Offishial News: Marlins 'open to trading' Jesús Luzardo (again)

[Ely Sussman]

Today's news roundup also looks ahead to the MLB Draft lottery and Rule 5 draft.

Left-hander Jesús Luzardo is "drawing trade interest," Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported on Monday, and the Marlins are "open" to moving him, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon.

If that sounds familiar, it should: Luzardo was being shopped exactly one year ago at the previous Winter Meetings as well. Back then, though, Luzardo was coming off a great, healthy season and still had three years of club control remaining. His trade value was immense. Once rumors of trade talks subsided, it was not entirely crazy to wonder if the Marlins might try to sign him to a contract extension.

The 27-year-old Luzardo is still plenty desirable, but the Marlins don't have as much leverage this time around. Suitors will expect the Marlins to drop his price tag significantly in the aftermath of a back injury and mediocre results during the 12 starts he made in 2024. I haven't put much thought into Luzardo trade possibilities this offseason because it seems clear that the appropriate course of action is to stand pat long enough for him to re-establish himself as a quality starter, then reassess midway through 2025.

Either way, Luzardo's departure from Miami is a matter of when, not if.

More Marlins news and content below:

🔷 The Marlins granted Mike Baumann his release so that he could sign with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. Good opportunity for Baumann who would've been a DFA candidate leading up to Opening Day anyway. Conveniently, his departure creates some wiggle room on Miami's 40-man roster with the Rule 5 draft looming on Wednesday (clubs cannot participate in the major league phase of the draft if their 40-man is full). Our Marlins Rule 5 preview goes up on the site later today!

🔷 During a 20-minute scrum with reporters at the Winter Meetings (including our own Alex Krutchik), manager Clayton McCullough shared his excitement about Edward Cabrera's potential. McCullough said he still has vacancies on his staff for a first base coach, third base coach, assistant pitching coach and bullpen coach.

🔷 Reacting to Juan Soto's contract details, I wrote about the payroll disparity between the Marlins and Mets.

🔷 The 2025 MLB Draft lottery is being broadcasted tonight on MLB Network/MLB.com at 5:30 p.m. ET. The Marlins and Rockies are tied for the best odds of receiving the No. 1 overall pick (22.45%). There's about an 85% chance of the Fish landing in the top five. The lowest that they could possibly fall is the eighth pick.

🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Phillies signed Jordan Romano (1 YR/$8.5M) and the Tigers have a one-year deal in place with Alex Cobb. Japanese RHP Roki Sasaki has been posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines. He'll be signing with an MLB team as part of the 2025 international free agent class. Dick Allen and Dave Parker were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame via the Classic Baseball Era Committee process. They'll be inducted alongside whichever players make it through the BBWAA ballot (those voting results will be announced next month).

🔷 Join us immediately after the lottery for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE at 6:00 p.m. ET streaming on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook.

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[rurrusuno]

It's inevitable that he'll get traded sooner rather than later. I believe it'll happen by June or July of next year at latest. The Marlins can only hope that he'll have more quality starts so that they can net some better returns from him. 

I don't think we should sign him to a contract extension at this point. Last season was our chance, and we didn't pull the trigger. He needs to get back into his 2023 season form, since that's part of the reason how we propelled into the playoffs. 

[Chad Turner]

Looks like I was right about us trying to trade Jesus and not trading Cabrera.  Luzardo would free up some money and we will get 3 prospects: one good one and 2 mediocre ones.  Thank you Jesus.  

[97and03WorldSeriesChamps]

Unfortunately, that is reality of being a Marlins fan. It's going to be an endless parade of young players that reach different levels of success and failure. The successful ones will be eventually moved regardless of their contract situations. The Fish have shown that they will trade star players they have extended (Yelich) or star players reaching the end of club control (Realmuto). This way of running a team will perhaps yield some success but it seems "soulless." Us Marlins fans will never have our own Judge, Votto, Jeter, Ripkin, Bench, etc... The only Marlins jersey I own is Jose Fernandez's "16."

 

[Ely Sussman]

4 hours ago, 97and03WorldSeriesChamps said:

Unfortunately, that is reality of being a Marlins fan. It's going to be an endless parade of young players that reach different levels of success and failure. The successful ones will be eventually moved regardless of their contract situations.

The possible exceptions to this rule are players that the Marlins makes early commitments to (within the first 2 years of their MLB debut). I think Edwards is the most realistic candidate for that on the current roster. If he takes a step forward as a defensive SS while still earning the league minimum salary, the team would be dumb not to approach him about an extension. The team is cheap, but not dumb.

[Chad Turner]

Ely, do you think the Cubs rumors will come to fruition?  It seems like both clubs just kicked the tires.  

[Slacker Mills]

Wouldn't it be tragic to deal Luzardo now! Early this past season Cub fans were talkling Matt SHaw, Owen Cassie (or whatever his name is) and more for the Marlin lefty. Now the Marlins have no shot at either of them. Dealing Luzardo for anything less than a top prospect or two would be criminal negligence on the part of the Marlins front office.