Marlins continue fortifying infield depth by signing Gurriel, Iglesias to minor-league deals
The Miami Marlins have long been linked to veteran infielders Yuli Gurriel and Jose Iglesias this offseason.
Now, the duo is heading to Marlins’ spring training.
The Marlins are signing both Gurriel and Iglesias to minor-league deals, a source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Thursday. The deals have not yet been officially announced.
The moves continue to fortify the Marlins’ infield. Gurriel now gives the Marlins a second true first baseman along with Garrett Cooper, while Isglesias has played shortstop for 11 MLB seasons and can be a platoon player with Joey Wendle. Prior to the acquisitions, Miami’s likely backup first baseman was going to be Jordan Groshans, who was just starting to learn the position this spring. Superutility player Jon Berti, who led MLB in stolen bases last season, was going to back up all three of the other infield spots.
The rest of Miami’s infield includes Luis Arraez and Jean Segura, both of whom were also acquired this offseason.
Gurriel, who turns 39 in June, has played 801 career games over seven MLB seasons, all with the Houston Astros. He was part of two World Series teams (2017 and 2022) and is a career .284 hitter with a .776 on-base-plus-slugging mark, 94 home runs, 435 RBI and 400 runs scored. He won the American League batting title and a Gold Glove Award in 2021.
He had a drop-off in 2022, posting a .242 batting average, .288 on-base percentage and .360 slugging slash line in 146 games — all three single-season lows among his five seasons he played at least 136 games.
Iglesias, who turned 33 in January, is a career .279 hitter with a .701 OPS, 47 home runs, 366 RBI and 438 runs scored. His .292 average last season was the third-highest of his career of the season’s in which he played 100 games. The .708 OPS was fourth.
And both fit the same batting profile as their other offseason acquisitions in Arraez and Segura: Players who make steady contact and can get on base.
Gurriel has a career strikeout rate of just 11.2 percent — well below the league average of 22.1 percent — and his batted ball profile, according to Statcast, mirrors the league average (42.3 percent ground balls, 25.6 percent line drives, 22.5 percent fly balls, 9.6 percent pop-ups).
Iglesias has a career strikeout rate of 12.4 percent and swing-and-miss rate of 13.9 percent (MLB average is 24.7 percent).
While they don’t count against the 40-man roster just yet, Miami can easily open up to three spots by placing pitchers Anthony Bender (Tommy John surgery), Max Meyer (Tommy John surgery) and Nic Enright (Hodgkin’s lymphoma) on the 60-day injured list.
This story may be updated.
This story was originally published March 9, 2023 at 7:42 PM.
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