Tag Archives: Miami Marlins

December 25, 2025

Short Term Money

The Marlins reportedly bring former Rays closer Pete Fairbanks to Miami on a one-year, $13 million deal:

With a fastball that sits at 97 mph, a well-above-average slider and a cutter that was added midseason in 2025 and graded out as an elite pitch, Fairbanks was expected to draw multiyear interest.
ESPN.com

Fairbanks suffered a huge fall in his strikeout rate between 2023 and 2024. Up until 2023, he average 12.9 K per 9 IP. The last two seasons, that dropped to 8.8 K per 9 IP, with a bit of an uptick in his home run rate as well. A very low opponents BABIP may have hid the decline, so I can see where teams would be reluctant to go long-term with a contract.

The Marlins took advantage of the situation to go with big money short term to see if he works in their bullpen. They are paying him for a little more than one WAR for a season. Fairbanks will get a chance to prove he deserves more than one year, and despite the fall off in Ks, Miami gets a pretty good closer.

We are seeing this a lot with this free agent market. Teams are willing to up the price per WAR for shorter term deals, and so far, players are locking in the bigger money.

September 28, 2025

Singer Stung

Danny Jansen of the Brewers takes Reds starting pitcher Brady Singer deep in the bottom of the fourth inning. The two-run shot gives the Brewers a 3-2 lead.

Luckily for the Reds, the Marlins have scored two runs as they bat in the bottom of the fourth to lead the Mets 2-0. A Mets loss works for the Reds as well.

Update: Javier Sanoja triples to give the Marlins a 3-0 lead.

Update: Xavier Edwards singles in Sanoja, and the Marlins lead 4-0 in the middle of the fourth inning.

Meanwhile, Nick Lodolo of the Reds, on in relief, gave up another run to extend the Brewers lead to 4-2.

September 26, 2025

Mets Slip Again

The Marlins used a six-run fifth inning as the bullpen and defense failed to hold a 2-0 lead, and Miami wins 6-2. That puts the Mets in danger of dropping into a tie with the Reds, who lead the Brewers 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Reds hold the tie-breaker against the Mets, so a win gives the Reds a magic number of two.

Xavier Edwards collected three hits for the Marlins, and Connor Norby hit a pinch-hit two-run homer.

September 24, 2025

Phish Fry

The Phillies set a franchise record with eight home runs in an 11-1 rout of the Marlins. Kyle Schwarber hit two to bring his 2025 total to 56, and Edmundo Sosa added three in his first game back from injury.

The win guarantees the Phillies a first round bye in the wild card round.

August 23, 2025

Blue Jays Boost

Shane Bieber pitched six brilliant innings for Toronto in his return to the majors after a sixteen month absence. He did not allow a run in the two starts before Tommy John surgery, striking out 20 in twelve innings. He allowed one run last night, striking out nine Marlins in six innings to help the Blue Jays to a 5-2 win. I watched the game, and Bieber looked extremely confident on the mound as he blew away the Fish. It looks like the Blue Jays made a good rotation even stronger as they head toward the post-season. Bieber struck out 37 and walked three in his 29 minor league rehab innings.

August 12, 2025

Quick Work

The Mariners beat the Orioles 1-0 in two hours, twenty eight minutes, while the Guardians downed the Marlins 4-3 in two hours, twenty nine minutes. The Mariners won on the road, the Guardians at home, so the 2:28 is even more impressive as the game had an extra half inning. Good to see the games moving along.

August 2, 2025

’94 Comebacks

The two 1994 expansion teams, the Marlins and Rockies, engineered fantastic comebacks Friday night to each put another win on the team record. Miami gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead, and the score stood at 9-4 New York in the bottom of the seventh when the Fish score six runs. The Yankees were not done, however, as they scored three more runs, leading 12-10 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Reliever Camilo Doval gives up three runs in the bottom of the ninth thanks in part by poor fielding and the Marlins walk off with a 13-12 win.

The Pirates scored nine runs in the top of the first inning, and the teams traded runs in the middle innings as the Rockies trailed 16-10 after six innings. Colorado was not done, as they scored two in the eighth and five in the ninth to take the game 17-16. A two run homer by Brenton Doyle sealed the victory.

Neither team is having a great season, but these were games that showed fans they are not quitting.

June 22, 2025

There Was a Third Month

Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins appears to have found his old groove in June. He allowed three runs in six innings on Sunday in a 5-3 win over the Braves. That gives him seven runs allowed in 23 innings this month, with five walks and nineteen strikeouts. That’s good for a 2.74 ERA.

We will see if he can establish length again. Alcantara led the majors by a wide margin in innings pitched from 2021 to 2022. Still, it’s great for the Marlins that they can get six good innings from him again.

June 14, 2025

Multi Openers

The Marlins used three pitchers to face thirteen Washington batters before getting to the long man, Janson Junk. Manager Clayton McCullough didn’t really explain the strategy:

“We knew we were going to need length out of Janson today. We were expecting that, and expecting a quality performance from him. I think, again, to come into the third, get the big double play right away, to leave a runner at third base and then proceed to go through the eighth and hold Washington down, be able to turn it over — I mean, that’s probably the difference in the game today.”
MLB.com

Maybe the Marlins wanted a more tired Washington lineup (the game went last on Friday night) to face the marginal starter. Using him as a long man reliever seems to have made his ERA less junky.

Miami takes the game 4-3.

April 21, 2025

10-4

Max Meyer of the Marlins struck out ten batter through the first four innings against the Reds. He walked none and allowed just two hits, but no runs. The Marlins lead 2-0 going to the top of the fifth inning. Meyer threw just 53 pitches.

Update: Meyer is up to 14 K through six shutout innings. He’s thrown 92 pitches. We’ll see if he comes out for the seventh inning. The Marlins lead 3-0, and Meyer still has not walked a batter.

Update: Meyer is out. Ronny Henriquez starts the seventh with the Marlins leading 3-0.

April 19, 2025

Big Close Games

Three games with at least one team scoring ten runs and a tiny margin of victory took place on Saturday. The Phillies beat the Marlins 11-10, but Miami managed six runs in the top of the ninth inning to make the game close. Jordan Romano of the Phillies saw his ERA balloon to 15.26 after giving up those six runs in two thirds on an inning.

The Nationals held off the Rockies 12-11 after leading 12-2. The Rockies scored eight runs in the seventh inning and one in the ninth. The game ended with the tying run on third base.

The Rays beat the Yankees 10-8 in ten innings. The Yankees were up 8-4 after scoring two runs in the top of the ninth inning, but Devin Williams continued his struggles, giving up all four Rays runs to see his ERA balloon to 9.00. He’s allowed eleven hits and seven walks in eight innings of work. Maybe he should have shaved the beard.

It’s not over until it’s over.

April 17, 2025

Tip Top

The Diamondback came into Thursday’s game against the Marlins with a wide talent gap between the top and bottom of the order. All of the top four slots were hitting for high averages, three of them owned OBPs over .400, and and three of them slugged better than .500. the bottom five mostly struggled in all three categories.

That split held up this afternoon as the top four combined for five hits, five walks, a double and two home runs in the 6-4 win. The bottom five did not collect a hit and drew four walks.

This isn’t a bad way to construct an offense. Keeping the four good hitters together at the top gets them to the plate a little more often, and the team can generate an offensive series. It also gives the five and six hitters plenty of RBI opportunities, especially if they put the ball in play. The DBacks came into the day third in the NL in runs/game, and the six they scored against Miami didn’t hurt that standing.

April 13, 2025

Selective Stowers

Kyle Stowers of the Marlins produced a big day at the plate in the 11-4 win over the Nationals. His three for five with a double gives him a .314/.410/.471 slash line for the season, well above his .223/.289/.352 career averages. His BABIP is through the roof at .441, but his BABIP tended to be good in his short career. The difference is that he dropped his extremely high strikeout rate to something a bit more reasonable. In addition, he’s walking more, and you can see the difference in his plate discipline numbers. He greatly reduced his swings at pitches out of the strike zone while maintaining his in zone rate. That helped his walks, but it also likely means he’s hitting in better counts.

It’s still early in the season, but if Stowers can maintain his improved selectivity at the plate, the Marlins might have a new offensive weapon.

March 27, 2025

He Should be A Great Reliever

The Marlins come back with two runs in the eighth and one in the ninth to defeat the Pirates 5-4. The two runs to tie the game in the eight came off Colin Holderman. While he owns 50 holds, the ten blown saves seem high for someone with that name.

While Holderman owns a good K rate, his high walk rate can hurt. One of his two walks in the inning led to a run.

March 22, 2025

Division Preview, 2025 NL East

The division previews continue with the NL East. To help with evaluations, a crude runs created per game is calculated from Musings Marcels projections for both batters and pitchers. I then average these for the core of the team. The nine position players, the five starting pitchers, and the closer. I weight the pitchers as 90% starters, 10% closer. The selection of players comes from the FanGraphs Roster Resource.

The bottom line is a Core Winning Percentage based on the RC/G of the core batters and core pitchers using the Pythagorean method. You can see the spreadsheet with the data here.

Note that the core winning percentage (CWP) is going to be high, often the core is going to be over .500. We are basically looking at the best players on the team. Don’t take that as a prediction of team winning percentage, take it as a way to compare teams in a division.

Philadelphia Phillies

Position Player RC/G Average: 5.36
Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.11
Core Winning Percentage: .630

The Phillies core offense is now old. Six of the nine projected starters play the season between seasonal ages 32 and 34. The age 32 season is often a turning point, when players who can no longer cut it fall out of the majors. The Marcels build in declines for older players, so the big three of Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Trea Turner get knocked down a bit. That’s a big reason the Phillies offensive core projects to second best in the division. The other three starters are in the middle of their prime years. There are no up an coming hitters starting.

Note that the Phillies rate as the strongest team up the middle. If the Phillies front office does need to find some more offense, it’s easier to fill in corners than up the middle.

The Phillies core pitching staff also projects to second in the division. Wheeler projects to excellent, and everyone else projects to very good. League average RC/G according to the Marcels would be 4.71 RC/G. All five Phillies starters project to below that level. The group as a whole does a great job limiting walks, which makes extra-base hits allowed less damaging.

Philadelphia stood fairly pat after winning the NL East in 2024, and that might cost them the division this season.

Atlanta Braves

Position Player RC/G Average: 5.41
Pitcher RC/G Average: 3.86
Core Winning Percentage: .663

The Braves looked like world beaters going into 2024, but wound up second in the division. Injuries and off-years left them six games behind the Phillies. Often times a great team like the Braves will regress to the mean the next year, and the Marcels pick that up. They rank first in the division in project RC/G for both the batters and the pitchers.

There is also upside for the offense. Jarred Kelenic starts the season in rightfield, but Ronald Acuna Jr. is scheduled to return to the team from his ACL injury in May. He projects to be about two runs a game better than Kelenic. On top of that, the Braves sport five starting hitters in their prime or pre-prime years. That’s another reason to see upside in the offense.

The rotation looks very good, with three of the five starters projecting to below 4.00 RC/G. No other team in the division fields more than one. On top of that, Raisel Iglesias rates as the top closer. I do worry about Chris Sale given his injury history. If would be great if that was finally over.

The downside for the team is that the declines among some of the players were real. Maybe age or slight injuries caught up with them. Maybe the league figured out the right defensive placements or most effective pitches against them. The regression to the mean may need to be helped by adjustments as well.

The Braves, however, look like they have a very good chance of regaining the NL East title.

New York Mets

Position Player RC/G Average: 5.20
Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.52
Core Winning Percentage: .569

The Mets signed Juan Soto, which gives them the player with the best offensive projection in the division. Early injuries, however, have somewhat limited the improvement that Soto brings to the team. Bret Baty, replacing Jeff McNeil at second base, projects to be about one run lower in RC/G. The same is true of Luis Torrens replacing Franciso Alvarez

On the pitching side, injuries to Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea cost them a bit as well. I don’t know that it makes too much difference. While putting in the injured player projections brings the Mets core offense just beyond the Braves at 5.42, they would still rank third in core winning percentage at .611, as the core pitching only drops to 4.28.

The Mets also own the lowest core RC/G up the middle, which makes it tougher to find offense in the middle of the season.

Mets fans should be excited to have Juan Soto in his prime, but don’t get your hopes up too high that this is the season the Mets win the World Series.

Washington Nationals

Position Player RC/G Average: 4.80
Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.89
Core Winning Percentage: .491

I would like to think that getting rid of Patrick Corbin‘s 6.86 RC/G projection would have done more for the Nationals core. The team still comes out with a projected core winning percentage of .491. If the best players on your team can’t bring you over .500, there’s little chance of the team finishing above even.

The good news comes from the age of the batting order. This is a young team, with most of the batters yet to reach their peak age. Only a couple, however, have limited MLB experience, so the projections for most of them are probably pretty good. Dylan Crews and James Wood are the ones to watch to see if they can greatly outperform projections based on limited data.

In looking through the top prospect minor league hitters, there’s not a lot that looks helpful in 2025. The rebuild offensively is taking place slowly.

The core pitching is frankly disappointing. None of the Nationals starters project as an ace. None of them even project to a below 4 RC/G. Again, their better prospect seem a year or two away. This simply looks like another losing season in Washington.

Miami Marlins

Position Player RC/G Average: 4.39
Pitcher RC/G Average: 5.10
Core Winning Percentage: .426

There are two things for Marlins fans to watch in 2025. Xavier Edwards looks like an extraordinary lead-off hitter, and Sandy Alcantara returns to the rotation after his year off due to injury. Alcantara pitched well this spring, so maybe the team owns a ace once again.

The offense is full of prime age players, but they are also inexperienced at the major league level. Inexperienced prime age players screams, “Not that good!” There is probably upside from the projections, but the Marlins need a huge upside to get them to winning. If the talent was really there, these players would have been called up sooner.

On the starting side, Connor Gillispie looks like a solid middle of the rotation guy, but overall team team sports the worst offensive and pitching core in the division. It looks like another long season for Marlins fans.

Predictions

Here is how I see the probabilities of the teams winning the division.

Atlanta Braves 42%
Philadelphia Phillies 38%
New York Mets 15%
Washington Nationals 4%
Miami Marlins 1%

It looks like a tough battle once again between the Braves and the Phillies. With the Mets suffering a number of injuries, they may need to have another great second half to make the post season. Luckily for the top three teams, two poor teams in the division gives them the chance to rack up a lot of wins which might help get two of the runners up wild cards.

March 9, 2025

Team Offense, Miami Marlins

The 2025 series on team offense continues with the Miami Marlins. The Marlins finished twenty seventh in the Majors and last in the National League in 2024 with 3.93 runs scored per game.

This season I am using FanGraphs Roster Resource Depth Charts as the source of default lineups. That Clayton McCullough batting order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections. That information produces the following results (Runs per game):

Best lineup: 4.39
Probable lineup: 4.36
Worst lineup: 4.14
Regressed lineup: 4.19

One problem evaluating the Marlins lineup comes from the lack of major league experience in the batting order. So many of the hitters get regressed to the MLB means for OBP and slugging percentage. Jonah Bride offers a good example. With 565, and two poor seasons in 2022 and 2023 Bride projects to a .322 OBP and a .369 slugging percentage. That’s not a number four hitter. Last season for the Marlins, however, Bride posted a .357 OBP and a .461 slugging percentage, which is much more cleanup hitter.

So the reliability of the Marcels for each hitter is a bit low. The overall picture of the Marlins improving their runs is more likely to be correct. Some players will do better than their projections, some worse, and it may all even out.

I’m not sure how much upside exists, however. While these players are inexperienced, they are not young. Almost all are in their primes, which means they spent a few years in the minor leagues. Great players tend to come up young. So this looks like a better offense for the Marlins than in 2024, but this group is not a long-term solution for the team.

You can see the projections for the teams at this spreadsheet.

Previous posts in this series:

February 17, 2025

Changes, Miami Marlins

The Marlins acquired the following players for their 2025 active roster:

Liam Hicks, catcher
Eric Wagaman, utility
Cal Quantrill, starting pitcher
Ronny Henriquez, relief pitcher

Hicks, a rule five draftee, is the only player on the projected roster with no major league experience.

Note that all of these changes are at the bottom of the roster. Hicks and Wagaman slot in as backups. Quantrill is listed as the fifth starter. Henriquez should be the last man out of the bullpen.

Hicks does have an important strength. He did an excellent job of getting on base in the minor leagues, but with no power. Offensively, he’s a one-dimensional player, but it’s a very good dimension.

Wagaman does power well, but will eat outs. These are not place filling backups, they have a purpose based on the situation.

Quantrill joins Anthony Bender as the oldest players on the roster, both tuning 30 in the last two weeks (Bender is seven days older). Quantrill is a low three-true outcome pitcher, who saw both his walk and home run rates rise the last two seasons. Pitching in Miami should help with the home runs, and that should allow him to throw more in the strike zone. I could see a rebound here to higher WAR season.

Henriquez owns 31 MLB innings. Like Quantrill, he allows the ball to be put in play, limiting both walks and strikeouts. He has started in the minors, so the Marlins could potentially use him as a swingman.

Miami mostly stood pat, as they have a rather young team. It appears they want this group to mature, which keep costs low. Although the moves were on the edges of the roster, they did bring in some talent, and they now have me a bit intrigued for the season. Note the starting nine project to a very low combined fWAR. We’ll see if the front office knows something that the projections haven’t picked up.

November 10, 2024

McCullough Marlins Manager

The Marlins hired Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough as the new Miami manager:

McCullough, 44, spent the past four seasons on Dave Roberts‘ coaching staff in L.A., the last of which ended in a championship. He succeeds Skip Schumaker, who was not brought back at the end of his contract and has since joined the Texas Rangers‘ front office as a senior adviser to president of baseball operations Chris Young.

A career minor league catcher, McCullough managed in the Toronto Blue Jays‘ minor league system from 2007 to 2013, finishing six of those seasons with winning records. He was then hired by the Dodgers as their minor league field coordinator, at which point he worked under current Marlins assistant general manager Gabe Kapler.
ESPN.com

According to the Los Angeles Times:

In addition to his duties as first base coach, McCullough was the Dodgers’ lead outfield coach and responsible for much of their base-stealing strategy. He and Mookie Betts had a good relationship, with Betts calling McCullough “the best coach I’ve ever had” after selecting McCullough to pitch to him in the 2023 home run derby. This year, McCullough was key in Shohei Ohtani’s career-high 59-steal season, going over scouting reports of opposing pitchers’ pickoff tendencies with the $700-million star on a season-long basis.
LATimes.cm

The Marlins owned the second worst base stealing percentage in the NL in 2024, 125 for 168, 74%. The Dodgers led the league at 86% in 159 attempts. Sometimes it’s better to know when to run.

In the end, stealing well does not add that many runs. The Marlins were last in OBP and third from the bottom in slugging percentage. McCullough’s real test will be how he increases those two important measures of offense.

September 29, 2024

Skip Toodle-oo

Skip Schumaker of the Marlins went from manager of the year to without a job in a single season:

The Marlins went 146-178 under Schumaker, who was hired in 2022 as the franchise’s 16th manager. His contract was for two years with a club option for the 2025 season, which the team voided earlier this year.
Chron.com

It seems there are a number of clubs who will be interested in Shumaker as their field leader.

I don’t understand the Marlins. They do some good things, they the second that something goes wrong they let people go and fly off in a different direction.

September 19, 2024

Mr. 50-50

The Dodgers lead the Marlins 14-3 in the top of the eighth inning, and Shohei Ohtani already played a monster of a game. Early on he knocked out two doubles and stole a base, his 50th. He would add another steal before coming to bat in the sixth and seventh inning, homering in both for his 49th and 50th of the season. That puts him all alone in the 50-50 club.

Ohtani came into this game in a bit of an on base slump. Since the start of August he owned a .235 BA with a .298 OBP. Twenty three of his 42 went for extra bases, including sixteen home runs. If this game marks the return of Ohtani as a complete hitter, the Dodgers are looking much better going into the playoffs.

Update: The Dodgers win 20-4 as Ohtani hits a third home run in the game! He’s six for six with 17 total bases. He’s only the seventh player to record at least seventeen total bases in a game.

August 11, 2024

Flame Broiled

Jake Burger of the Marlins continued his hot hitting Sunday afternoon with a three for four game against the Padres, including a home run. That helped Miami take the game 7-6. Burger struggled through his first 66 games, posting a poor .215/.254/.348 slash. Starting July 6th, however he’s slashed .330/.395/.739 with 38 hits, 18 extra base hits, and 30 RBI. It hasn’t helped the Marlins much, since they are 14-17 in that time.

August 4, 2024

Fried Skewered

The Marlins waited out Max Fried of the Braves, drawing five walks against him to go with for hits to put Miami up 5-0 in the Atlanta ace’s return. The Marlins go on to a 7-0 victory. Fried did have a positive, striking out six in his 3 1/3 innings. Still, it seems Fried was rusty against a rather poor lineup.

July 30, 2024

Walker Replacement

The Diamondbacks respond to the injury to Christian Walker by paying the Marlins cash for Josh Bell‘s contract:

Walker has quietly been the second-best first baseman in the game over the past three years. I don’t mean that hyperbolically; he’s second only to Freddie Freeman in WAR over that time period. He’s done it with good offense and outrageous, comically good first base defense. I don’t think I’m selling this enough. Per Statcast, Walker has been 38 outs above average over that time period. Carlos Santana is second… with 17. DRS scores it 33-20 in Walker’s favor, with Matt Olson at 21. However you look at it, Walker is head and shoulders above everyone else at the position.
FanGraphs.com

Basically, no one is going to fill Walker’s shoes. Bell owns a .305 OBP this season, well below his career average of .343. Maybe with a better club he can turn things around.

July 30, 2024

Rogers Flies North

The Orioles acquired pitcher Trevor Rogers from the Marlins:

Miami received second baseman Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers in return, sources told ESPN.

Rogers, 26, is 2-9 with a 4.53, but has gotten better results over his last nine starts, generating a 3.17 ERA. Norby is ranked as the Orioles’ 12th-best overall prospect by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, while Stowers, 26, reached the majors in the past, but has had all but 36 at-bats in the minor leagues this season.
ESPN.com

The article talks about the top teams going through a mid-season malaise, and with all the talk about a Yankees decline, the Orioles haven’t done much better. Coming into today, the teams in first place at the start of July where all at or under .500 for the month, with the Yankees and Mariners falling out of first place.

Norby hit very well at AAA over three seasons, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he helped the Marlins immediately. Stowers great minor league stats for some reason did not translate to the majors, but he never had the chance to establish himself. We’ll see if the Marlins let him play every day to see if he can get in a groove.

July 27, 2024

New York Jazz

There are reports that the Yankees have agreed with the Marlins on a trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the teams had not yet announced the deal.

The Marlins will receive three prospects in return, including 22-year-old catcher Agustin Ramirez, ranked as the Yankees’ third-best prospect, according to Baseball America.
MSN.com

I’m not a huge Chisholm fan, as he does a rather poor job of getting on base, but season to season WARs are better than I thought they would be. Yankee Stadium could enhance his power, so we’ll see. Ramirez looks like a decent hitter for a catcher. He struggled at AAA this season, but struggled at AA last year and then tore it up in 2024.

The story says the Yankees will play him both in centerfield and second base, so it will be interesting to see how the Yankees use him once Stanton comes back. Does Soto go to left and Judge back to right? Might the Yankees move Gleyber Torres? Stay tuned.

Update: The Miami Herald has the other prospects:

ESPN reported the other two prospects coming to the Marlins are infielders Jared Serna and Abrahan Ramirez.
MiamiHerald.com

Ramirez is a teenager in the low minors getting on base at a terrific clip. I’m less impressed with Serna. If the two Ramirezes work out, this might be a very good deal for the Marlins.

July 2, 2024

Anderson Done?

The Miami Marlins designated shortstop Tim Anderson for assignment:

Anderson struggled offensively throughout his 65-game stint in Miami, hitting .214 in 234 at-bats with three extra-base hits.

“It’s never an easy day when you have to DFA one of your everyday players,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said before a series-opening game against Boston. “Tim was awesome in the clubhouse. I didn’t know him before this year and he was one of the harder workers I’ve ever been around.”

Anderson didn’t fulfill the offensive expectations the Marlins anticipated when he signed a one-year free agent deal. The 31-year-old Anderson played his first eight seasons with the Chicago White Sox and batted over .300 four consecutive years. In 2019, Anderson hit .335 and won the AL batting title.
ESPN.com

Anderson produced a solid 3-4 WAR through 2021. His fall was precipitous, going from 4.7 rWAR in 2021 to 1.3 in 2022 to -2.0 in 2023 to -1.2 in half a season this year. He need hand surgery in 2022; his batting stats were good that season up until the injury. Since then, he’s hit like a back-up catcher.

Maybe with some time off, he can figure out if there is something physically wrong he can fix. I suspect some team might take a flier on him; maybe he can morph into a super utility man. It looks to me, however, that a good career is over way too soon.

June 13, 2024

Munoz Mowing Mets

Marlins rookie Roddery Munoz, making his fifth MLB start, just completed five no-hit innings against the Mets. He came into the game allowing just 17 hits in 19 2/3 innings, but eight of those were home runs, leading to a 5.95 ERA. He also walked eleven batters, but only one so far in this game, striking out five.

He owned a high ERA in the minors, so it’s not like he’s coming around after a few starts. He’s thrown 66 pitches.

Jake Burger just homered in the top of the sixth to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

Update: with one out in the sixth inning, Harrison Bader breaks up the no-hitter with an opposite field single right.

Update: Munoz pitched six shutout innings, but J.D. Martinez hits a walk-off, two-run homer to give the Mets a 3-2 win.

May 29, 2024

Chitter Chitter Bang Bang

1 Reply

Jeremiah Estrada of the Padres struck out all three Marlins he faced in the ninth inning of a 4-0 San Diego win on Tuesday. That brought his consecutive strikeout total to 13, the most in the expansion era.

Shildt said Estrada has “an elite fastball, and then tonight he was throwing some splitters that were filthy. … He has a special arm and special stuff.”

Estrada said his primary off-speed pitch is a split-circle change that he calls a “chitter.”
ESPN.com

Beyond the Ks, Estrada greatly reduced his walk rate and home run rate this season, giving him an 0.59 ERA.

May 3, 2024

Suk, Head for Arraez

The Padres and Marlins appear ready to consummate a big deal for Luis Arraez:

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Friday that the Miami Marlins are expected to trade Arráez to the San Diego Padres in exchange for three prospects and a relief pitcher. According to Marlins insider Craig Mish, San Diego will send outfield prospects Dillon Head and Jakob Marsee, first baseman Nathan Martorella and relief pitcher Woo-Suk Go to Miami in the deal.
SI.com

With Xander Bogaerts mired in a terrible season, it would seem that Arraez would slide in as the replacement, although he would be good as DH if Manny Machado moves back to the field permanently. The Marlins give up 2024 early and start rebuilding.

Head is just 19 years old at High A ball. Marsee and Martorellaares an on-base machines. Go is a high K, high walk pitcher from Japan who as doing just okay in the minors.

April 23, 2024

Fried Fish

Max Fried pitched a masterful game against the Marlins, earning a shutout. Fried walked none and stuck out six, allowing just three hits. All the hits were singles. Fried got off to a slow start this season, coming into this game with a 7.71 ERA, with poor K and BB rates. He turned that around tonight.