Miami Marlins again to explore possibly trading pitching for bats this winter
While we’ve heard the Marlins are willing to spend money to upgrade this offseason, they’re expected to make their most prominent offensive acquisition through the trade market.
The Marlins understand they are in a position of strength this winter with six or seven big-league ready pitchers and a handful more in the minors – prospects who could appeal to a rebuilding team that’s ready to dismantle its roster.
The only two players in the organization that appear to be “untouchable” are Sandy Alcantara and pitching prospect Eury Perez. Among the pitchers the Marlins could potentially dangle this winter:
▪ Edward Cabrera: He entered Sunday having thrown 22 2/3 scoreless innings in his first four starts of the month before relinquishing six runs in 5 ⅔ innings against the Dodgers. He closed August with a 1.90 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 28 ⅓ innings.
Cabrera’s past injury issues would be a deterrent to some teams, but a strong September could put Miami in position to move him for big-league-ready talent. Cabrera’s name was mentioned in trade talks last winter but he wasn’t discussed much before the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
▪ Trevor Rogers: The left-hander has regressed in a big way since coming off his stellar rookie campaign in 2021, when he had a 2.64 ERA in 25 starts.
Yet some teams are said to be interested in the left-hander, who has a 5.85 ERA in 19 starts, with 12 homers allowed in 87 ⅔ innings. Last season, he allowed six homers in 133 innings.
Miami was smart to not “sell low” at the trade deadline. If Rogers remains with the club, he’ll probably need to spend more of his offseason in Florida fine tuning for 2023.
▪ Pablo Lopez: After considering trade offers from the Yankees and Dodgers, the Marlins decided to hold on to him through the end of this season. Beyond that remains unclear. Lopez will be a free agent following the 2024 season.
Miami remains insistent on getting either a position player who can start for them in 2023, or a minor league prospect that’s big-league ready in 2023.
The Yankees and Dodgers were both dangling their secondary hitting prospects in potential deals, and Miami was seeking both organizations’ top hitting prospects in any trade.
As Ken Rosenthal reported, the the Yankees rejected Miami’s offer of Lopez and Miguel Rojas for highly-regarded shortstop prospect Oswald Peraza (.251, 17 homers, 45 RBI in 95 games at Double A) and middle infielder Gleyber Torres (.244, 18 HR, 50 RBI with the Yankees).
▪ The other names, to a degree, that could be considered are both left-handed minor league prospects: Jake Eder and Dax Fulton.
Eder will be limited to about 100-to-125 innings in 2023 after coming off Tommy John surgery but is expected to be in the big leagues at some point next season.
Fulton, who is just 20, recently was promoted to Double A Pensacola, and could be that team’s top starter in 2023. Max Meyer, who recently underwent Tommy John surgery, is well-regarded by the Marlins; he won’t pitch again until the 2024 season.
ONGOING AUDITIONS
The Marlins are doing what they must, giving playing time to four well-regarded young players with tools but low batting averages and on-base percentages.
But trying to figure out - over these next six weeks - whether any among JJ Bleday, Lewin Diaz, Jerar Encarnacion and Peyton Burdick is ready for a prominent 2023 role is a tricky proposition.
Keep in mind that Jesus Sanchez hit .266, with eight homers and 19 RBI in 26 games, all starts, in September and early October last year, convincing everyone that he could be projected as a 2022 starter. We all know how that turned out.
Sanchez hit .205 (.271 on base) in 93 games for the Marlins this season and was jettisoned to Triple A Jacksonville, where he’s hitting .193 in 66 plate appearances, with 18 strikeouts.
If all four of these young players don’t hit in the coming weeks, the Marlins will know they cannot assume any will start for them next season. But even if they hit, is it still difficult to make projections off August and September at-bats?
“It’s a little tough,” manager Don Mattingly said. “You project swings more than anything. You see the swing and you know it can work. You see the approach, that doubles down on what you can see. This league is a tough league and they’re going to keep making adjustments. That’s what happened to Jesus.
“They made an adjustment on him early in the season and once you show a little chink in your armor with today’s video and the way pitching coaches go in and carve you up, things you do and don’t do. That keeps coming until you make the adjustment. That was the message for Jesus when he went down.
“You need to make sure you have a good game plan and and know what he needed to lay off of. That’s the tough part because when they make adjustments, you’ve got to make it back. That happens throughout your career. Once you make that first initial major adjustment, it gets easier if you follow that program.”
Of the four, Bleday is the one that some Marlins people believe has the best chance to be a big league regular. The early returns have been underwhelming (.198 average, .309 on-base, four homers, seven RBI in 123 plate appearances).
“I love how he manages at bats,” Mattingly said. “He does some homework on what the pitcher does. He has a game plan when he walks up there. That’s very evident.
“The thing that would be a negative is at this point he still leaves a lot of balls on the net. He gets himself a good pitch to hit, he’s fouling it back, which tells you he’s got some length in his swing. He has to be able to shorten his swing enough to not leave balls on the net.”
THIS AND THAT
Though the Marlins used outfielder Jerar Encarnacion some at first base in the minors, Mattingly indicated the team isn’t inclined to play him at first in games just yet. He’ll continue to get work at corner outfield spots, with Lewin Diaz and Garrett Cooper handling first base.
If Diaz can’t hit big-league pitching, Encarnacion could get a longer look at first.
“We have talked about Jerar at first, more than anything to get at bats,” Mattingly said. “We want Jerar to get some work over there and get comfortable. It would be unfair to throw him in games at this point. He can play some first. Reports have been that he’s good over there. [But] being good at catching ground balls is different than actually playing that position. Some experience over there would be helpful for him.”
▪ Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.’s contract expires at the end of the season and he has yet to have any conversation about his future with the club.
As we reported, Don Mattingly is non-committal about a return in 2023, (this remains the case) and Stottlemyre told the Herald he will not address or discuss his future in Miami until the end of the season as well, specifically citing himself not wanting to be a distraction.
As we reported last offseason, Stottlemyre battled prostate cancer for most of the 2021 season and kept that secret, to avoid the attention. If Stottlemyre leaves, he will almost assuredly be the most coveted pitching coach on the market this winter.
Herald senior baseball correspondent Craig Mish hosts Fantasy Sports Today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Newswire from 2 to 3 p.m. weekdays on Sportsgrid. Follow him on Twitter at @CraigMish. Follow Barry Jackson at @flasportsbuzz
