How much total value Marlins acquired, sent away in 2024 trades

Several times throughout their history, the Miami Marlins have seized control of a seller's market, making numerous trades in quick succession that push back their competition timeline in pursuit of a long-term objective. It was not immediately clear what direction Peter Bendix would steer the franchise upon being hired in November 2023, but he began following that familiar script soon after the start of Miami's disastrous 2024 campaign. While it's way too soon to draw conclusions based on the results, now's an appropriate time to reflect on a hyperactive year and try to quantity what the Marlins parted with compared to what they received in return.

Baseball Trade Values got a bad rap in the early 2020s when wishful fans constantly concocted and screenshotted proposals using the free-at-the-time trade simulator to make their favorite teams substantially better without accounting for the desires of the other team(s). But all things considered, BTV does a nice job of appraising major leaguers and minor leaguers with the same currency (surplus trade value, expressed in millions of dollars).

The BTV model acknowledges the inexactitude of its player valuations. A lot of information about players isn't publicly available, so their site publishes a low, median and high estimate for each of them. The high value is typically 50% above the low. When a trade is reported, they'll tweet out the median estimates of the assets involved (examples here).

The following list includes all of the substantial trades made by the Marlins during the past calendar year, meaning those that sent players in both directions as well as the Josh Bell partial salary dump. In a few cases (denoted by ???), traded minor leaguers were not previously in BTV's system because they were unranked by public prospect evaluators. Let's count them as $0.5 million apiece.

2024 Marlins trade activity summary

-February 11 (MIA/MIN)—Marlins acquired Nick Gordon ($0.2M surplus trade value) for Steven Okert ($3.5M)

-March 27 (MIA/NYY/TB)—Marlins acquired Shane Sasaki ($1.3M) and John Cruz ($1.9M) for Jon Berti ($4.7M)

-April 6 (MIA/HOU)—Marlins acquired Valente Bellozo (???) and cash considerations for Jacob Amaya ($2.6M)

-May 4 (MIA/SD)—Marlins acquired Dillon Head ($8.9M), Jakob Marsee ($5.7M), Nathan Martorella ($4.2M) and Woo-Suk Go ($0.7M) for Luis Arraez ($5.3M) and cash (approx. $7.9M)

-July 25 (MIA/AZ)—Marlins acquired Deyvison De Los Santos ($8.0M) and Andrew Pintar ($2.5M) for A.J. Puk ($8.2M)

-July 27 (MIA/NYY)—Marlins acquired Agustín Ramírez ($11.1M), Jared Serna ($5.6M) and Abrahan Ramírez (???) for Jazz Chisholm Jr. ($33.6M)

-July 30 (MIA/BAL)—Marlins acquired Connor Norby ($10.1M) and Kyle Stowers ($0.1M) for Trevor Rogers ($18.0M)

-July 30 (MIA/AZ)—Marlins acquired cash considerations for Josh Bell (-$4.7M) and cash (approx. $3.6M)

-July 30 (MIA/SEA)—Marlins acquired Will Schomberg (???) for JT Chargois (-$0.4M)

-July 30 (MIA/SD)—Marlins acquired Robby Snelling ($10.6M), Adam Mazur ($8.0M), Graham Pauley ($6.0M) and Jay Beshears ($1.1M) for Tanner Scott ($5.5M) and Bryan Hoeing ($0.1M)

-July 30 (MIA/PIT)—Marlins acquired Garret Forrester ($1.1M) and Jun-Seok Shim ($0.8M) for Bryan De La Cruz ($3.2M)

-July 30 (MIA/NYM)—Marlins acquired Wilfredo Lara ($0.5M) for Huascar Brazoban ($8.3M)

-December 11 (MIA/TEX)—Marlins acquired Echedry Vargas ($7.3M), Max Acosta ($2.4M) and Brayan Mendoza ($0.7M) for Jake Burger ($11.0M)

-December 22 (MIA/PHI)—Marlins acquired Starlyn Caba ($22.2M) and Emaarion Boyd ($0.9M) for Jesús Luzardo ($21.9M) and Paul McIntosh ($0.8M)

-December 29 (MIA/CHC)—Marlins acquired Matt Mervis ($0.4M) and cash considerations for Vidal Bruján ($0.0M)

Some of the Marlins' trades were "rejected" by the BTV model at the time—they got too much in return for Scott/Hoeing and not enough for Chisholm or Rogers. Overall, a total of $132.3 million in surplus value went out and $123.8 million came in.

You could argue that the Marlins made up for that $8.5 million gap with waiver wire acquisitions. While many of those claims amounted to nothing, Otto Lopez and Declan Cronin currently hold a combined $15.1 million in surplus value after being designated for assignment less than a year ago. There's also Jonah Bride ($1.6M), who was acquired for cash considerations.

The vast majority of MLB veterans traded away by the Fish were under club control beyond 2024. A handful of them have since been released anyway due to downturns in their production combined with rising salaries. At least they got something in return for Berti, Chargois, De La Cruz, etc. before it was too late.

As he adds negotiating experience, perhaps Bendix will "fleece" his peers more frequently with the tone and timing of his moves, but ultimately, the key to sustainable winning is player development. Player values change based on projected performance in relation to contracts and years of control. If the Marlins provide their guys with the right coaching guidance and analytical feedback, they'll turn out better than the rest of the industry anticipated.