One Regend

If it were up to me, if I were asked to make that trade again, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Bleday was never going to work here. Not with the hitting philosophy we had here. That said, it goes to show the fantastic (ly awful) work the Marlins coaches put into developing their players. I'm so glad that we've moved on from the Svihlik/Denbo era.

Or maybe those prospects were never really that great to begin with. I wouldn't necessarily pin the blame on Bendix here, as these weren't his prospects. But if our new wave of prospects in the 2024 draft (and beyond) start floundering, then I'd give Bendix's team the side-eye.

This was one of the last plays Avi made before being DFA'd. We paid $53 million for this crap. I think there's a chance Misner still would've been at 3rd base, but any good outfielder who actually hustles, instead of jogging, like what Avi did here, would've maybe kept Misner at 2nd base. And even if they didn't, they certainly would've tried. This is just sad to watch.

We not only were paying a man $53 million for 4 years to be below replacement level in every aspect. We were paying him to dog plays with zero hustle. Miguel Rojas got on Jazz for his work ethic, but no one dared question Avisail Garcia? Just what is going on in that clubhouse, exactly? Good riddance, all around.

Selling high on him right now would indicate that the Marlins are all-in on blowing the team up. If that's the case, I'm all for it. Jazz is a good player, but he isn't going to be around when the Marlins become good again. Best to trade him now while he still has trade value. I think the Dodgers would be a perfect fit for him -- Jazz has Hollywood written all over him, Gavin Lux is on the IL, and they don't have a good answer at 2B in the pipeline. I also don't see Mookie Betts sticking at SS long-term. And even when the Dodgers get all of their guys back, Jazz still offers value as a lefty in a platoon role -- something that he will eventually be, because with his poor offense against lefties, he's not full starter material. This is probably the best time to trade Jazz, and the Marlins would be foolish to not take this opportunity while they are tearing down the team.

For the tank standings, the Marlins with their winning streaks in May have now allowed the Mets and Angels to crawl uncomfortably close to challenging them for the draft lottery. While the winning is nice for the fans, it's not good for the team's bottom line if they want to have a shot at some real prospects. Especially if they want to get their hands on Ethan Holliday. Seeing them lose like this to the Rangers felt like a much-needed fall back to reality for this team. The Marlins need to rebuild, and they need to rebuild the right way. They don't need to be "competitive". They need to do what they need to do.

They only started Sixto Sanchez out of necessity, because they literally do not have any other good choices. If I had to guess, they would've much preferred him to come out of the bullpen. Even still, his lack of whiff ability, something he had a problem with even in his rookie season in 2020, means he's also very limited in his role as a reliever too. Sure, he can induce ground balls, but there's only so much he can do when he can't strike out batters. Now, granted, his 4.70 FIP means he still pitched a lot better than his over-6 ERA suggests, but I still would not count on him as a reliable asset by any means. If anything, I think in that Rangers game, he may have thrown the last pitch for the Marlins. Once he's elligible to come off the IL (if he doesn't have another setback and require shoulder surgery, which, considering his history, could happen again), he will likely be a DFA candidate. I can forsee a pitching-starved team like the Chicago White Sox taking a chance on him. Again, I'm not going to count out a career renaissance for Sixto Sanchez. But it certainly won't be in a Marlins uniform, that's for sure.

To be honest, that is a question we will never find out. Granted, AAA numbers don't always tell the story. Some guy can post pedestrian numbers in AAA (Ex: Max Muncy before he came to the Dodgers system) and turn out to be a quality piece of the core. But that rarely happens these days, so we need that certainty of dominance to feel somewhat confident that a prospect of ours can be more than just a bat that can only be used in platoon roles. Right now, an example of such a AAAA player with the profiling of a platoon role ceiling is Jesus Sanchez, and I greatly fear that with such poor numbers against lefties, Jazz is slowly heading in that direction too.

Victor Mesa Jr is probably the best impact bat we have in our system right now. Mesa Jr has made great strides, going from a guy with no pop to a guy with a 15-HR bat with the potenial for more, and great defense in the outfield. He has played well in AAA, but here's the problem I see with him, and it's been a problem that I have been seeing with A LOT of our hitter prospects since the 2018 firesale: They're doing well in AAA, but they're not exactly slaughtering the competition. They're knocking on the door, but they are not bulldozing the door down with a tractor. Not once have I seen our "vaunted" prospects have an OPS above 1.000 in AAA in their audition to be called up. Troy Johnston came the closest last year with a .948 OPS, and it was a crime how he was left unprotected in Rule 5 for a Marlins organization starved for impact bats. (He's off to a slow start, but I hope he gets that power stroke back that put him on the radar in the first place.) All in all, this continues a frustrating trend for post-2017 hitting prospects: Doing fine in AAA but not killing the competition there. As for every single prospect we've had since 2017 that have done this? They have all turned out to be AAAA players.

I'm not surprised about them DFAing Woo-Suk Go. Ever since he's arrived in the organization, he was unable to strike anybody out (a quality that is very much needed for relievers), and his groundball rate took a massive step back, which meant when he was pitching, hitters were making hard contact, Oh yeah, and the Marlins were paying him $3.9 million for this type of production. Not gonna fly if a player is this pedestrian in AAA. No wonder the Padres wanted him gone that badly.

I see Otto Lopez as our new Jon Berti. Because Victor Mesa Jr. is knocking on the door soon, that may displace Jazz to be placed back in the middle infield where he rightfully belongs. Also, it's about time to call up Troy Johnston. He's proven that AAA is too easy. Why keep Josh Bell's contract when it's a lost season? Also, why not Will Banfield? Surely, he can't be worse than the non-factors we have behind the plate right now.

I wanted to see Edwards this season, but he's on the 60 day IL and there's a good chance we might not see him this season. I also disagree with Conine seeing playing time until he can figure out a way to cut down the whiffs. But the rest should honestly be given the green light. I think Mesa Jr and Johnston has done enough to show the team that they're ready for the big show. Johnston's shown he's been ready since last year. And with how disasterous the Fortes/Bethancourt experiment has been, it wouldn't hurt to give Banfield a shot at catching to see what he can do.

If the Dodgers don't win the World Series with that roster, then they need to delete their franchise. They have a literal superteam. There's zero excuse for them not to win it all. Encouraging start from Ryan Weathers. I'm still not sold on his upside, though. But we'll see.

He is the one of very few hitters we have that is actually hitting above sea level this year. He's our best bat right now. There's only so much that last year's stats can tell you about a player. It's honestly more about the market of a Corner OF/DH type player than just DLC himself.

I think, by far and away, what makes this team so frustrating to watch is sitting through 2018 and 2019 watching awful baseball for all 324 games, only to come out of those awful seasons with this reality. We tanked 2018 and 2019, and this was the best we could do?

This regime didn't fare any better. They drafted Connor Scott, JJ Bleday, Khalil Watson, and Jacob Berry. And all of them flamed out instantly. And all illustrate the same problem: their inability to draft and develop position players. I think it's too early to judge Bendix for his rebuilding moves, which is why I'm reserving judgment, but trading Arraez needed to happen. He wasn't going to magically make this disaster of a team any better by himself, and the team needs to rebuild its farm system. I'm not exactly flattered by the moves Bendix has made so far prospect-wise, which has me concerned, But I need to see more before I start calling for front office heads to be fired into the sun. The Jeter-Denbo-Svihlik triumverate showed me more than enough to call for their firings 3 years ago. Now begins the era of Bendix-Kanthan. Only thing to do is hope they're actually effective at their job. That's all we can do, really. I'd give them a 3 year grace period, 2 at the bare minimum.

I was expecting a trade like this to happen near the deadline, so I was expecting to come back around the deadline to discuss the direction the Marlins are going. It appears the Marlins gave up before the month of May really started. And really, I don't blame them. Eury Perez was the only reason worth watching this team, and he's gone until next year at best. I have three words for you all. Embrace. The. Tank. We've been staring directly at the possibility of a rebuild (of a rebuild, at that) for at least 3 years now. 2021 was concerning, and 2022 was a clear red flag. What 2023 did was give us false hope that this team was greater than it really was. I saw right through the ruse. The 2023 team wasn't good. They only benefitted from expanded playoff brackets, an NL Central collapse, and the Mets metting. There was no clear improvement on the team outside of the bullpen's highly unsustainable performance, and Arraez, Bell, and Burger hitting way over their heads. Our offense still stunk, our defense was still an unmitigated disaster scene, and our best starting pitchers were an 88 mph meatball dispenser (Brax), a guy who can't perform when the stakes are high (Luzardo), and a guy who was clearly on an innings limit. (Perez) I knew the other foot was about to drop at some point, and it dropped now. Not replacing Soler and not reinforcing the rotation only magnified the problem. Now I can't 100% judge this trade because these type of trades are usually best evaluated in about 3 years, but they have the right idea in trading Luis Arraez. What they traded him for, again, is something I'll judge later. I'm concerned about the fact that Bendix couldn't net a top 100 prospect in return, instead taking the quantity over quality approach, but again, I'll have to see more from him before I judge his transactions. Besides, I knew Luis Arraez's ceiling isn't that high (he's known more for his floor), and that his defense isn't particularly great, so I wasn't expecting great yields from him in the first place. What I want to see is for the Marlins to dedicate themselves to the cause. If they're going to embrace the tank, I want them to commit to it all the way through. I want to see Jesus Luzardo gone. I want to see Tanner Scott gone. Eat the money for Josh Bell, Tim Anderson, and Avisail Garcia and let the kids play (paging: Troy Johnston, Will Banfield, Dane Myers, Xavier Edwards when healthy), to see what they're made of. And, this may suck for the fans, but they have to trade Jazz Chisholm Jr, if not at the deadline, then during the offseason. He's a good player and a fan favorite. But this team is not going to be good for the 3 years he's still going to be around. If Trevor Rogers can find his groove, he may definitely be a viable piece to dangle at the trade deadline for the same reasons as Jazz Chisholm would be: We've got 3 years of control for him, but the Marlins won't be good in those 3 years. What I want the Marlins to do is, if they're going to rebuild (which all signs are pointing to), they should strip the entire team down and do the rebuild right. No half-measures. And especially go with the best player available in their drafts, instead of reaching for off-the-beaten-path prospects that nobody picks in the first round; let alone top 10 picks. And they especially should evaluate their trades better. The Yelich/Realmuto/Stanton trades doomed this core from the start and is a big factor of the reason why they failed as much as they have during these 6 years. It's time for us to relive 2018 and 2019 again. It sucks, but it needed to be done. It's either this, or sit around spinning the wheels of mediocrity.

A 0-7 record and a Eury Perez Tommy John surgery later, I'm done following this team this season. I will check in at the trade deadline, and once more in the offseason. This is a new record, by the way. I've never ragequit on a season in April up until now. Should've skipped Eury Perez's start like every other quality organization instead of forcing him to pitch through a bad fingernail. You did this to yourselves, Marlins.

Cards sweep. MVP is Victor Scott II. He'll magically turn into Ronald Acuna Jr and roast the Marlins for years to come. Marlins start 0-10.

If I were to boo Avi (and rightfully so), it's not because I don't like him. It's because I severely disapprove of the Front Office seemingly handing the starting role to him on a silver platter just because he's on a guaranteed contract, ignoring the fact he has produced at a sub-replacement level his entire contract, and that there's oodles of talent that can play RF and play it better than he has been. Avi, here's my message to you: I don't have anything against you, but to me, it's "not fair" that Dane Myers was OPSing 1.200 in Spring Training, and was optioned to the Minors just so you get hand-wrapped and hand-gifted a starting role in RF on a silver platter because the Front Office refused to accept the fact that signing YOUR contract was a mistake and they refuse to let go of it. Be a grown man and deal with your boobirds just like everyone else that deals with them.

Zach Neto doesn't have to prove anything. The Marlins are already doing a pretty good job by themselves on that front by showcasing just how godawful of a team they are. They don't need his help.

Edward Cabrera, Brax, and Eury isn't going to save this team.

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Tim Anderson is far from the only problem on the team. Josh Bell and Jake Burger are the only ones carrying this sad sack of a team. They can't do it by themselves, and it shows in the win-loss column. Literally everyone else is replacement level. Literally goddamn everyone else. Avisail Garcia still sucks, Jesus Sanchez has been a butcherjob at the plate, Jazz can't do anything but strikeout, DLC can't hit OR field, and the less said about our esteemed catchers the better.

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