Ely Sussman

Top hitting, baserunning and defensive plays from shortstop prospect Starlyn Caba during his time with Low-A Clearwater. The Miami Marlins acquired Caba from the Philadelphia Phillies in the Jesús Luzardo trade. View full video

Prior to this, I probably spent too much time thinking about how short the Marlins' hitters are and if the team was doing that intentionally, as if it was some kind of market inefficiency. Adding a 6'4" guy goes against that trend, but it'll still be in the back of my mind as the rest of the offseason plays out.

A big right-handed bat with solid power potential, Wagaman could partially help fill the void left by Jake Burger's departure. Welcome to the Miami Marlins, Eric Wagaman. The 27-year-old former Los Angeles Angel is Miami's first major league free agent signing of the offseason, receiving a one-year split contract as announced by the club on Friday afternoon. Utility man Vidal Bruján was designated for assignment in a corresponding move. The AP reports that Wagaman gets a $770,000 salary if he sticks in the major leagues, slightly above the $760,000 MLB minimum. He'll earn a pro-rated $200,000 salary for any time spent in the minors. He has all three of his minor league options remaining. Wagaman entered the pros in 2017 as a 13th-round draft pick and stayed with the New York Yankees organization through the 2023 season, never topping 88 games played in a single season. The Angels picked him in the minor league phase of last winter's Rule 5 Draft. With health and opportunity on his side, he hit well against Double-A and Triple-A competition (.274/.339/.469, 129 wRC+, 17 HR and 10 SB in 121 G). Wagaman made his MLB debut on September 10 and served as the Angels' everyday third baseman during the final few weeks of the 2024 season (.250/.270/.403, 86 wRC+, 2 HR and 0 SB in 18 G). The Angels non-tendered Wagaman in November and he elected free agency. Wagaman crushed left-handed pitching prior to his call-up, slashing .365/.421/.615 in 114 plate appearances with the platoon advantage. That's probably what the Marlins liked most about him—their offense collectively had a 75 wRC+ versus lefties last season, ahead of only the Chicago White Sox. ujwp7m.mp4 Defensively, Wagaman rarely played anywhere but first base while in the Yankees system. That changed in 2024. From the start of the season through mid-June, he played a combination of first, left field and right field. The hot corner became his primary position during the second half. If Jonah Bride (1B) and Connor Norby (3B) continue to get everyday reps entering 2025 (like they did to close out 2024), Wagaman figures to see most of his action at left, right and DH. If Wagaman works out, he still has all of his club control ahead of him (at least three years away from arbitration eligibility and at least six years away from free agency). As for Bruján, his lone Marlins season (.222/.303/.319, 73 wRC+, 2 HR and 5 SB in 102 G) was the finest of his major league career, but that's not saying much. He made very poor quality of contact and lacked the athleticism or intangibles to compensate for that. His best asset was his versatility, making appearances at every position on the diamond except for catcher. Despite his impressive prospect pedigree, the Dominican switch-hitter is at best a replacement-level player. Prospect Javier Sanoja and minor league signing Ronny Simon are candidates to occupy Bruján's role in 2025. Miami's 40-man roster remains full. View full article

On the Marlins Hot Stove Show, new bench coach Carson Vitale discusses why he expects Miami's 2025 coaching staff to be effective despite their lack of experience. Every member of Clayton McCullough's staff who's been hired so far is age 40 or younger! View full video

Agreed. Only reason I found it to be believable is because Levine went out on a limb to report specific prospect names. Maybe that was just a ploy by Cubs folks to gauge the public reaction to Caissie and Triantos rumors.

It can be a successful approach if you get good pitches to hit and put them in play. The concern for Norby is he didn't have much production on first pitches. He swung 106 total times and only put 28 in play. All the other times, it caused him to fall behind in the count 0-1, which would make anybody more likely to strike out.

It has been a mess. Thankfully, Berry was finally moved off the position. By necessity, they haven't totally closed the door on De Los Santos at 3B (even though he struggles there too). Pauley is close to average at 3B, from what I've seen. Just don't know what to make of his bat.

The same Chicago insider who previously reported that the Cubs were "working hard" to acquire Luzardo provided an update on Wednesday night. The Miami Marlins have been willing to consider trade offers for left-hander Jesús Luzardo ever since Peter Bendix took over their front office, but the latest negotiations involving him recently hit a snag, according to Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. During a radio interview on Wednesday night, Levine said he didn't know what went awry. His best guess is an issue with player physicals may have prevented the Chicago Cubs from continuing to work toward a deal. The Marlins and Cubs were far enough along in talks last weekend to exchange specific prospect names, per Levine. "Marlins want young controllable bat back," he tweeted on Saturday, adding that either outfielder Owen Caissie or second baseman James Triantos would likely be sent to Miami if they could finalize the trade. Caissie is the fourth-ranked Cubs prospect on Baseball America's list and widely regarded as a Top 100 prospect across Major League Baseball. He slashed .278/.375/.472 at Triple-A last season (121 wRC+) with 19 home runs and 11 stolen bases in 127 games. The No. 7 Cubs prospect, Triantos was equally productive offensively at Double-A/Triple-A, though more so because of his contact ability and speed (.300/.346/.427, 123 wRC+, 7 HR, 47 SB in 115 G). Both players are entering their age-22 season. It would be unsurprising if the lumbar stress reaction that sidelined Luzardo for the majority of 2024 complicated the negotiations. The 27-year-old is expected to be full ready for spring training, but he has not pitched in a game since June 16 when his fastball velocity plummeted to 3 mph below his season average. That's why it always seemed more logical for the Marlins to hold onto him entering 2025, at least long enough to make several Grapefruit League appearances and demonstrate he has regained the quality of stuff he previously had. As Sean McCormack wrote about on Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles and Minnesota Twins are among the teams that could potentially pursue Luzardo if the Cubs turn their attention to other pitchers. View full article

"I think Ely is addicted to watching bad baseball." Hard to argue with the data! Covering the Miami Marlins from out of market, I stream all of their games via MLB.TV. Yes, all of them, even throughout the slog that was their 2024 regular season. It was apparent instantly that the Marlins would not be competitive, and as the summer wore on, their major league roster was largely populated by placeholders who were unlikely to have a future with the organization. But no excuses: in the interest of providing thorough coverage, I continued to watch. Every pitch of every Marlins game? Not quite. I would switch over to the radio broadcast if my dog needed to go on a mid-game walk. At least a handful of times, I checked out in the late innings of a blowout. Some commitments I made to family and friends unavoidably overlapped, preventing me from witnessing all 26 of the home runs allowed by Roddery Muñoz. Please forgive me. Actually, only 146 of Miami's 162 games were available to me live on MLB.TV. There were 15 games against the New York Mets and New York Yankees affected by regional blackouts and one against the Cleveland Guardians shown exclusively on FS1. I attended some of those in person and watched the rest on cable. The annual MLB.TV recap that was emailed to me on Wednesday verifies my extensive, borderline unhealthy Marlins viewing habits, stating that I reached my max of 146 games. It was also unsurprising to see all 30 teams included in the recap (select Yankees and Mets games were exempt from blackouts through Roku's series of Sunday broadcasts). However, I was shocked to learn that my next most-streamed team was the 121-loss Chicago White Sox, followed closely by the 101-loss Colorado Rockies. Those were the three very worst MLB teams of 2024. Despite how it looks, I swear, Marcello, I'm not "addicted to watching bad baseball." Without having the hard data to prove it, I'm confident the American League pennant-winning Yankees were really my No. 2 team in terms of total games, somewhere in the 110-125 game range. My routine was to watch the Marlins on my computer on a full-screen setting, at least during the somewhat competitive portions of the game. I regularly watched the Yankees on a second (muted) screen during the many instances when they and the Marlins played at the same time. MLB.TV fails to account for that. If the Marlins game grew dull, I'd often open the stream of another live MLB.TV game and split my screen between the two. The caveat is, I strongly prefer to watch games from the beginning rather than joining midway through. That meant a lot more of my attention devoted to teams playing outside the eastern time zone. Not to pile on the White Sox and Rockies, but I'm unimpressed by their current local television booths. Particularly in Chicago's case, I almost always switched to the video feed of their opponent's TV broadcast for entertainment and informational purposes. Although I watched a ton of bad baseball, at least I wasn't listening as partisan voices attempted to excuse it. Overall, I got a glimpse of more than half of all MLB games that were played in 2024. MLB.TV had me at 1,157 games, which is 47.6% of the 2,430 total, then add on the Yankees and dozens of national TV exclusives that I saw outside of the app. Rest assured, the gap wasn't so large between my viewership of terrible teams compared to the rest of the league. If anybody reading this also accrued way too much MLB.TV mileage last season, feel free to share your recap graphic in the comments. View full article

I gave some thought to that possibility earlier in the year. The complication is coming up with past players like him who've signed extensions. Hitters this early in their career with basically zero power don't get long-term deals, even if they do other things very well. It would be difficult for the two sides to find common ground on his value given the lack of precedent.

I often wonder about the impact those bad results have had on Sherman. He has trusted his baseball people with those investments and they've mostly made the team worse! Duvall might be his "best" example of spending millions on a player and getting something out of it. If there had been more success stories, Sherman might feel differently about where to set payroll.

I admit that during the offseason, Pipeline does a decent job with their list, but I don't respect the fact that they ignore them during the season itself. Causes a lot of confusion with how slow they are to make changes. Fun resource to see names from all 30 teams in one place along with other lists, but that's why I don't recommend taking their rankings seriously.

The unheralded Mendoza was extremely consistent throughout his age-20 season on his way to a shiny 2.32 ERA. Here's a closer look at what makes him unique. Each of the three prospects that the Miami Marlins picked up from the Texas Rangers in the Jake Burger trade are coming off good statistical seasons, none more so than left-hander Brayan Mendoza. Used primarily as a starter (24 G/19 GS), Mendoza posted a 2.32 ERA, 3.43 FIP and .230 BAA in 101 innings pitched. He got a brief taste (10.1 IP) of High-A competition at the end of the year, but he otherwise made all of his appearances at Low-A. Mendoza's earned run average obviously jumps off the page. That was the 11th-lowest mark in Minor League Baseball among all pitchers who tossed at least 100 innings. He did that as a 20-year-old, making him younger than any of the arms ahead of him. That was while taking on doubled the workload of his 2023 season (52.1 IP). Although Mendoza was rarely dominant, he also avoided blow-ups. He did not allow more than three runs in any outing. His worst statistical performance came on June 26 (highlighted below) and there were some extenuating circumstances. The early portion of that game was played through heavy rain. Immediately after Mendoza surrendered a three-run home run, the game went into a delay, ending his day after only 28 pitches. If we were to scratch that from his record, it would lower his ERA to 2.07. Mendoza utilized a four-pitch arsenal in 2024 and was similarly effective against right-handed and left-handed batters. That bodes well for his potential of remaining a starter long term. Shoutout to the Augusta GreenJackets television broadcast for the beautiful center field camera angle. Pitch velocity estimates are a composite of Mendoza's August 2 start at Augusta and June 19 start at Fredericksburg. Four-seam fastball (91-94 mph) V3lYdlpfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X1YxVlZWZ0VEQndVQURsSUJBd0FBQkE4RkFGZ0JVMUVBVUZFQlVWRUJVd29HQmxZQQ==.mp4 Sweeper (79-83 mph) V3lYdlpfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X1Z3RUhBUUJTQXdRQUNGUUxWQUFBVWdKU0FGZ0ZCVmdBQmdNQ1ZBVUdBRkpTQXdOWA==.mp4 Slider (85-88 mph) V3lYdlpfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0JRQUVVUUFNVVZNQVdWUlJVd0FBVndRRkFGa0NWVmNBQVFZQ0FnY0hDQUVIQVFFRg== (1).mp4 Changeup (84-86 mph) V3lYdlpfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0J3WUNCZ0FEQjFNQVd3RlJWd0FBVUFVRkFBQldWMVFBVTF3QUJsRUZDRmRRQmxjRQ==.mp4 There was a significant gap between Mendoza's ERA and FIP, but don't attribute that only to good luck. He consistently induced ground balls last season to limit the damage on balls in play. Using the same 100-inning threshold as I did with ERA, his 52.3 GB% was 21st-highest in the minors. Also, controlling the running game is largely a pitcher skill. With the Venezuelan southpaw on the mound, the Wood Ducks caught runners on 12 of 26 stolen base attempts (46.2%); for all of their other pitchers combined, the caught-stealing rate was about half as high (23.7%). Mendoza's normal delivery is quick to plate, plus he's occasionally willing to slide-step to expedite the process even more. The Rangers were willing to include Mendoza in this trade because of his modest ceiling as a prospect. He's short by MLB pitcher standards at 6'0" with below-average velocity. His control stands out more than his command, meaning the quality of contact against him on pitches in the strike zone could spike against more advanced hitters. As undeniably impressive as his production was in 2024, most of those results came while repeating the level where he spent the 2023 season. All things considered, you can easily make the case that Mendoza deserves to be ranked among the Marlins' Top 30 prospects (he just missed cracking our most recent Fish On First Top 30 update). He's expected to begin his age-21 season in the High-A Beloit starting rotation. Best-case scenario, he gets promoted to Double-A Pensacola midway through the year and forces a tough decision from the club on whether or not to protect him from the 2025 Rule 5 Draft. View full article

The Marlins middle infielders were valuable enough last season as determined by wins above replacement to receive a share of MLB's pre-arbitration bonus pool. Miami Marlins second baseman Otto Lopez and shortstop Xavier Edwards got early Christmas presents from Major League Baseball. As confirmed by the Associated Press on Friday, they took home bonuses of $339,964 and $313,489, respectively, figures that represent approximately half of their base salaries from the 2024 season. These payouts came from the MLB pre-arbitration bonus pool. The $50 million pool was divided among 101 pre-arb players based on a combination of where they finished in end-of-season award voting and how much wins above replacement they accumulated. Both of Miami's bonus recipients were bright spots amid an 100-loss season. Claimed off waivers from the San Francisco Giants in April, Lopez led all Marlins position players in both the FanGraphs (2.5 fWAR) and Baseball-Reference (2.6 bWAR) versions of WAR, thanks in large part to his fielding prowess. After patiently waiting in Triple-A while Tim Anderson stunk it up at shortstop, Edwards (2.2 fWAR/2.0 bWAR) was the club's best all-around offensive player from July onward. 96f9fb7e-af644c3f-8e26a627-csvm-diamondgcp-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4 Combining his bonus and major league salary, Spotrac estimates that Lopez made a cash total of $1,004,290 during this past major league season. Edwards made $918,145. Among the other pre-arb Marlins players, Ryan Weathers and Calvin Faucher came closest to qualifying for their own bonus pool payouts. Lopez and Edwards are still two years away from arbitration eligibility. Barring contract extensions from the Marlins, their salaries will be close to the league minimum in 2025 and 2026, but they'll continue to be eligible for bonuses like this in the meantime. View full article

Cubs have some good young bats to offer. Other teams will make offers too, but this might be the best fit when all is said and done.

The Chicago Cubs are the first team so far this MLB offseason to be credibly linked to Miami Marlins left-hander Jesús Luzardo. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported Friday that they're "showing interest" in trading for Luzardo while separately shopping for a third baseman. The Cubs have four of their starting rotation spots already accounted for with Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, Jameson Taillon and Matthew Boyd (three of whom are also lefties). They just dealt 2024 first-round draft pick Cam Smith to the Houston Astros in the Kyle Tucker blockbuster, but still have sufficient farm system depth to make a competitive offer for Luzardo. Luzardo pitched one of the best games of his major league career when visiting Wrigley Field on August 7, 2022 (7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K). The Marlins and Cubs linked up on a couple tiny transactions earlier this year, with the Fish acquiring Ali Sánchez for cash considerations and claiming Jesús Tinoco off waivers. However, it's been nearly a full decade since they were partners on a substantial trade (Dan Haren for Ivan Piñeyro and Elliot Soto in 2015). View full rumor

In the aftermath of the Jake Burger trade, the Marlins' position player group has an astounding lack of experience and marketability. The foundation of a perennially competitive major league team must include great position players. How can you tell that the Miami Marlins are deep in the wilderness of a rebuild? They don't have a single candidate who you can confidently forecast to become one. On the pitching side, their outlook is more encouraging between the imminent return of Sandy Alcantara, the eventual return of Eury Pérez and the ascension of Thomas White, just to name a few. However, all across MLB, the impact of individual pitchers has been diminished in recent years. Between the frequency of their injuries and the proactive steps taken to prevent said injuries, their workloads have been reduced. It's no coincidence that each of the nine largest contracts in league history have gone to dudes who rake instead of arms who shove (though one unicorn on that list combines the best of both). Meanwhile, none of the Marlins' hitters are under guaranteed contracts beyond the 2025 season. Miami has traded away several extension-worthy players over the past year. Those who remain are frighteningly inconsistent and unestablished. Throughout much of the Bruce Sherman era, the Marlins have struggled to score runs. You've probably seen fans—out of frustration—deride them for fielding a "Triple-A lineup," but that characterization is especially on point right now. I published an updated Opening Day roster projection earlier this week sans Jake Burger. It includes a potential starting lineup that collectively has 38% more career plate appearances against Triple-A competition (6,515) than MLB competition (4,692). To help you digest that, here is a rundown of every position player on the Marlins 40-man roster. Many of them were tasked with repeating AAA at some point rather than quickly matriculating to The Show like great talents typically do. Six of them don't even have MLB experience yet. The two "veterans" of the group (Jesús Sánchez and Nick Fortes) have been below-average hitters by wRC+ during the course of their big league careers. Jesús Sánchez - 1,562 PA in MLB | 500 PA in AAA Nick Fortes - 932 MLB | 272 AAA Jonah Bride - 565 MLB | 731 AAA Vidal Bruján - 550 MLB | 1,016 AAA Derek Hill - 476 MLB | 941 AAA Otto Lopez - 445 MLB | 980 AAA Xavier Edwards - 387 MLB | 952 AAA Kyle Stowers - 340 MLB | 1,047 AAA Connor Norby - 194 MLB | 1,115 AAA Dane Myers - 178 MLB | 390 AAA Griffin Conine - 89 MLB | 528 AAA Jhonny Pereda - 40 MLB | 793 AAA Javier Sanoja - 36 MLB | 492 AAA Graham Pauley - 32 MLB | 321 AAA Deyvison De Los Santos - 0 MLB | 421 AAA Victor Mesa Jr. - 0 MLB | 355 AAA Agustin Ramírez - 0 MLB | 287 AAA Jared Serna - 0 MLB | 23 AAA Max Acosta - 0 MLB | 0 AAA Liam Hicks - 0 MLB | 0 AAA This does not mean that the Marlins are doomed to be shut out every single game. Their batting order was filled with nobodies during the post-trade deadline portion of 2024, yet the offense got better than it had been prior to the deadline. While Burger was their top offensive producer down the stretch, Edwards, Bride and Lopez were close behind. Norby and Conine had exciting flashes, too. It's just such a young unit with few accolades and so much to prove. Most fans (understandably) won't be giving them the benefit of the doubt or investing time and money to watch them. I sympathize with the Marlins' marketing department because it'll be tough to formulate a compelling sales pitch that doesn't revolve around opposing players or non-baseball attractions. The starting pitcher possibilities are alluring (health permitting), but that won't convert prospective customers into season ticket holders—recognizable everyday players move that needle. The Marlins front office still has a few months to fill out the roster with reputable role players. As currently constructed, though, it looks like this season is being devoted to maximizing Sherman's profits and 2026 draft position. View full article