5 interesting names to address the 2024 Marlins' needs

This Miami Marlins offseason began with a jolt when GM Kim Ng exited the organization, replaced by longtime Tampa Bay Rays executive Peter Bendix. Outside of that, it's frankly been a boring ride—aside from arranging a trade with his former co-workers and inking a few minor league deals, Bendix is moving slowly. The Marlins still have work to do if they want to prove 2023 wasn't merely an aberration because their existing roster simply isn't going to cut it.

We headed into this offseason understanding that the Marlins will not pony up the record-breaking dollars required to sign the likes of baseball's unicorn, Shohei Ohtani, or Japan's latest pitching sensation, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Even the free agent tiers directly below them are too inefficient for this club to seriously bid on.

Keeping it realistic, here are a handful of hypothetical signings and trade acquisitions that you may have been overlooking.

SP José Quintana (New York Mets)

Notable 2023 Statistics (age-34 season): 3.57 ERA (118 ERA+), 3.52 FIP, 0.6 HR/9, 1.3 rWAR

Kicking off this thought experiment with a potential trade, the Marlins would have to look within their division to make this one work, but there are many reasons why José Quintana may be worth the time invested.

After a period in the mid-2010's where he was among the more unheralded pitchers in the sport, Quintana experienced a three-year lull from 2019-21 that had many questioning how much longer he'd continue to pitch big league innings. His 5.13 ERA ranked 9th-worst among the 100 pitchers to throw at least 240 innings in that span. He cycled through three different uniforms during those three seasons. A glimmer of hope shining through an otherwise bad ERA was the accompanying 3.99 FIP, a mark that indicated him being closer to the middle of the pack in terms of quality.

Quintana turned the corner in 2022 with 165-plus innings of a career-best 2.93 ERA and 137 ERA+ between Pittsburgh and St. Louis. The Mets committed two years to him before the 2023 season.

A stress fracture in his rib cage limited him to just 13 starts and 75 ⅔ innings in 2023, but when healthy, Quintana proved his 2022 renaissance wasn't merely a flash in the pan. Continuing with his trend of suppressing the long ball, Quintana surrendered just five home runs in his 75-plus innings, good enough for a HR/9 of 0.6. In fact, no pitcher among the 85 to throw at least 240 innings since the start of 2022 has limited the long ball to the degree of Quintana.

Quintana's $13M salary for 2024 is right in line with the likes of recently signed starters Kenta Maeda (2/$24M), Kyle Gibson (1/$10M) and Lance Lynn (1/$12M). The Marlins shouldn't have an issue coming up with the modest trade capital needed to swing a deal—the question is whether the Mets are willing to part with him given their own rotation depth concerns.

Quintana's presence wouldn't completely replace that of the injured Sandy Alcantara, but it could very well fill a majority of the void.

RP Robert Stephenson (Free Agent)

Notable 2023 Statistics (age-30 season): 5.2 H/9, 0.879 WHIP, 13.2 K/9

All roads seem to have led Robert Stephenson to the role of reliever. His brief 22-start tenure as a starting pitcher with the Reds between 2016-18 was anything but remarkable. In 105 ⅔ innings, Stephenson pitched to a 4.77 ERA and lousy 1.61 WHIP. Things would start to look up in 2019 when he struck out 81 over 64 ⅔ frames in his first full-go out of the bullpen, but inconsistencies between 2020-22 undid much of that progress.

Things did not start any easier for him in 2023 either, pitching to a 5.14 ERA in 14 innings out of the gate with Pittsburgh. That was before the Rays acquired Stephenson on June 2. From that point onward, Stephenson's 14.09 K/9 ranked fifth-highest amongst all big league relievers, as did his .194 BABIP.

Stephenson already lays claim to one of the game's elite cut-fastballs. Whether he sustains this elite level of performance given his somewhat concerning 14.3% HR/FB-rate remains to be seen, but he could make for an uncomfortable at-bat out of the Marlins bullpen in 2024. His dominance against right-handed batters is especially enticing for a relief corps that leaned too heavily on southpaws this season.

With MLB Trade Rumors projecting a contract in the ballpark of four years/$36M, Miami ought to be aggressive should they wish to land his services, but hey, maybe the Peter Bendix connection works in their favor here.

OF Austin Meadows (Free Agent)

Notable 2023 Statistics (age-28 season): 6 G, 21 PA, .238 BA, -0.2 rWAR

When Rick Ankiel burst onto the scene as a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1999, scouts and fans alike were drawn to his mid-90's fastball and knee-buckling curveball. Following a disastrous playoff blow-up against the Atlanta Braves in 2000, stardom and all the accompanying glitter began to slip and rust right before Ankiel's eyes, as the anxiety-induced yips almost forced a premature adieu to the game he loved.

To a similar, more contemporary case, we have Austin Meadows, whose once-promising career has been burdened by the grips of mental health strife.

Meadows posted a 125 OPS+ over 1334 PA for the Rays from 2019-21, receiving top-20 MVP votes in both '19 and '21. In that span, he was one of just 19 players with multiple seasons of at least 59 extra-base hits. The Detroit Tigers got just 42 games and 168 PA out of him over the next two seasons.

With such scant volume of playing time to work off of, why and how would Meadows make sense for Miami?

Beyond the mere potential feel-good nature of a Meadows re-blossoming, age matters here. Only turning 29 next May 3, this ought to suggest there's still plenty of good baseball left in that bat of his. And when he was on the field for Detroit—though the presence of his power was absent—Meadows' batted ball data wasn't far off from his usual norms. He still walked 9.5-percent of the time in comparison to his 9.2-percent mark from 2018-21, as too did his line-drive (25.2-to-25.6%) and hard-hit rates (42.3-to-41.4%) land within his usual range. Dare we note that there's another Bendix connection here?

UTIL Christopher Morel (Chicago Cubs)

Notable 2023 Statistics (age-24 season): 26 HR, 50.4 HardHit%, 31% K-rate, -4 Rfield

Christopher Morel feels like a Javier Báez-lite at the plate: you get a lot of swing-and-miss, light-tower power, and flare. Morel also provides positional flexibility similar to the ex-Cubs star. The key distinction is that Báez proved an advanced defender at multiple infield positions, while Morel's issue manifests in the fact that he's not actually good anywhere.

In parts of 83 games played in the outfield, Morel has worth minus-18 runs via total zone and minus-10 defensive runs saved. Pro-rate this production over a full season and Morel would be among MLB's biggest liabilities there. Morel's 282 innings between shortstop and third base have proven similarly disappointing, boasting minus-4 and minus-1 DRS totals, respectively. The one position anomalous to all of these, second base, is occupied on the Marlins by defending NL batting champion Luis Arraez.

That being said, should the Marlins lose out in their bid to re-sign Jorge Soler, Morel could easily slot in at DH and play elsewhere only when his teammates are unavailable to do so. The 24-year-old isn't even arbitration eligible yet and would be under club control through at least 2028.

1B/DH Carlos Santana (Free Agent)

Notable 2023 Statistics (age-37 season): 23 HR, 10.5% BB-rate, 16.8% K-rate, 2.7 rWAR

It's one thing to be considered a very good player. It's another to be considered both very good and often forgotten.

Here's a quick trivia nugget for you; who are the only active players with at least 300 homers, 1,200 walks, and fewer than 1,500 strikeouts? Answer: Carlos Santana...and that's it. Not Hall of Fame-caliber, but that's quite a distinction for the Dominican switch-hitter to hang his hat on.

Santana's knack for above-average power, astute plate discipline and lower-than-normal strikeout rates have always made him a fascinating player to watch, despite never being in that upper echelon of marquee names in the sport. Even as his mid-30's have seen his overall offensive numbers succumb to decline (94 Rbat, 94 OPS+ since 2020), Santana has still struck out just 16.5-percent of the time while walking a nearly equal 13.2-percent of his plate appearances. All of this while still posting a respective .161 ISO over that stretch.

If the Marlins can't pry Morel from Chicago, Santana could slot right in with Josh Bell to create a formidable 1B/DH duo.

Photo by Mike Carlson/MLB Photos