Miami Marlins trade deadline plans much more complicated after recent injuries

Coming into the season, trade deadline plans looked clear enough for the Miami Marlins. 

If Miami was in the race? Aggressively buy, hoping to push the team into the postseason and energize the fanbase.

If things didn't break their way? Aggressively shop Sandy Alcantara, selling off another face of the franchise. 

However, as is often the case with best laid plans, they can go awry in a hurry. Two of Miami's top five prospects have suffered major injuries and a third has struggled all season to stay on the field. On the MLB side, no pitcher has given any indication they can be a reliable ace other than Alcantara. In terms of wins and losses? The team has been maddeningly inconsistent, making it anyone's guess as of right now as to what direction the team should take come midsummer. 

In other words, that once simple equation for the Marlins is now much more complicated, even without bringing any CBA or television money baggage into it.

So what is Miami to do? When it comes to buying or selling, thankfully that decision remains weeks away. Which was always going to be the case given the expanded playoff format. As of this writing, arguably more NL Central teams should be buying than teams in the entirety of the American League. Plenty can and will change between now and late July. But as to what those decisions are going to look like now? Who can Miami afford to move? For my money, there are a few takeaways Fish fans should walk away with.

For starters...the Marlins can't trade another starting pitcher. And I'd argue that goes for any starting pitcher, including Alcantara. Look, the Marlins need to be competitive next year, or they might as well ship the whole thing off to Nashville and change their name to the Grand Ole Ospreys. With Robby Snelling very likely on the shelf and Eury Perez still searching for consistency, it's hard to envision a successful Marlins team in 2026 or 2027 without Sandy leading the way. Even if Thomas White makes a 2003 Dontrelle Willis-like debut later this month, that's still only a pitching Big 3 for Miami. A Big 2 just isn't enough. Plus, as this season's attrition has already shown, pitching depth is a myth. Any flexibility the Marlins had here is gone. 

Of course, that's just what the Marlins should do. At the end of the day, they have less assets to move today than they did when the season started. That's not likely to sit well with Peter Bendix. If the Marlins choose to operate as if MLB isn't about to force them to massively increase their spending, then an argument could be made that rather than the Marlins having zero extra pitchers to trade, that they instead only have one. Which would mean that the chances for Sandy staying in Miami beyond this July just died with Snelling's elbow. 

Most of this talk though has been more sell than buy in nature. If the Marlins go on a run and are in the race, adding on talent is now dicier as well. Long gone is the prospect of flipping an extra pitcher for offensive help. Such a move would now almost assuredly involve a top position player prospect- something you have to imagine this front office would be very loathe to do. At the very least, it's not something they would do lightly, meaning the bar for "being in the race" is probably higher now than it was when they put this roster together back in the offseason. Would the Marlins move Aiva Arquette or Starlyn Caba to add an above average MLB bat? Maybe, maybe not. Yet it's now clear that any significant summer upgrades are going to involve more pieces than the Marlins planned on, and that's a problem for small-market clubs. 

Potentially a deal-breaking one. 

Either way, the Marlins trade deadline just got far more interesting. Time will tell whether or not that's a good thing.