With Luis Arraez trade pending, Marlins drop series opener to Athletics

[Kevin Barral]

Marlins baseball was still played on Friday night even with Luis Arraez on the verge of being traded to the Padres. Miami dropped to 9-25 on the season.

Nine minutes before the start of Friday's game, the first reports surfaced that the Miami Marlins were finalizing a trade to send 2023 National League batting champ Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres in exchange for four prospects. With Arraez scratched from the starting lineup, the Marlins still kicked off a three-game set against the Oakland Athletics with Ryan Weathers taking the mound.

"Nothing's official yet, but one of my favorite players I've ever been around," said Marlins manager Skip Schumaker after the game in regards to the trade. "Pulling him late is not easy for any of us in the clubhouse, but it's part of the business and we understand it's part of this game."

Schumaker received the news about 15 minutes before first pitch through a phone call and had to begin scrambling to set a new lineup and get everything ready.

Expect more detailed comments from Schumaker on Saturday assuming that the trade is completed.

In his seventh start of the season, Weathers went six innings, marking the sixth time that a starting pitcher has gone that deep into a game. It was Weathers' second time doing so. Going with his usual fastball/changeup combo, Weathers did get 13 whiffs, with the changeup responsible for nine of them.

"Thought Weathers was good," said Schumaker. "Slider/changeup was excellent. I thought the command on both of those pitches and swing-and-miss was really good. One tough pitch that he probably wants back, but other than that, six innings, three runs kept us in the game, just couldn't get anything going on the offense."

Compared to his last start, Weathers did use both the fastball and changeup more, shying away from the sweeper. Despite less usage on the sweeper, it did generate three whiffs. All of Weathers strikeouts came on the changeup. Weathers best start still came when his sweeper was the most used pitch in his arsenal, but since then, he's gone away from it.

Weathers' only true mistake came in the bottom of the fourth inning when designated hitter Brent Rooker took the southpaw deep for a two-run homer, giving the Athletics a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Esteury Ruiz was just about to ground out to end the inning, but a misfire from Tim Anderson allowed Max Schuemann to score from third.

That was Rooker's sixth home run of the season. The ball left the bat at 108.3 mph, which ended up being the hardest-hit ball of the game and the distance was 440 ft, also marked as the longest hit ball of the game.

Athletics starter JP Sears went 6 ⅓ shutout innings, striking out six and only giving up four hits.

For the first time in his career, Dane Myers was the lead-off hitter for the Marlins, taking over for Arraez. Myers ended the game with one hit and one walk. "Dane's one of our hottest hitters," said Schumaker. "He's really good against left-handers. Thought there was a good chance that he would get on base a couple times in front of the big boys which he did. I thought he was our best chance to get multiple at-bats because he's our hottest guy." 

In the top of the ninth inning, Vidal Bruján drove in Nick Gordon from first base. Bruján, who got off to a slow start, is now proving to be one of the Marlins' best hitters (127 wRC+ this season). On Friday, he had a three-hit night against Sears, who was cruising against the rest of the Marlins lineup.

It wasn't enough as the Marlins fell by a final score of 3-1. With the loss, that moves the Marlins to 9-25 on the season and 0-1 post-Luis Arraez era.

"I think it's human nature," said Schumaker when asked about how the Arraez news impacted the team's performance. "Arraez is one of our leaders in the clubhouse and great teammate, so of course, I think that it's human nature that there's an initial shock when it happens. When he gets pulled out of the lineup, I think these guys aren't dumb. They know what's going on and I think that the initial shock factor is definitely real." 

The Marlins and A's are back at it on Saturday with Trevor Rogers getting the start at 4:10 p.m. EST. For the Athletics, Paul Blackburn will be taking the mound.

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[THOMAS JOSEPH]

Weathers' six innings surprised and delighted me after the 28-pitch first inning. Well done and more like it. One crushed pitch made the difference, although the Marlins cringingly failed in situational hitting, which continues unabated. DLC's double play with the runner on third and one out set the all-too-familiar tone for the game. Still, we applaud Weathers' work, Luzardo is close to returning (although he might not pitch again for the Marlins, one thinks), and the Arraez move might settle the Burger return roster issue.