTER CHATTER
Unless MLB and the union come to a last-minute agreement on a universal designated hitter, the Marlins appear to have redundancy on the roster if they retain both Garrett Cooper and Jesus Aguilar, because first base is their primary position.
Though Cooper can play in right field, that position is now filled by Duvall.
But the Marlins — to this point — have shown no willingness to trade Cooper. The Dodgers, Oakland and San Diego are among those that have inquired.
▪ The Marlins still need to create a spot on the 40-man roster for Duvall, whose signing hasn’t been announced. One option under consideration: Placing Rule 5 pickup/right-handed pitcher Zach Pop on a list for players not yet ready for camp because of injury.
▪ One factor that helps outfielder Magneuris Sierra in his bid for a roster spot, beyond his speed and defense in center field: He’s out of minor-league options. So the Marlins cannot send him down again.
▪ Conversely, outfielder Lewis Brinson has one minor-league option remaining, allowing the Marlins to demote him if he bombs this spring.
▪ If you’re handicapping the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation, Sixto Sanchez and Trevor Rogers enter camp as the favorites.
Rogers has two edges, at the moment, over elite right-handed prospect Edward Cabrera: 1) Rogers is left-handed, and there isn’t another lefty in the rotation. 2) Rogers pitched more innings last season than Cabrera, who missed time with shoulder soreness and didn’t appear in a regular-season game for the Marlins.
Building up Cabrera in the minors for at least a couple of months would seem to make sense. But he’s likely to be a key rotation piece long-term.
GO-FUND-ME FALLOUT
Last week, Marlins director of minor-league operations Geoffrey DeGroot had a noble idea: He launched a Go Fund Me page to try to help the 15 members of the Marlins’ baseball operations staff who have been on furlough in recent months.
But there was one problem: DeGroot neither sought nor received permission from management to create a Go Fund Me page. And within hours, the page was down, without explanation.
Former Marlins president David Samson, who was dismissed by Marlins CEO Derek Jeter after the ownership change, tweeted a screen shot of the Go Fund Me page — while it was still active — and it showed manager Don Mattingly making a $1,000 donation.
By all accounts, the Marlins did not discipline DeGroot. They believe his plan was well-intentioned, but the Marlins would have liked if he had asked them first how they all could assist furloughed employees.
Here’s the good news: Those 15 impacted employees are coming off furlough as early as this week. And all furloughed Marlins employees have received benefits during their time away.
Money raised during the brief posting of the Go Fund Me page will be returned to those who donated.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 3:31 PM.
