Offishial news, 11/6/23: POBO Peter Bendix; options declined

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• Sunday's AFL/winter ball notes: 3B Jacob Berry, SS Nasim Nuñez and RHP Ike Buxton each participated in the Fall Stars Game. The American League team won, 6-3. In the Dominican Republic, 1B Jerar Encarnación went 3-for-5 with a home run, RF Dane Myers went 2-for-4 with a game-winning RBI hit by pitch, and LHP Jefry Yan made a scoreless relief appearance.

• The Marlins just announced Peter Bendix as their new president of baseball operations, as had been widely reported on Sunday. Bendix spent essentially his entire baseball career in the Rays organization, ascending from intern to No. 2 decision-maker during his 15 seasons there. At the relatively young age of 38, he's now the No. 1 person in Miami's front office. The vast majority of our Twitter audience says they had never heard of Bendix prior to Sunday, but an even higher percentage of our website audience likes the hire.

• While the Bendix news was spreading, the Marlins (as expected) declined their 2024 club options on Johnny Cueto and Matt Barnes. They're receiving buyouts of $2.5M and $2.75M, respectively—those payments count toward the 2024 payroll.

• Elsewhere around baseball, Gold Glove award winners were announced. Zack Wheeler took home the hardware for National League pitchers (Jesús Luzardo was a finalist at that position).

• The Marlins have one more contract option to make a decision on today: Jon Berti's $3.625M club option. Even if they turn it down, he'll remain with the organization entering his third year of arbitration eligibility. Today is also the deadline to extend a $20.325M qualifying offer to Jorge Soler. I recommend that they do it—Soler is highly likely to decline, at which point the Marlins would be entitled to a compensatory 2024 draft pick once he signs elsewhere.

• Roster moves are on the horizon, too. Today's the deadline to activate players from the 60-day injured list. For the Marlins, that means re-adding Trevor Rogers, Max Meyer, Anthony Bender and potentially Tommy Nance to their 40-man roster. Nance is a candidate to be waived, though the Marlins have ample space for him on their 40-man, so they can kick that can down the road.

• Our 2023 Marlins Season Review series keeps expanding. One more week until we fully turn the page to 2024. Check back daily for more articles from the FOF staff.

Graphic courtesy of Miami Marlins