Ely Sussman

I vividly remember your username! Great to see you again.

That is more an indictment of the Marlins than the draft system, in my opinion. The league has to properly incentivize athletes to play baseball professionally. The majority of early-round picks won't contribute enough to justify their bonuses, but the few who become steady big leaguers turn those into tremendously team-friendly deals.

After the Marlins do their due diligence, maybe they wind up feeling the same way. That's how you get a class like last year where they go significantly underslot in Round 1, except this time, their bonus pool will be several million bucks bigger in order to fill out the class with higher-upside picks.

I hope you're right because I'm not a believer in either of them. Would be pretty redundant to have Bruján and Simon both on the team together, but if the Bruján experiment was clearly over, they could have parted ways with him already. Shaping up instead to be a spring training battle of sorts.

With the start of spring training two months away, these Marlins players are best positioned to crack the initial 26-man active roster. The Miami Marlins leaned even more into their youth movement during the just-completed MLB Winter Meetings. They dealt their most established hitter, Jake Burger, and took a flier on Detroit Tigers prospect Liam Hicks in the Rule 5 Draft. Just like that, one of the Marlins' apparent Opening Day roster locks is out of the picture and they'll have to tweak their 2025 plans to accommodate a neophyte who is obligated to stick in the majors throughout the season (or else be offered back to the Tigers). As a periodic reminder, the MLB active roster consists of 26 players, typically 13 position players and 13 pitchers. Especially for a team in the Marlins' situation, these are not necessarily the 26 best players—the team has to account for factors like Hicks' Rule 5 restrictions and the number of minor league options each individual has left (for example, Vidal Bruján and Derek Hill are out of options). Kevin Barral shared his way-too-early projection in October. Here is Fish On First's first formal update since then, with more to come from myself and other staffers as we gradually approach the March 27 opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Disagree with any aspect of this projection? Feel free to comment with your own. Position Players Default starting lineup: C Nick Fortes, 1B Jonah Bride, 2B Otto Lopez, 3B Connor Norby, SS Xavier Edwards, LF Kyle Stowers, CF Dane Myers, RF Griffin Conine and DH Jesús Sánchez Bench: C Liam Hicks, UTIL Vidal Bruján, UTIL Ronny Simon and OF Derek Hill I was very tempted to make room for Agustín Ramírez. He's ready offensively and there is regular playing time available from the get-go. He could be Miami's primary designated hitter and second-string catcher, with Hicks relegated to third-string catcher and Bride's backup first baseman. However, Ramírez still has a lot to clean up behind the plate. Unless he shows up to camp as a vastly improved receiver and blocker, he could benefit from more Triple-A reps. Also on the outside looking in, Deyvison De Los Santos needs to make better swing decisions. As shiny as his 2024 minor league numbers look, calling him up would be throwing him to the wolves with his current hyper-aggressive approach. Javier Sanoja could provide value to the team with his versatility and excellent contact skills, but barring injuries or a Stowers demotion, he wouldn't be in the lineup consistently. Still only 22 years old, he ought to be playing every day in Jacksonville until there is a cleaner fit. Simon is the lone non-40-man player in my projection. Potential corresponding moves for him include designating Jhonny Pereda for assignment (assuming Hicks makes the club) and transferring Eury Pérez to the 60-day injured list. Pitchers Starting rotation: Sandy Alcantara, Jesús Luzardo, Ryan Weathers, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera Bullpen: Calvin Faucher, Andrew Nardi, Declan Cronin, Jesús Tinoco, Anthony Bender, Anthony Veneziano, Lake Bachar and Xzavion Curry If the Marlins stand pat on the starting pitching front (which is a big "if"), the rotation hierarchy is clear-cut for the early portion of the season while Eury Pérez rehabs from Tommy John surgery. The Triple-A rotation will include Adam Mazur, Robby Snelling, Valente Bellozo and minor league signing Robinson Piña. Max Meyer is a wild card. I urge folks not to overreact to his disappointing 2024 campaign. Most likely, he'll stay stretched out in Jacksonville as well, but he has the ability to earn a spot in the Miami's Opening Day bullpen if the Marlins want to utilize him that way. View full article

Today's news roundup also includes a bunch of other impactful MLB transactions from this past weekend. I've decided to temporarily make Offishial News a weekly series that runs every Monday from now through the start of spring training (when there will once again be articles every single weekday). And what a day to run a new edition in the aftermath of Sunday's four-player trade that sent Jesús Luzardo to the Phillies. 🔷 Since last spring training, a Luzardo trade has just been a matter of "when" rather than "if." The Marlins never seriously engaged in contract extension talks with the talented left-hander despite coming off a great 2023 season, and they were reportedly intent on flipping him for prospects prior to the 2024 trade deadline had he not suffered a back injury. Despite not having appeared in a game since June 16, the Cubs made an aggressive push for Luzardo earlier this month. The Phillies swooped in after that fell through. 🔷 It's the first Marlins/Phillies swap since the J.T. Realmuto blockbuster nearly six years earlier. At least for one season, Luzardo and Realmuto will get to be battery mates. 🔷 The Fish also parted with C/OF Paul McIntosh in the trade. You may recall that McIntosh mashed his way onto the back end of the FOF Top 30 list in the not-too-distant past. However, the Marlins have made it clear how they feel about him, acquiring Agustín Ramírez from the Yankees, selecting Liam Hicks in the Rule 5 Draft and even allowing Jhonny Pereda to cling onto their 40-man roster. Already 27 years old, McIntosh didn't have path to the majors with them in 2025. Wishing all the best to P-Mac. 🔷 The headliner in the Luzardo/McIntosh package is INF Starlyn Caba, who immediately becomes Miami's top position player prospect. Having just turned 19 years old, Caba is a plus runner and potentially elite defender at shortstop. Although he barely hit his own weight for Low-A Clearwater in 2024, he drew more walks than strikeouts. Expect Caba to spend the majority of next season repeating Low-A. 🔷 The Marlins are also buying low on OF Emaarion Boyd. The 21-year-old Mississippian is another speedster who had a .239/.316/.330 slash line (90 wRC+) at High-A. 🔷 Barring further offseason moves, the Marlins should have an intriguing competition for the final spot in their starting rotation, with Sandy Alcantara, Ryan Weathers, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera poised to take the other spots (health permitting). 🔷 Listen here to the instant reaction to the trade, featuring myself and several FOF staffers. 🔷 Peter Bendix said on Sunday that the 2025 Marlins major league coaching staff isn't quite ready to be announced, but we're seemingly nearing the finish line. Alon Leichman will be Miami's assistant pitching coach and assistant pitching director. 🔷 The Savannah Bananas return to loanDepot park from March 1-2 and have already announced that each of their two events have sold out (74,000 combined tickets). It could be a very, very long time before consecutive Marlins home games draw that kind of crowd. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, it was an extremely busy weekend. The Mets re-signed Sean Manaea (3-YR/$75M). The Yankees signed Paul Goldschmidt (1-YR/$12.5M). Rangers and Joc Pedersen have reached an agreement (contract terms not yet known). In what amounts to a corresponding move, Texas dealt Nathaniel Lowe to the Nationals in exchange for Robert Garcia. As a result, old friend Jake Burger is poised to play a lot of first base in 2025. The Guardians traded Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks for Slade Cecconi and a Competitive Balance Round B draft pick, then filled their own 1B void by reuniting with Carlos Santana (1-YR/$12M). Wil Myers announced his retirement. One of the best players in baseball history, Rickey Henderson, died at the age of 65. Marlins podcast episodes View full article

Miami's leading run producer last season and a well-respected clubhouse presence, Burger has been flipped to Texas for three minor leaguers. The Miami Marlins aren't leaving the Winter Meetings without making a splash. Infielder Jake Burger was traded to the Texas Rangers late Tuesday night, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The full prospect package coming back to Miami consists of INF Echedry Vargas, INF Max Acosta and LHP Brayan Mendoza. The Marlins announced the deal on Wednesday morning. In parts of two seasons with the Marlins, Burger slashed .265/.315/.472 with 2.4 fWAR and a team-leading 38 home runs in 190 games. Burger's tenure was successful though streaky. He raked immediately upon joining the Fish in August 2023, and coming out of the 2024 MLB All-Star break, he went on an epic power binge that included 14 homers in 26 games. However, he was ineffective throughout the first half of this past season. His OPS didn't permanently crack .600 until late June and he became a defensive liability at third base (-5 DRS and -5 OAA there). Burger is still pre-arbitration-eligible, so there are no meaningful cost savings associated with this trade. He is under club control through 2028. His departure solidifies Jonah Bride's place on the Marlins Opening Day roster and could also be seen as a vote of confidence in prospect Deyvison De Los Santos whose offensive skill set closely resembles Burger's. Although the Marlins have internal options who have the potential to fill Burger's shoes, they lack his track record and innate leadership ability. Losing him further diminishes their already-minuscule 2025 playoff odds. A trade to Texas reunites Burger with former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker and bench coach Luis Urueta. Schumaker is serving as a senior advisor with the Rangers while Urueta has been hired as Bruce Bochy's bench coach. Echedry Vargas ranked 10th on the 2024 midseason update of Baseball America's Rangers Top 30 prospects list. Max Acosta and Brayan Mendoza were both unranked. MLB Pipeline has added all three to their Marlins Top 30 list, with Vargas ranked 16th, Acosta ranked 17th and Mendoza ranked 29th. Vargas spent his age-19 season in Low-A, slashing .276/.321/.545 with 14 home runs and 29 stolen bases in 97 games. He was being used primarily at shortstop. Acosta, 22, already has a full season of Double-A baseball under his belt. He also performed well in the Arizona Fall League this year, slashing .338/.413/.521 in 20 games. The Rangers selected him to their 40-man roster last month. bGJZMVJfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X1ZRVUVVVlVHWDFBQVhBQUZYZ0FBQlZVRkFBQUVWVkFBVjF3Q0NRc01WQWNEVWxGUw==.mp4 Mendoza is coming off an especially impressive 2024 campaign. The 20-year-old lefty posted a 2.32 ERA across 101 innings at Low-A/High-A, including a 1.92 ERA from June onward. View full article

Reminiscing about Burger's sweet yet brief Marlins stint with highlights of his most majestic homers. View full video

Explaining what the unfortunate results of Tuesday's draft lottery mean for Miami. Coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history, the Miami Marlins had tied for the best odds of winning the 2025 MLB Draft Lottery. But fortune did not favor the Fish on Tuesday as they dropped to seventh in the draft order. Instead, the Washington Nationals received the No. 1 overall pick. They'll be followed by the Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, two teams who finished above .500 in 2024 (the Mariners and Cardinals) jumped ahead of 100-loss Miami. The Marlins had a 22.45% chance of winning the lottery. They were helped by the fact that the league-worst Chicago White Sox weren't eligible to win it this year because they are a revenue sharing payor club that received a lottery pick in the 2024 draft. The Athletics were also ineligible because no team (regardless of revenue sharing status) can receive lottery picks in three consecutive years. Despite those favorable conditions, they were still smitten by the lottery gods. Due to their 2023 postseason berth, the Marlins were not eligible for the lottery last year. They received the 16th overall selection and used it on prep outfielder PJ Morlando. This is the highest first-round draft position that the Fish have had since 2022 when they selected LSU's Jacob Berry with the No. 6 pick. Here is how Baseball America currently ranks the top seven draft-eligible players in the 2025 class, at least one of whom is guaranteed to be on the board when it's Miami's turn to pick: Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M Ethan Holliday, SS, Stillwater HS (OK) Tyler Bremer, RHP, UC Santa Barbara Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona HS (CA) Cam Cannarella, OF, Clemson Xavier Neyens, 3B, Month Vernon HS (WA) In 2024, the seventh overall pick came with a $6,823,700 slot value. That figure should be slightly higher in 2025 and account for close to half of the Marlins' entire bonus pool. More so than falling in the draft order, the reduced pool is the biggest bummer from Miami's perspective. Again using 2024 as an example, the difference between No. 1 and No. 7 was $3,746,900 in slot value, money that could've been utilized in numerous ways to assemble the best possible draft class (it's not reserved specifically for the first-rounder). Picks awarded by the lottery are only adjusted for round one. The order for the rest of the rounds goes by regular season record, so the Marlins will select third in each of those rounds (behind the White Sox and Rockies). The MLB Draft will be held in Atlanta from July 13-15, overlapping with the All-Star break. It'll be Frankie Piliere's second time steering the ship as Marlins director of amateur scouting. View full article

The possible exceptions to this rule are players that the Marlins makes early commitments to (within the first 2 years of their MLB debut). I think Edwards is the most realistic candidate for that on the current roster. If he takes a step forward as a defensive SS while still earning the league minimum salary, the team would be dumb not to approach him about an extension. The team is cheap, but not dumb.

Today's news roundup also looks ahead to the MLB Draft lottery and Rule 5 draft. Left-hander Jesús Luzardo is "drawing trade interest," Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported on Monday, and the Marlins are "open" to moving him, per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon. If that sounds familiar, it should: Luzardo was being shopped exactly one year ago at the previous Winter Meetings as well. Back then, though, Luzardo was coming off a great, healthy season and still had three years of club control remaining. His trade value was immense. Once rumors of trade talks subsided, it was not entirely crazy to wonder if the Marlins might try to sign him to a contract extension. The 27-year-old Luzardo is still plenty desirable, but the Marlins don't have as much leverage this time around. Suitors will expect the Marlins to drop his price tag significantly in the aftermath of a back injury and mediocre results during the 12 starts he made in 2024. I haven't put much thought into Luzardo trade possibilities this offseason because it seems clear that the appropriate course of action is to stand pat long enough for him to re-establish himself as a quality starter, then reassess midway through 2025. Either way, Luzardo's departure from Miami is a matter of when, not if. More Marlins news and content below: 🔷 The Marlins granted Mike Baumann his release so that he could sign with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball. Good opportunity for Baumann who would've been a DFA candidate leading up to Opening Day anyway. Conveniently, his departure creates some wiggle room on Miami's 40-man roster with the Rule 5 draft looming on Wednesday (clubs cannot participate in the major league phase of the draft if their 40-man is full). Our Marlins Rule 5 preview goes up on the site later today! 🔷 During a 20-minute scrum with reporters at the Winter Meetings (including our own Alex Krutchik), manager Clayton McCullough shared his excitement about Edward Cabrera's potential. McCullough said he still has vacancies on his staff for a first base coach, third base coach, assistant pitching coach and bullpen coach. 🔷 Reacting to Juan Soto's contract details, I wrote about the payroll disparity between the Marlins and Mets. 🔷 The 2025 MLB Draft lottery is being broadcasted tonight on MLB Network/MLB.com at 5:30 p.m. ET. The Marlins and Rockies are tied for the best odds of receiving the No. 1 overall pick (22.45%). There's about an 85% chance of the Fish landing in the top five. The lowest that they could possibly fall is the eighth pick. 🔷 Elsewhere around baseball, the Phillies signed Jordan Romano (1 YR/$8.5M) and the Tigers have a one-year deal in place with Alex Cobb. Japanese RHP Roki Sasaki has been posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines. He'll be signing with an MLB team as part of the 2025 international free agent class. Dick Allen and Dave Parker were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame via the Classic Baseball Era Committee process. They'll be inducted alongside whichever players make it through the BBWAA ballot (those voting results will be announced next month). 🔷 Join us immediately after the lottery for a new episode of Fish On First LIVE at 6:00 p.m. ET streaming on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook. View full article

We've grown accustomed to seeing a massive payroll disparity between the Marlins and their NL East rivals, but Soto's historic contract takes it to another level. Major League Baseball's wealthiest owner, Steve Cohen, was determined to do whatever it took win the bidding war for one of the most coveted free agents ever, Juan Soto. Venerable reporters braced us for an absurd contract, yet the end result is still unfathomable. Soto and the New York Mets reached an agreement Sunday night on a 15-year, $765 million pact. None of the money is deferred. This comes close to matching the value of the two previous biggest MLB contracts put together, and he has the potential to earn even more, maxing out at $805 million if the Mets have to deter him from opting out after five years. The league previously altered its rules to account for Cohen's aggressive spending. In the most recent collective bargaining agreement, luxury tax-related penalties were made more stringent in the spirit of competitive balance. Evidently, that has done little to discourage him. While the Mets can access "the entirety of the player universe," the Miami Marlins, even with the aid of revenue sharing, have a tiny fraction of their cash. Barring dramatic changes to Bruce Sherman's ownership group, the Marlins will never successfully court an elite free agent to Miami in the prime of their career. Rather, they find themselves constantly churning experienced big leaguers for younger, cheaper alternatives who might be as good. Juan Soto's signing bonus: $75 million Projected 2025 Marlins Opening Day payroll (via Cot's Baseball Contracts): $63 million The current contrast between these teams overstates the imbalance. Last month, Sherman said he's waiting for "the right time" to increase his investment in the roster, indirectly acknowledging that the 2025 Fish are doubtful to be postseason contenders no matter which reinforcements get brought in. In the meantime, entering the second year with Peter Bendix leading baseball operations, the Marlins are devoting themselves to becoming a premier player development organization. The daunting reality is, every organization recognizes the importance of that as well. Baseball can be beautifully chaotic from year to year. As recently as July 2023, the Mets were reluctantly selling established veterans to the playoff-bound Marlins! The correlation between payroll and victories is not as sturdy as it seems in moments like this. However, unless the Marlins are truly innovative with the ways that they maximize their players' potential via analysis and coaching, how can they consistently overcome richer competition, especially in the deep-pocketed National League East division? View full article

Not quite as splashy as committing three-quarters of a billion dollars to a single player, Miami has been focusing on "things you don't see." When the Miami Marlins left the field in Toronto on the afternoon of September 29, they were one of the hottest teams in baseball, riding a four-game winning streak. Let's say that after you turned off the postgame coverage, you ceased following the Fish until this very moment. Here is what you missed... Coaching staff turnover On the evening of the 29th, Skip Schumaker and the Marlins officially parted ways. He has landed with the Texas Rangers as a senior advisor. A candidate to fill his shoes, Luis Urueta ultimately followed Schumaker to Arlington where he'll serve as Bruce Bochy's bench coach. Other members of the 2024 Miami coaching staff who have joined different MLB clubs include Jon Jay (St. Louis Cardinals) and Wellington Cepeda (Arizona Diamondbacks). The process to find Schumaker's replacement took an awkward twist when perceived frontrunner Craig Albernaz decided to forgo managerial opportunities to stay with the Cleveland Guardians for another season. The Marlins pivoted to Los Angeles Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and announced his hiring on November 11. As of this writing, McCullough's coaching staff is approximately half-full. He'll be surrounded by bench coach Carson Vitale, hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, pitching coach Daniel Moskos, field coordinator Aaron Leanhardt and pitching strategist Brandon Mann (the lone uniformed holdover from the Schumaker era). Baseball operations realignment Peter Bendix continues to create positions that did not previously exist in the Marlins front office. Joe Migliaccio, Bill Hezel and Maxx Garrett are Miami's new directors of hitting, pitching and catching, respectively. Garrett was already with the organization last season, while the other two are newcomers. There has also been a baseball solutions group established under the baseball ops umbrella. It's being led by Ryan Plunkett. Player movement For a meager 0.2% of the Juan Soto contract, the Marlins filled out their 2024 international signing class by inking Cuban INF Luis Manuel León for $1.5 million. León might be a half-decade away from MLB readiness, but we should see some combination of OF Heriberto Hernández, RHP Robinson Pina, LHP John Rooney and UTIL Ronny Simon in Miami next season. Each of them have received minor league deals with invitations to spring training after spending some/all of the 2024 campaign at the Triple-A level. Prospects 1B Deyvison De Los Santos, INF Jared Serna and LHP Dax Fulton have been selected to the 40-man roster in advance of Wednesday's Rule 5 draft. RHP Luarbert Arias, who was due to become a minor league free agent, was selected as well. The Marlins also tendered contracts to all of their arbitration-eligible players. The following players are no longer with the organization after finishing the season finale on Miami's 40-man roster or major league injured list: Shaun Anderson, David Hensley, Anthony Maldonado, Darren McCaughan, John McMillon, Roddery Muñoz, Adam Oller, Michael Petersen and Sixto Sánchez. The Marlins hold the No. 3 pick in the Rule 5, but their 40-man is currently full. Teams cannot participate in the draft's major league phase unless they have at least one open spot in advance. Miscellaneous The Marlins and FanDuel Sports Network Florida have moved on from television play-by-play announcer Paul Severino whose contract had expired following the season. No word yet on the contenders to replace him. For the second consecutive year, Fish On First is providing in-person coverage of the Winter Meetings! Follow Alex Krutchik for updates from Dallas. View full article

The cast of characters in the Marlins organization has changed dramatically over the past year and gotten younger, but at least in one model's estimation, this series of transactions wasn't especially efficient. 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. View full article

Headed by a former Phillies executive, this new group of employees will be responsible for developing tools and applications for player evaluation and development. I know, Miami Marlins fans are fed up with hearing about new hires who don't play baseball themselves. Ryan Plunkett is not going to be bat in the middle of Miami's lineup or shore up their mediocre defense. Still, this seems significant: the Marlins announced on Thursday that the Harvard University graduate has been named vice president of their Baseball Solutions group. Plunkett was plucked from the Philadelphia Phillies where he most recently served as assistant director of foundational research. Prior to that, he was a quantitative analyst. "The Baseball Solutions group will be tasked with developing tools and applications for player evaluation and development to allow for a seamless connection between Research & Development and the entire Marlins organization," per the team's press release. In talking to local media about the new guy, president of baseball operations Peter Bendix added, "The implementation of all the data that we're getting is so important and Ryan is such a great fit for that...The intellectual curiosity that he showed, the leadership traits—even though he's pretty young in his career—and the culture fit that he is, he's going to enhance our culture." Via LinkedIn, here is how Plunkett summarized his work experience with the Phillies: Across Major League Baseball, every front office uses data to better understand what's happening on the field and to identity potential player adjustments and team strategies that can maximize their chances of winning. The separator has been (and will continue to be) which teams do the most effective job of interpreting the data and presenting it to players and coaches in a way that they actually act upon those findings to deliver better results. At least the Marlins are expanding their research and development efforts in pursuit of that. View full article