Offishial News: Padres made 'strong offer' to Marlins for Luis Arraez

[Ely Sussman]

Marlins news roundup for 4/4/24

Player spotlight selection: Luis Arraez

On Wednesday, Avisaíl García had the Marlins' lone extra-base hit. A.J. Puk improved from his previous start, but was still unremarkable (4.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K). In relief of Puk, Burch Smith and Kent Emanuel allowed the game to get out of hand. Nolan Schanuel extended his on-base streak to 35 consecutive games, which is now the longest active streak in Major League Baseball. The Marlins lost, 10-2, for their most lopsided game result of the season thus far, finishing off a winless seven-game homestand.

Down on the farm, Triple-A Jacksonville lost, 6-4. Tristan Gray and Will Banfield each homered for the second night in a row (Banfield's blast was estimated at 436 feet). Jonathan Davis stole his fourth base, one shy of the International League lead. Griffin Conine recorded the hardest-hit ball of the game at 112.2 mph.

Here's more Marlins news and content for you:

🔷 We need to get into the sobering stats about this 0-7 stumble out of the starting gate. The Marlins are the first postseason team in MLB history to kick off the following season with such a lengthy losing streak. They are the 10th team in the Wild Card era to lose seven or more games in a row to begin their campaign—none of the others came remotely close to a winning record at season's end (the best of the bunch finished at 74-88). Miami's minus-27 run differential is only the third-worst in the majors, but considering they were the home team for all of these games and got to face relatively soft competition, that is not much of a silver lining.

 🔷 Ken Rosenthal and Dennis Lin of The Athletic report that the Padres attempted to trade for Luis Arraez during spring training and also coveted Jesús Luzardo. "The Marlins, with the start of the season approaching, feared they could not adequately replace Arraez" (well yeah, duh). The report just states the obvious: if the Marlins continue to be one of MLB's least-competitive teams, they will have a lot of pieces to potentially sell this summer, and Peter Bendix will not shy away from those painful but necessary moves.

 🔷 Glenn Geffner's View from the Bleachers reminds us that things could be much, much worse, retelling the story of the 1988 Baltimore Orioles.

 🔷 Watch the full replay of Fish On First LIVE. SuperSubs still have time to submit predictions for the Marlins vs. Cardinals series. FOF LIVE is presented by Berger & Hicks. If you’ve been injured as a result of somebody else’s negligence, give them a call at (305) 670-7050.

 🔷 Jacob Amaya and Vladimir Gutierrez remain in DFA limbo.

 🔷 My daily player spotlight is dedicated to Arraez, who's slashing just .185/.333/.222 with a 67 wRC+ this season. He had a two-strikeout game on Wednesday (had only two of those in 2023). Even when making contact, the quality of his has been far below his usual standards—Arraez's 13.6% hard-hit rate is half of his career average. The Marlins need him to snap out of it.

 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run as a Dodger. After tossing a no-hitter against them on Monday, the Astros limited the Blue Jays to only one hit in their series finale. The Tigers (4-0) are MLB's last remaining undefeated team, though they will be hard-pressed to keep that going with a doubleheader coming up today at Citi Field.

 🔷 Today's game: the Marlins (probable starter LHP Ryan Weathers) visit the Cardinals (RHP Lance Lynn) at 4:15 p.m. ET. The Marlins have a 42.4% chance to win, per FanGraphs. Several roster moves are expected prior to first pitch, including the activation of recently acquired infielder Emmanuel Rivera.

 

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