Offishial News, 2/3/24: Why Jazz Chisholm Jr., Jon Berti missed Marlins FanFest

Offishial News articles typically run Monday-Friday, but because I flaked on it this past Friday, I'm making up for it today.

🔹 Friday's Caribbean Series scores: Panamá beat Curacao, 7-3; Dominican Republic beat Nicaragua, 5-4; and Puerto Rico beat México, 2-0. Christian Bethancourt (PAN) went 1-for-5. Former Marlins pitchers Alex Sanabia (PUR) and Odrisamer Despaigne (MEX) started against one another in the late game. Fish On First's Kevin Barral is practically living at LoanDepot Park over the next week to bring you the best possible tournament coverage. Follow him for live updates.

🔹 Sam Mondry-Cohen is the Marlins' latest front office hire, per Craig Mish of SportsGrid. He's their new vice president of player personnel where he'll be using his analytics background to "standardize their evaluation process at all level."

🔹 The Marlins FanFest absences of Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Jon Berti were due to visa issues and a pending childbirth, respectively, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Chisholm's issue was resolved on Monday and the Bertis are expecting a baby girl later this month. Also within Jackson's article: all of last season's Bally Sports Florida analysts—Tommy Hutton, Rod Allen, Gaby Sanchez and Jeff Nelson—are coming back in 2024.

 🔹 I put together a hypothetical trade proposal centered around Willy Adames and Trevor Rogers. The early feedback has been relatively positive from fans of both teams!

🔹 Elsewhere around baseball, Alex Wood (1/$8.5M) signed with the Athletics, Carlos Santana (1/$5.25M) signed with the Twins, Jake Diekman (1/$4M) and Shintaro Fujinami (1/$3.35M) signed with the Mets, Kevin Pillar (minor league deal) signed with the White Sox and the Giants traded Ross Stripling to the Athletics.

 🔹 Glenn Geffner's View from the Bleachers points to Jorge Soler and J.D. Martinez as still-available free agents bats that the Marlins must considering signing "if you’re serious about putting a competitive lineup out there in 2024." I'm not as enthusiastic about paying market value for a DH-only player, but Martinez in particular is a candidate for a one-year deal. That'd be the better fit.

🔹 Ozzie Guillén's family caused a commotion when arriving at LoanDepot Park on Thursday. He was initially critical of the Marlins organization for mishandling the situation, but has now specifically called out Marlins director of security Todd Metro.

🔹 Happy birthday to Skip Schumaker. Entering his second season as Marlins manager, Schumaker turns 44 today.

🔹 New Era has come out with a new collection of "Clubhouse" hats for each MLB team, available in fitted, flex fit and adjustable styles. Here are the Marlins products. The generic sales pitch reads, "The classic Miami Marlins graphics will make you feel like you're in the clubhouse with your squad." Uh, okay?