Marlins roundup: a trade for pitcher, another heads to a panel, Bendix weighs in
The Marlins continued churning the bottom of their 40-man roster on Tuesday, trading a marginal prospect to the Colorado Rockies for a pitcher who had a bloated ERA at the major- and minor-league levels last season.
Right-hander Bradley Blalock, acquired from Colorado for minor-league pitcher Jake Brooks, made 14 appearances (12 starts) with Colorado in 2025, finished 2-6 with a 9.36 ERA (61 earned runs in 58 2/3 innings). He allowed 85 hits and walked 23 while striking out 27.
The 6-foot-2 right-hander also started 15 games for Triple A Albuquerque last season, finishing 1-5 with an 8.60 ERA in 60 innings, while allowing 83 hits and 35 walks, and striking out 52.
In parts of two major-league seasons with Milwaukee (2024) and Colorado (2024-25), the Conyers, Georgia, native has a 3-9 record, 8.16 ERA (81 ER/89.1 IP), 43 walks, and 47 strikeouts in 21 career appearances. But the Marlins see talent they believe can be extracted.
Blalock was ranked Milwaukee’s No. 18 prospect n 2024, per MLB Pipeline, before being acquired by Colorado in 2024. He was originally selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 32nd round of the 2019 amateur draft out of Grayson High School in Logansville, Georgia.
Brooks, a former 11th-round pick, began last season in High A Beloit before his promotion to Double A Pensacola, making 23 starts between the two levels. He finished the year with an 8-8 record, a 4.33 ERA, allowing 121 hits and 24 walks in 116 innings while striking out 97.
Regarding Blalock, MLBtraderumors.com said his poor numbers last season, to an extent, “can surely be attributed to the perils of pitching at Coors Field” where he has a 10.65 career ERA. But “even Blalock’s underlying metrics have been deeply troubling. In 58 2/3 games last season, Blalock posted a minuscule 9.8% strikeout rate against an 8.4% walk rate that nearly matched the punch outs. That was the lowest K-BB% among pitchers with at least 50 innings last year.”
Blalock would be the longest of long shots to crack a rotation that will include Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez and three among Braxton Garrett, May Meyer, Janson Junk, Adam Mazur, Ryan Gusto and top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling.
The Marlins have shown a willingness to continually churn the bottom of their 40-man roster, taking chances of players who intrigue them but cutting bait quickly when they find someone better.
On the 40-man roster, Blalock replaced right-hander Osvaldo Bido, who was claimed off waivers from the Pirates last weekend after producing a 5.07 ERA in 192 big-league innings over the past three seasons. The Marlins can keep him in the system if he clears waivers.
This and that
▪ Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said new closer Peter Fairbanks — who had 27 saves in 32 chances for the Rays last season and worked with Bendix in Tampa Bay — is “an excellent person, has even more upside than what he’s shown. He’s added a new cutter that has a chance to be really, really good.. He’s the guy in the bullpen. I trust in him to be able to execute that leadership and execute his pitches. A lot of his outs are going to be in the ninth inning but not all of them will be in the ninth inning.”
▪ Reliever Calvin Faucher is the only Marlins player headed to arbitration; he will make either $1.8 million or $2.05 million, to be determined by a panel during the next few weeks.
The Marlins avoided arbitration with Anthony Bender ($2.81 million); Braxton Garrett: ($1.53 million); Max Meyer ($980,000) and Andrew Nardi ($800,000).
▪ The Marlins’ 21-player international signing class included two shortstops who received $1 million: Santiago Solarte and Ronny Munoz.
This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 4:12 PM.
