With baseball back in action, what’s next as the Marlins prepare for 2022 season?
The lockout is over. Baseball is back.
And the Miami Marlins can now resume their work from the start of the offseason as they continue their attempt to get back into baseball relevancy.
“This is shaping up to be an exciting year for the Marlins,” chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman said in a statement released Friday. “Our organization is working hard to finalize our roster as we battle the NL East with one of the best young rotations in the game and an electric lineup I hope you are just as excited as I am to see what the future holds as we continue our progress toward sustained success and a return to the postseason.”
They will do so with some changes at the top of baseball operations. Derek Jeter is out as the club’s CEO, which makes general manager Kim Ng the final decision-maker on the baseball side for the time being.
With the offseason back in full effect, spring training starting on Sunday and Opening Day set for April 7, here’s a look at where things stand for the Marlins and what they hope to accomplish over this next month before the season begins.
What the Marlins have done so far
The Marlins made some significant moves in the final days before the league-imposed lockout of its players that started on Dec. 2 and lasted 99 days and was lifted Thursday night after a new collective bargaining agreement was put in place.
They signed right-handed pitcher Sandy Alcantara, the ace of their rotation, to a five-year, $56 million extension. They signed free agent outfielder Avisail Garcia to a four-year, $53 million deal with an option for a fifth year. And they traded for catcher Jacob Stallings and infielder Joey Wendle. They also previously signed shortstop and de facto team captain Miguel Rojas to a two-year extension earlier in the offseason.
The Marlins’ roster priorities
At a Dec. 1 news conference announcing Garcia’s signing and Alcantara’s extension, Ng intimated the Marlins weren’t done adding to their roster.
Ideally, Miami would like to sign at least one more hitter — an outfielder would make sense in this regard, preferably a center fielder unless the Marlins remain fully confident Garcia can be their regular center fielder. Ng also noted the Marlins would like to get another high-leverage reliever to compete for back-end bullpen duties with the likes of Dylan Floro, Anthony Bass, Anthony Bender, Richard Bleier and potentially Zach Pop.
The Marlins also have to figure out salaries for their nine arbitration-eligible players: first baseman Jesus Aguilar, third baseman Brian Anderson, infielder Jon Berti, Bleier, first baseman/right fielder Garrett Cooper, Floro, right-handed pitcher Elieser Hernandez, right-handed pitcher Pablo Lopez, Stallings and Wendle.
Questions the Marlins need to answer
▪ Who is in the rotation on Opening Day? Alcantara and Trevor Rogers are locks. Barring a trade, Lopez should be in the rotation as well. That leaves two spots for Hernandez, Jesus Luzardo and Edward Cabrera (Sixto Sanchez isn’t expected to be ready to pitch until midseason, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman as he continues a slower-than-expected recovery from shoulder surgery).
Braxton Garrett, Nick Neidert, Cody Poteet and Daniel Castano are secondary candidates and, barring a surprise, will start the season in the minor leagues.
▪ How do the Marlins incorporate Wendle into the lineup? Wendle, a career .274 hitter who bats lefty, plays second base, shortstop and third base. Miami has Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second base, Rojas at shortstop and Anderson at third base. Manager Don Mattingly will find ways to incorporate Wendle into the lineup and gives him a little more freedom to build a lineup based on matchups — Wendle and Chisholm are left-handed hitters, while Rojas and Anderson bat right-handed.
“You can put him at different positions, and we can be flexible with it,” Ng said of Wendle in December. “So I think whenever someone needs a spell — we dealt with a lot of injuries last year — in terms of multidimensionality and flexibility, that is something that we’ve seen the industry go to. So I think he’s a tremendous add for us.”
▪ How will the Marlins utilize the universal designated hitter? The DH will be a benefit to the Marlins, especially since it alleviates one of their bigger roster conundrums. Cooper, one of the Marlins’ top pure hitters when healthy, will likely see the bulk of the time there and can occasionally spell Aguilar at first base. This also could make an easier pathway for first baseman Lewin Diaz to get onto the roster.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 10:12 AM.
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