One Regend

redacted

Also, as a footnote, that was the worst slider I have ever seen anyone throw, ever. No disrespect to Mike Trout and his historic home run -- he deserves the credit for it, and did what he needed to with that slider. That slider didn't break, it didn't dive, and it looked like an 83 mph flat fastball. It did literally nothing but float and hang up right in the middle of the plane. After... that, I would never send Soriano back on the mound again.

I didn't think this team was going to do anything this year. I thought this year was going to be yet another year where the Marlins are painfully mediocre start to finish. I thought this would be yet another year where the Marlins would lure us into thinking we have a chance to do something and then have their patented collapse to shut down all hope fans had left in the team. This isn't even mediocre, like I expected it to be. This is just a bad, bad team. Like, this reeks of 2023 Chicago White Sox type of down-bad. Now, I know that you're going to say "It's still early in the season, the Marlins still have 157 games left", but believe me, the first set of games are just as important as the last set. Not to mention, we're not even losing to the Braves and Phillies. We're losing to the Pirates and Angels. And we're not just losing, either. We're losing in convincing fashion. A lot of the games aren't even a contest, we're just getting blown wide open. I guess we're getting all the losing out of the way now so that we're sellers and we're not going to be convinced by a weak NL Central and a 41-47 record.

Those prospects have promise with the bat. I looked at their strikeout numbers, and they weren't horrible. And both have gotten on base at a halfway-decent clip. What I'm curious about is how they fare defensively. I'm also curious about how John Cruz will make the adjustment to the Single-A atmosphere. I'm pleasantly surprised that they were able to get what they were able get from Jon Berti, given his advanced age and recent injuries curtailing his speed. I guess his value was a lot higher than I thought. Yeah, losing Berti means our infield is terrible defensively, but let's be real, we're not going anywhere this year anyways unless we have a full season from Jazz, Luzardo repeats a career year, and Jazz, Brax, DLC, AND Jesus Sanchez plays EONS above their heads. Might as well take any W's we can get from transactions. It's going to be a long year.

Honestly, Jazz needs to focus less on Miguel Rojas and focus more on hitting left-handed pitching and staying on the field for more than 97 games. He also needs to participate in practices and actually wake up and show up to meetings. He has bigger fish to fry. He shouldn't waste his time with someone who was essentially replacement-level in his entire tenure with the Marlins, and was handwrapped the Team Captain role because literally no one else was suited for it.

I have to say, the Marlins are really asking a lot out of a guy who was fresh off of Tommy John surgery, has limited experience at the Major League level, and needs time to ramp up his workload. I know there wasn't much of a choice they could've gone with given the injury epidemic they had, but still surprising to see they went with the option that provides the least likely odds of a productive outcome.

Rojas's claim to fame was his "great" 2020 season slashline which was grossly inflated by insane BABIP luck and shortened COVID season, and that he has a slick glove. That's all. He was only given the Team Captain role because there was literally no other choice that would have been good.

Jose Fernandez should never have apologized for that. The Braves were incredibly petty, especially since they had hitters that also showboated when they hit some a long way. That's an apples-to-oranges comparison. Sorry, but that's a questionable take. Also, regarding the interview, I was never a fan of Miguel Rojas. He was gifted and handwrapped the Team Captain role when he did the bare minimum to earn it. He did a lot of chirping for a guy who had a 87 wRC+ and a 8.9 fWAR in his entire Marlins tenure. That is 8 years of almost replacement level-production. Of course, granted, not that anyone else did anything to deserve the role, but still. That said, I wouldn't say Jazz is entirely clean here, either. He hasn't practiced for 3 years, and he's missed team meetings due to not waking up in time. And I still remember that "drill ya mama" tweet, which was funny in that moment, but in hindsight, really should never have happened. I firmly believe that players should be themselves and have fun, but I also believe there should be a balance of that and... well, being professional. Jazz is a better performer than Rojas, but he needs to be way better than what he's putting out right now, if he's truly believed to be our "superstar". He has yet to give us a reason to believe he's evolved as a player. For one, he needs to hit better against lefties, and for two, he needs to play in more than 97 games as a starting position player. Until he does that, all this interview accomplishes is make Jazz come off as a blowhard.

Yeah, I'm not doomposting. I'm being entirely realistic.

This season's a wrap. Better luck next year.

They're really going with washed up Trey Mancini over Troy Johnston, aren't they? I knew that ankle injury was going to give them the perfect excuse.

I can't exactly say I'm very confident about how the new front office has been handling this team. With the refusal to drop the sunk cost in Avisail Garcia, to them dodging every single question about signing long-term extensions to young talent like Eury Perez before they become actually good, to their relative inactivity in the offseason up until signing a guy who was terrible in every single facet in 2023 and probably might not even be playing the position they signed him up to be playing midway into the season. Sure, we shed the sins of Gary Denbo, DJ Svihlik, and Adrian Lorenzo. But it really feels like we haven't even gotten any better on the front office side. It just feels like the Front Office is just playing musical chairs with each other. I really hope I'm wrong.

I wouldn't jump the gun. It's just one single year, and Banfield hasn't exactly been known for his bat up until that year. Give it about a couple of months in AAA, and then determine if he's for real.

He literally just got done with Tommy John surgery. He needs reps first to ramp up his workload, and he will likely go to AAA to get those reps. Asking him to get those reps in the majors is asking for too much, especially considering he doesn't have much major league experience, and an experience with effectiveness to boot.

To their credit, Caleb Smith and Garrett Cooper weren't bad when they played with us. Cooper himself earned an All-Star nod (which spoke to how good his first half of 2022 was), and Caleb Smith was used in a trade to get Starling Marte. So clearly, they had some value. It's just that they didn't push the needle as much as we would have hoped.

I'm not going to count out the possibility of a career renaissance for Sixto Sanchez, but I'll call it as it is: If he does have one, it's not going to be with the Marlins. It's going to be on another team.

You're joking, right Ely? Please, tell me you're joking. Bruce Sherman is seriously asking us to attend games while we lost 2 key players in the offseason (one to injury, the other to free agency) that we can't replace internally. The Marlins spent the entire offseason doing absolutely nothing, while every single team, even teams projected to finish last place, spent money on a free agent. And Sherman's expecting us to show up in baseball games now? Please, Ely. Please tell me this is just a joke.

Thanks for reminding me we gave up Kameron Misner for how awful Joey Wendle was for us. He kinda stalled out last year for the Rays, but he has very loud tools. I'd honestly prefer him over Peyton Burdick. They're both very flawed players with huge swing-and-miss concerns, but I like Misner's run speed and range better than Burdick's. If he were to hit for contact with more consistency, I'd fear he'd become the next great hitter for the Rays. Another name we should keep an eye on is Kyle Nicolas. He has impressive strikeout stuff and was called up late in 2023, although in short sample size, he got battered around.

If the Marlins aren't even going to try to get Troy's bat in a lineup that sorely needs the offense, they should trade him to a team that will. At the conclusion of the 2023 World Series, the A's, Nationals, Royals, and Pirates are all teams that could very well use his bat considering they don't have any viable first basemen, and all of them are far enough away from contention that they can tinker with his defensive issues on the fly. Ideally, you would want to get a SS, CF, or a 3B back from those teams, but a starting pitcher would help since outside of Jesus Luzardo, and with Sandy sidelined for the entire year, the team has a lot of question marks in their rotation. We'll have to see what kind of Rays magic Bendix could be able to work here. But if the Marlins didn't call up Troy last year when their offense performed so poorly, that inspires very little confidence that they will this year. They got lucky that no one picked him up on Rule 5. They might as well cash in on that opportunity and get something in return before they lose him again.

I will admit that defensively, he does have some issues. If you're not a good fielder, but you have a good bat, good teams will try to find a way to get your bat in the lineup. The Marlins haven't even tried.

In essence, the Marlins should consider themselves fortunate that Troy is still with their organization after leaving him exposed. There were quite a number of teams that could have used his services (A's, Nationals, Royals, and Pirates just to name some), and he could have just as easily been gone.

That's a gamble that, if it pays off and he returns to form, can actually be huge. But if it doesn't and he continues his regression to the mean, can backfire dramatically. The epitome of a high risk high reward player.

It shouldn't be hard for Johnston to outpace Trey Mancini at this point in his career. Mancini is nothing more than a platoon player at best, and at worst, he's staring down the barrel of retirement. What I don't understand is why the Marlins didn't find him any ABs at the major league level last year, on a team with an offense as horrid as theirs was. Good teams try to find ABs for guys with a good bat. The Marlins didn't even try. Now he's on the outside looking in because of the Marlins and their stubbornness. I can list you at least 8 teams that would want him on their Opening Day starting lineup, and at least 8 others who would have him on their roster in a platoon/bench role. There's no excuse for the Marlins here. Give the guy some ABs!!

This is what I'd call a high risk potentially high reward signing. This is the type of signing most small-market teams make. They can't outbid the Dodgers, Mets, or Yankees for bats with consistent results, but they can sign guys like these in hopes of a bounceback campaign. If (and this is a BIG if) Tim Anderson returns to form, this signing might be huge. It can also spectacularly backfire if Anderson continues to tread water like he was in 2023. But if you're the Marlins, you've got to make gambles like these. Let's hope it actually pays off for them.