One Regend

You mean the same guy that marinated in the failure of Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison, Jorge Alfaro, Lewin Diaz, and the like? You know, our "top prospects" from that time frame? How does this help us?

Who are we playing at 3rd base? Jake Burger is third baseman in name-only. Connor Norby was a disaster at 3rd base. De Los Santos is a first baseman period. And playing Otto Lopez at 3rd Base means you're playing Xavier Edwards at Shortstop which is just as terrible. What do you think are our internal options at 3rd base? Because I sure don't see them.

Miguel Andujar's defense in LF is dreadfully bad. -1 DRS and -7 OAA for a position that's less defensively demanding is not what you want for a team in a rebuild. I'd rather see Connor Norby there. While he also has defensive questions, he's far younger, more controllable, and has more offensive upside. We could get Harrison Bader, yes, but is he that much better than Victor Mesa Jr? Sure, he has outstanding defense, but that's literally all he has going for him. I'd rather not pay the extra money for him, and I'd personally run Victor Mesa Jr out there. We can't keep him toiling in AAA for a team that's likely going to lose another 100+ games. Might as well see what he's got left in the tank.

We don't have a third baseman. At all. Norby isn't a third baseman. Neither is De Los Santos. And Otto Lopez is a bench player at best who's likely to play SS instead. Yoan Moncada wouldn't be a bad signing. He's a low risk signing, and if we accidently'd elite production out of him, we can flip him at the deadline to acquire more prospects. We reached rock bottom in 2024, so we can't get that much lower than we did.

If we end up losing George Lombard to a poverty franchise like the White Sox, then what does that say about us as a franchise? The Marlins need to do better with their negotiations, because what they're doing now clearly isn't working.

I see no value in Derek Hill. Might as well see what Victor Mesa Jr has in the tank. I see Stowers and Dane Myers as COF types. Either way, it's going to be a tank year. So we're not going anywhere regardless of what moves the needle.

I wish both teams could lose the World Series and no winner was decided. If I was held at gunpoint though, and I was forced to pick between the Yankees and Dodgers, I'd pick the Yankees. And it's not because of the team itself. I could care less about the Yankees. I'd pick them because I'd like Jazz to win a world series ring.

That is also a valid concern. There were way too many staff being vetted on personal connections in the Jeter era and it costed us with an ineffective staff, and led to an ineffective product on the field. If there's a better candidate than George Lombard, I'd happily take one, but if these are the only two choices, I'd rather take Lombard as it would lead to a less disastrous circus.

I don't have a problem with women being an on-field authority if they're actually good at their jobs. It would only make sense to hire them over men if they are actually better than their male contemporary. It only becomes a problem if they're only hired solely as a PR stunt. George Lombard has a lot of baseball knowledge. If he doesn't land a job with the Marlins and the Marlins go the PR route, I'm going to take this team less seriously than I already do. (which was already not much to begin with) Kim Ng worked out well for them. But I have questions about Rachel Balkovec, and I definitely have questions about this one.

Otto Lopez's snub is unfortunate, but understandable. Francisco Lindor's snub, on the other hand, was a crime on humanity.

My hope is that, with the completely revamped minor league and major league staff they have, our prospects, you know, actually play up to potential for once. The Marlins made the right move in firing everybody. Let's hope results follow.

They're not going to spend much. Maybe about 5m, but no more than that. We had an awful season, and even with Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez returning, it isn't going to get any better. They may get a vet who's on the cusp of retirement, but that's honestly about it Also, among the arbitration class, I can see them letting go of Nick Fortes and Edward Cabrera. Nick Fortes provided negative value and is only going up in arb money, while Edward Cabrera had endless opportunities to prove himself and failed each time, and he's also going up in arb years. They might also cut Jesus Sanchez. $3.2m for nothing more than a barely passable platoon bat is far too expensive.

Arraez's contact quality has fallen off, and his defense went from semi-passable to a literal negative. And while I don't expect Edwards to have any better contact quality, I do expect better from him defensively. I just don't think he's a shortstop. The Marlins should cease any plans they have for him to be a full-time shortstop.

I like some of the names there. Yan Gomes, J.D. Martinez, Justin Turner, and Carlos Santana in particular stand out. Maybe even Andrew McCutchen, though it depends if he wants to retire as a Pirate, though. I honestly wouldn't blame him if he does.

I expect a veteran signing on his last legs before retirement. These kids need a winning culture. And who better than a guy who has won it all, a guy who was a superstar, and a guy who still provides good defense in a COF spot, Jason Heyward.

Least surprising news of the decade. Schumaker led an extremely flawed Marlins team to the playoffs in 2023 in spite of the team's massive shortcomings. Sure, he was the author of a team that recorded 100 losses, but no exceptional baseball mind could do any better than what he did with the trainwreck 2024 team. Skip knows how much value he brings to a team. He was going to ask for a big payday, and there's zero shot the Marlins were going to meet that demand. And so it goes.

And in addendum to the above statement, I heard sometime last year when a lot of people were calling for Troy Johnston to be called up to the majors, that he's not MLB-ready because his defense was bad. That was by far the lousiest excuse I have ever seen, and I will not let the writers here live that down for as long as I'm here. You're playing Luis Arraez. You're playing Jazz OUT OF POSITION. Your team has basically given up on the idea of defense. What does it matter anymore? Now he's leaving for Free Agency without getting a fair shot at the big league level on a team that was constantly losing 95+ games 2 years in a row and now shooting for 100+, because they now have Agustin Ramirez and Deyvision De Los Santos, both of whom profile as 1B/DH types, so they have no reason to hang onto Troy Johnston anymore.

If it were up to me, I would field a guy that is consistent at hitting but not good with the glove over a guy who's consistent with the glove, but not good with the bat. Any day of the week. I don't care if Connor Norby has limited range, or commits miscues. If he can consistently rake, then let him play. We've got a bench for a reason. Use them for defensive replacements. I'm tired of people coming up with excuses not to play talented players. Been dealing with this crap since the Lewis Brinson era. If they're talented, let them play. Don't think about it.

Nothing to watch here really. Just a team tanking for hopefully a better future. I can see Connor Norby being a stud for us at 3rd Base. If he sticks there, that creates a problem at 1B. If both Deyvision De Los Santos and Agustin Ramirez performs admirably and earns spots on the major league club, they will both be competing at 1B. Unless the team decides to exclusively use one of them at DH, one of them is going to be stuck toiling AAA. I, quite frankly, am not impressed with Agustin's defensive play as a catcher. He's not long until he's going to the majors, so the Marlins won't have time to develop his skills behind the plate. So realistically, his path to the majors is going to be as 1B. I don't see another lane for him. Same for De Los Santos if Connor Norby sticks at 3rd, doubly since his defensive play at 3rd isn't exactly inspiring confidence, either.

What a career that Joey Votto had. It's a shame he played all of it for a team that essentially wasted his entire career. A huge what-if story. If only he played his entire career with a team that actually cared about winning the World Series.

I'm not buying it. Derek Hill is the type of player the Marlins are starting because they don't have a whole lot of other better options. He's the Justin Ruggiano of 2024. He's a guy that's having success in a small sample size now, but is going to be cut in Spring Training next year when it comes to roster crunch time. I'm not going to lose sleep over him if he gets cut. We shouldn't have a 29 year old minor league journeyman be the "face" of our franchise. If Victor Mesa Jr wasn't injured and done for the rest of the season, I guarantee you he'd be on the roster right now playing in LF instead of Derek Hill. If we wanted a stopgap that would help our prospects endure their growing pains next year, then we should be going after former All-Stars who are in their twilight and will likely retire the following year with Miami as their final destination before retirement. A perfect example of a free agent next year that's exactly like this is Jason Heyward. He would be a wonderful mentor to our young outfield.

I disagree with this view on many fronts. While, yes, we would have a more watchable product on the field, we won't have the prospect capital to make it through next year with injuries in the mix; Nevermind the sustained success beyond next year. Going all in next year would be nice for PR, but a horrible baseball move because we just don't have the prospects nor the talent to hang with the big boys. We're going to need a few more years of being cellar-dwellars that suck tanks in order to build up the prospect capital to start being a relevant franchise again. Jeter did way too much damage during his regime and this is the opportunity to fix that damage. It's going to be a long 3 years of being trash, but it needs to be done.

I'm mixed on firing Scott Aldred, because he was the one person that actually held our team together, no matter how truly awful our team was. But everyone else needed to go, especially Dan Greenlee. Nobody makes excuses for continuing to trot Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, and Jorge Alfaro to the batter's box well after they've worn out their welcome and deserve to keep their job. But yes, Bendix needed to clean house. The Marlins had a HOF-level pitching core that they promptly wasted because none of their guys could lay off a breaking ball outside of the zone. This was the same pitching core that they had to slowly dismantle out of desperation to fix their hitting problem (Remember Pablo Lopez and Zac Gallen?) because none of the guys in the scouting and developing departments did their job correctly. This resulted in 6 years of a failed rebuild that culminated in a first round playoff exit in 2023 built on the foundation of a fluke and a unicorn. That was their peak year, by the way.

If there's one thing the Marlins are good at, no matter how good or bad their team is, it's to find pitchers out of complete nowhere who perform like superstars. There always seems to be one arm who was a complete nobody at the beginning of the season that performs like superman when given the playing time. This happens nearly every year. It's basically a Marlins tradition at this point. This year, it's Valente Bellozo. He's impressing me at every stop of the way. For a 24 year old kid who wasn't really blowing hitters away in AAA, he's seemed to have figured it out at the Major League level. I don't know what the major league coaching staff did to him, but they seemed to unlocked Bellozo's ability to take his game to a whole new level. 7 scoreless against one of the best offenses in baseball is nothing you can shift your eyes at. That's the statement start that'll get my attention in a season that hasn't gotten much of it. I have to wonder if he can maintain this level of play over a full season next year. My guess is with his low velo, his pitch usage, and his arsenal, I very much doubt his chances to do so. I'm very welcome to him proving me wrong, though.

It's to find pitchers out of complete nowhere who looks like potential studs. Edit: There was more content to this thread, but I started this thread hours ago and wasn't aware Ely posted a thread about this, and posted it after the fact. Feel free to delete this post. I've mostly moved the contents of this post into Ely's thread.