Ely Sussman

Two teams squarely in playoff contention exchange right-handed relievers.Shortly after the conclusion of Wednesday's game, the Miami Marlins swapped veteran right-handed relievers with the Minnesota Twins, sending Dylan Floro up north in exchange for Jorge López. The trade is official (first reported by Craig Mish of SportsGrid). The Marlins had a clear need for right-handed bullpen help, but they're giving up one of their best MLB righties in the process of addressing that, and López is actually having a worse 2023 season than Floro. Floro was Miami's best setup man in April. Since then, however, he's had awful results on balls in play, making him untrustworthy in high-leverage situations. Overall, his three seasons for Miami were an unmitigated success (3.32 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 32 SV in 157.1 IP). /analysis/dylan-floro-unlucky-2023-fip-era/ The Puerto Rican López struggled for much of his major league career—toggling between starting and relieving—prior to his 2022 breakout. He was among MLB's elite bullpen arms from April-June of that season, ascending to the closer's role with the Baltimore Orioles. The O's shipped him to the Twins prior to last year's trade deadline. Similar to Floro, López was very successful earlier this year, posting a 0.00 earned run average in April. Things spiraled out of control from there, though. He allowed 15 earned runs in 15 innings from May through mid-June before being placed on the injured list to take care of his mental health. He made eight appearances between that IL stint and this transaction (8.1 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR). https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-04/28/0f28d914-99d07d49-6fffe59d-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Now in his age-30 season, López still has upper-90s fastball velocity and a deep pitch mix. His upside is significantly higher than Floro's. However, his strikeout rate dropped dramatically after leaving Baltimore and has not recovered. Also, after posting one of the league's highest groundball rates last year (58.0 GB%), he's fallen relatively close to the league average (47.7 GB%). Against right-handed batters, López relies heavily on his sinker and slider. Against lefties, he's been going mostly with four-seamers, curveballs and changeups. All five offerings have generated multiple strikeouts for him in 2023. Of course, it's possible that Mel Stottlemyre Jr. and the Marlins coaching staff will suggest changes to this approach given his recent struggles. No doubt an important consideration for the Marlins: López has one more year of arbitration eligibility remaining (Floro was a pending free agent). Floro ($4.2M) and López ($3.53M) are making comparable salaries in 2023. With the trade deadline still six days away, the López acquisition will not preclude the Marlins from continuing to pursue relief help, Craig Mish tweets. Adding to the starting rotation and offense are also priorities. More updates to come...

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Today's Marlins news roundup also includes the unveiling of the 2024 Grapefruit League schedule.Tuesday's GamesMarlins Podcast Episodes Tuesday's Marlins MiLB Notes: Rehabbing with Jacksonville, Avisaíl García went 1-for-3 with a walk and Andrew Nardi struck out two batters during an easy eight-pitch inning of relief. The Hammerheads played their first "home" game in The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Draft picks 1B Brock Vradenburg (2-for-5) and OF Mark Coley (1-for-4, RBI, BB) made their professional debuts. It's been a struggle for RHP Hiroshi Takahashi with the DSL Marlins this season, but he finally had his first scoreless appearance (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K) and earned his first career win.Edward Cabrera's start came undone in the second inning because of a recurring blister issue. The Marlins desperately need him to fill out their rotation at the moment, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to project Cabrera as a starter moving forward considering how frequently blisters impact his control and availability.The Marlins took a flier on Padres LHP José Castillo, acquiring him for cash considerations and optioning him to Jacksonville. "Big Dude" (he's listed at 6'6", 252) possesses a mid-90s fastball and wipeout slider, but injuries have halted his progress for much of the last five seasons. He has a 9.82 ERA, 7.15 FIP and 2.07 WHIP for Triple-A El Paso this year (18.1 IP). Miami's 40-man roster is temporarily full, but the club can easily make room for a newcomer by transferring Matt Barnes to the 60-day injured list at any point. Barnes underwent hip surgery on Tuesday.The 2024 spring training schedule has been announced. We're less than seven months away from the Marlins' Grapefruit League opener against the Cardinals.Elsewhere around the majors, the Dodgers reunited with Kiké Hernández, sending relievers Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman to the Red Sox to complete the trade. Hernández has the lowest fWAR among MLB hitters this season (yes, even worse than Jean Segura). It wasn't pretty, but the Angels prevailed in extra innings to win for the sixth time in their last seven games.The latest episode of reacted to the Castillo trade, Marlins injury updates and the recent history of the Rays dominating the Citrus Series. With chiropractic care and functional health, La Pop takes a preventative approach that optimizes wellness and quality of life for all ages. Find out more here! The Marlins have a 44.4% chance to win their series finale against the Rays, per FanGraphs. Triple-A Jacksonville (7:05 p.m. ET), Low-A Jupiter (doubleheader starting at 4:30 p.m. ET) and FCL Marlins (12:00 p.m. ET) are at home, while Double-A Pensacola (7:35 p.m. ET) and High-A Beloit (11:00 a.m. ET) are on the road.Louis Addeo-Weiss makes the case that bad luck has played a major role in Dylan Floro's disappointing 2023 campaign. Get yourself a three-pack of Marlins friendship bracelets from our partners at FOCO.Marlins Jeopardy returns on Thursday! It's a "Young Experts" special, featuring contestants who weren't even born the last time the Marlins won it all. As usual, we're including your audience questions. Please submit them here.You may have noticed a lot of announcements this season about Marlins players who are expecting new children. This past weekend, there was a group baby shower at LoanDepot Park for the wives of Luis Arraez, Matt Barnes, Jon Berti, Garrett Hampson and Tanner Scott.Photo courtesy of 65josecastillo/Instagram

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With the reigning award winner underperforming this season and no other National League pitcher stepping up, Luzardo is gradually building a case for himself.Editor's Note: I was initially proud of myself for coming up with this article headline. However, it has since come to my attention that "slither" is specifically used to describe snakes and organisms that move similarly to them. The verb isn't applicable to Jesús "Lizard King" Luzardo in any way. I regret the error and hope it does not distract from the content below. I'll begin by saying that there is no comparison between 2022 Sandy Alcantara and 2023 Jesús Luzardo. Hopefully you savored every pitch Alcantara threw en route to becoming the unanimous National League Cy Young award winner because we may never see a campaign like that from a Miami Marlins starting pitcher again. It was a near-perfect blend of run prevention and volume. Fortunately for Luzardo, the NL Cy Young gets presented anew every season. In the lefty's first fully healthy season as an MLB starter, he owns a 3.22 ERA, legitimized by his matching 3.22 FIP, with a 1.15 WHIP in 120.1 IP through 21 starts. With Alcantara and many of the Senior Circuit's most venerable arms falling short of their preseason projections due to ineffectiveness and/or injuries, that's good enough to put Luzardo in the thick of the race. Luzardo had a career day on Sunday, striking out 13 Colorado Rockies batters over seven innings in a game his team absolutely needed to win. Despite an unprecedented workload, the 25-year-old isn't showing any signs of slowing down; on the contrary, he's expanding his pitch mix to stay ahead of his competition. https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-07/23/4ca81b06-1a6e4def-af9af912-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4There is a heavy overlap between the leading Cy Young candidates and the Baseball-Reference wins above replacement leaders. Throughout the past decade, every AL and NL bWAR pitching leader with the exception of 2019 Mike Minor has been a Cy Young finalist in their respective league. Luzardo has a shot to lead the NL in 2023. He enters Tuesday in a tie for third (3.0 bWAR), only looking up at Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers (3.1) and Marcus Stroman of the Chicago Cubs (3.1). Kershaw is on the injured list and will need several weeks to be fully stretched out as a starter again. A pending free agent on a sub-.500 Cubs team, Stroman could potentially be traded out of the NL entirely, and he's been trending in the wrong direction anyway with just one quality start in his last five tries. Tied with Luzardo at 3.0 bWAR, Blake Snell is a trade candidate for the disappointing San Diego Padres for the same reason that Stroman is. I don't see Kershaw, Stroman or Snell as Luzardo's main adversaries, though. Right-handers Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves), Zac Gallen (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Zack Wheeler (Philadelphia Phillies) were among the NL's most dominant starters in 2022. The league's leading strikeout artist on the league's best team, Strider has everybody's attention and his peripherals point to better run prevention moving forward. Unlike Luzardo, Gallen and Wheeler have demonstrated the ability to make 30-plus starts in a single season—you gotta be more confident in them maintaining their success in August and September than Luzardo because of that track record. There are others in striking distance, too. Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom have each repeated as Cy Young winners in the recent past. But to find the last example of different pitchers winning the hardware for the same team in consecutive years, you'd have to go way back to CC Sabathia (2007) and Cliff Lee (2008) of the then-Cleveland Guardians. Assuming that Luzardo starts every fifth Marlins game for the foreseeable future, his upcoming opponents will be the Detroit Tigers (Jul. 30), Texas Rangers (Aug. 4) and Cincinnati Reds (Aug. 9).

Today's Marlins news roundup also includes another domino falling on the reliever trade market.Monday's GamesMarlins Podcast Episodes Monday's Marlins MiLB Notes: Johnny Olmstead became the latest 2023 draft pick to make his professional debut, playing shortstop for the FCL Marlins. Among the many prospects being promoted this week, 1B/3B Jacob Berry and INF Josh Zamora are going from Beloit to Pensacola and 1B Torin Montgomery is filling Berry's shoes in Beloit. I look at June 8 as the inflection point in Berry's season. That is when the former top draft pick began getting reps at first base. In 37 games since then (splitting time between first and third during that stretch), he's slashing .283/.339/.461 (123 wRC+).Statcast has identified a cutter in Jesús Luzardo's pitch mix. He threw the pitch five times on Sunday (all to right-handed batters). You may recall that Braxton Garrett introduced a cutter of his own earlier this season. Luzardo's arsenal previously featured a four-seam fastball, slider, changeup and occasional sinker. Elsewhere around the majors, the Braves traded two pitching prospects to acquire Rockies right-hander Pierce Johnson. According to MLB.com's Mark Feinsand, the Reds are willing to trade 2021 NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India to get controllable starting pitching. The idle Marlins gained ground on all of their primary National League Wild Card competitors thanks to losses by the Phillies, Reds, Giants and Diamondbacks. The Chas McCormick breakout continues as he drove in six runs for the Astros in their win over the Rangers. McCormick became the first hitter to homer against Aroldis Chapman this season. Christian Yelich (Brewers) and Carlos Correa (Twins) had walk-off hits.We’re back with a new episode of Fish On First LIVE, streaming at 5:30 p.m. ET on /Twitch/Twitter. Kevin Barral is credentialed for the series, so he'll provide a live pressbox report from Tropicana Field. Super Subscribers, submit your series predictions before first pitch. With chiropractic care and functional health, La Pop takes a preventative approach that optimizes wellness and quality of life for all ages. Find out more here! The Marlins have a 38.3% chance to win their series opener against the Rays, per FanGraphs. Triple-A Jacksonville (7:05 p.m. ET), Low-A Jupiter (6:30 p.m. ET) and DSL Miami (11:00 a.m. ET) are at home, while Double-A Pensacola (7:35 p.m. ET), High-A Beloit (6:05 p.m. ET) and DSL Marlins (11:00 a.m. ET) are on the road.Here is Kevin's Citrus Series preview.Do you have a business or special cause that you're trying to promote? We are seeking a sponsor for our @MarlinsSpaces account! Somebody we can promote before/during/after each of our Marlins Twitter Spaces. Email Ely.Sussman@gmail.com for more information.Marlins Jeopardy returns on Thursday! It's a "Young Experts" special, featuring contestants who weren't even born the last time the Marlins won it all. As usual, we're including your audience questions. Please submit them here.On this day 20 years ago, scored eight runs in the eighth inning to rally past the Phillies in a pivotal game with playoff implications.Photo by Kevin Barral/Fish On First

Today's Marlins news roundup also includes a Jeimer Candelario rumor.Sunday's Games/game-coverage/marlins-rockies-luis-arraez-walk-off/https://mlb-cuts-diamond.mlb.com/FORGE/2023/2023-07/23/d5ac0ff6-438b466c-4e2b150a-csvm-diamondx64-asset_1280x720_59_16000K.mp4Marlins Podcast Episodes Sunday's Marlins MiLB Notes: 1B Troy Johnston and LHP Patrick Monteverde have been promoted to Pensacola to Jacksonville, Aram Leighton of Just Baseball reports. Simply put, they both had extraordinary production for the Blue Wahoos and deserved to get bumped up earlier. Johnston leads all of Minor League Baseball with 83 RBI this season. LHP Josh Simpson (Jacksonville) made his return from the injured list (1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K). Making a rare start for the Blue Wahoos in right field, OF Victor Mesa Jr. earned two more outfield assists. OF Osiris Johnson (Beloit) had his best game of the season, going 3-for-3 with two walks, two stolen bases and an outfield assist. INF Ian Lewis (Jupiter) hit his third home run of the week; he had only one in 2023 prior to that.The Marlins won a baseball game for the first time in 14 days! Luis Arraez made the difference with the game-tying single in the sixth and the walk-off single in the 10th. Jesús Luzardo established new career highs in strikeouts (13) and pitches (115). However, A.J. Puk's slump continues. He has allowed four home runs in his last seven appearances, all of those in high-leverage situations.Craig Mish of SportsGrid generously joined State of the Fish for two-plus hours of Marlins talk. He reports that part of the Athletics' willingness to trade Puk had to do with their concerns about him pitching effectively on back-to-back days. He believes Miami's main objective entering the trade deadline is to acquire a starting pitcher. The Marlins are willing to add payroll at the deadline, Mish says, but they will be reluctant to take on players who have pricey contracts beyond 2023 (ruling out Nolan Arenado in particular). They don't intend to subtract anybody from their active roster, not even pending free agents. He identifies Jake Eder and Karson Milbrandt as prospects who potential trade partners are showing strong interest in, though he clarifies that the Marlins are not openly "shopping" them. The Marlins' Dominican Summer League teams are being scouted closely, according to Mish. The organization's top DSL performers this season include OF Jancory De La Cruz, OF Daniel Gaitor, INF Erick Lara, INF Fabian López and RHP Elian Serrata. Mish believes that the optioning of Eury Pérez had a negative impact on the vibes in the Marlins clubhouse. He confirms that Pérez has been throwing bullpen sessions in Pensacola (though no game action). He expects Xavier Edwards, who leads the Triple-A International League batting race, to get another call-up in the "next week or so." He's also adamant that Sixto Sánchez will not make it back to the major leagues after three seasons of right shoulder issues.Fish On First Super Subscribers always get speaking priority on State of the Fish, as they did during the Mish special. Please consider joining the club for as little as $3 per month./fish-on-first-updates/super-subscriber-details/The Marlins have targeted Jeimer Candelario of the Nationals and see him as a "perfect fit" for their team, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. Candelario is slashing .254/.333/.474 (116 wRC+) with 2.7 fWAR in 92 games while playing the best third base defense of his career. He's a pending free agent.The Marlins have officially inked their 2023 MLB Draft class. Still another day until the draft pick signing deadline, but as Fish On First previously reported, 18th-rounder LHP Tristan Dietrich will not be joining the organization./mlb-draft/marlins-2023-signings-bonuses/Elsewhere around the majors, Anthony Rizzo snapped the second-longest homerless drought of his career as the Yankees swept a series for the first time since Aaron Judge's toe injury. Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Skip Schumaker congratulated Rolen on Twitter and expressed thanks for teaching him "how to play the right way" when they were teammates on the Cardinals. The Marlins enter this new week with 48.4% playoff odds, per FanGraphs. FCL Marlins (10:00 a.m. ET) and DSL Miami (11:00 a.m. ET) are at home, while DSL Marlins (11:00 a.m. ET) are on the road.Since July 6, Nick Fortes has modified his batting stance, opening up slightly more and raising his bat angle more vertically. Sunday was his first multi-hit game with those adjustments.Do you have a business or special cause that you're trying to promote? We are seeking a sponsor for our @MarlinsSpaces account! Somebody we can promote before/during/after each of our Marlins Twitter Spaces. Email Ely.Sussman@gmail.com for more information.Marlins Jeopardy returns on Thursday! It's a "Young Experts" special, featuring contestants who weren't even born the last time the Marlins won it all. As usual, we're including your audience questions. Please submit them here.Congrats to Marlins alum Dontrelle Willis on his selection to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Hall of Fame.Kyle Bland of Pitcher List created Basemon, which translates advanced pitching stats into Pokémon card stats. Sandy Alcantara's closest comp is Pidgeot, Braxton Garrett's is Vileplume, Edward Cabrera's is Persian, A.J Puk's is Mr. Mime, etc. Congrats to Jon Berti and his wife Jill, who announced that they're expecting a baby daughter in February.https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu9r-u8gi_K/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

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