Stark: Marlins Could Be Big Players This Off-Season UPDATE: All Big Names In Play

[HUGG]

......back in my day......the Angels played in the PCL....something about abortions

[lou]

What the hell would we trade for Votto?

We have no top end young pitching to draw from, but you'd have to imagine in a hypothetical situation, the Marlins would use Morrison as a centerpiece, and some collection of Dominguez, James, Coghlan, and relievers as 2, 3, and 4 pieces.

I still don't think that gets it done. We don't have a premium pitching piece to move that someone else could offer. Gotta imagine one of the Giants starters is on the table and that immediately trumps anything but Hanley or Stanton in an offer.

But, I am not against the idea of trading all of Morrison, Dominguez, James, and Coghlan for young pitching, signing replacements at 3B and LF (Aramis, Beltran) to 2 year deals, and bringing in Ozzie/Buerhle. Kind of makes sense.

[Swifty]

$100 million? I came.

[lou]

Just to type it out, if that $100 million figure is real, that means the Marlins legitimately have $40 million to spend in free agency:

C John Buck $6,500,000
1B Gaby Sanchez $430,000
2B Emilio Bonifacio $2,000,000 (rough projection)
3B Matt Dominguez $410,000
SS Hanley Ramirez $15,000,000
LF Logan Morrison $420,000
RF Mike Stanton $420,000
CF
B Brett Hayes $420,000
B Bryan Petersen $420,000
B Chris Coghlan $600,000
B
B

SP Josh Johnson $13,750,000
SP Ricky Nolasco $9,000,000
SP Anibal Sanchez $8,000,000 (rough projection)
SP
SP
RP Edward Mujica $1,500,000 (rough projection)
RP Randy Choate $1,500,000
RP Ryan Webb $430,000
RP Mike Dunn $420,000
RP Steve Cishek $420,000
RP
RP

$61,640,000

Only organization no shows - Chris Volstad ($2.5ish), Leo/Juan Nunez/Oviedo ($6.5)

A lot of options. It'll be interesting to see what they do.

[Bobbob1313]

If we have $40 million to spend, I'd try really hard to add Beurhle, Wilson, and Ramirez. That pretty much gets you there.

[emkayseven]

Based on those numbers and that roster I imagine they resign Infante, sign Wilson, sign Ramirez, and some lower tier SP, then spend a few million on the bench. Boner can either play CF or be the super sub with Coghlan in CF. Trotting out a (hopefully) better Hanley, more consistent Gaby, older Stanton and LoMo and adding Aramis I think we can get away with Coghlan and Boner in the lineup.

I still don't buy the $100 million figure though.

[Erick]

I wonder who the closer would be.

[emkayseven]

Mujica

[Party]

Pedro Basulto, duh.

[Big Z]

I don't see JC here next year, only reason he's here is because Beinfest didn't want to be a dick and trade him at the deadline. Great job by Beinfest to do that though, it gains him great respect around the league.

[Mainge]

LeBatard says the league told him not to.

[emkayseven]

I highly highly doubt he was just being a nice guy. I think he told teams no because we thought we were still in it. And we have no closer for next year.

[lou]

If we have $40 million to spend, I'd try really hard to add Beurhle, Wilson, and Ramirez. That pretty much gets you there.

I think their ideal offseason is to trade Morrison for a young play now SP (someone from the As, Rays, Giants, etc who need some offense) and sign CJ/Buerhle, Aramis, Beltran, Infante, and two bench bats. Aramis and Beltran are probably only good for 125 game a piece, so Bonifacio can predominantly start in CF, and cover LF/3B when not. Coghlan becomes the 400 PA super do everything sub versus right handers and basically replaces Bonifacio in that role. Infante covers 2B and that's pretty much it.

That seems like the Marlins thing to do. Spend big money on 1-2 year deals with Aramis and Beltran, so they get name value and guys coming off monster years, but keep the books clean for impending Johnson and Hanley free agency in 2-3 years, and Stanton/Gaby/others arbitration bumps. Give the longterm deal to a lefty starter, because that's just a huge hole.

Buerhle, Aramis, and Beltran are probably $12 a pop, throw in a couple more for Infante and a bench bat, and skimp entirely on the bullpen (which isn't a bad idea), and that's a pretty good team both right now, and fiscally in the future with no outrageous surprises 4-5 years down the road like that Uggla contract.

[Erick]

I don't think they're going to ignore the bullpen one offseason after they went crazy with it. Especially since they still don't have a solution at closer.

Mujica is much more valuable in middle relief.

[emkayseven]

Lou, why would Aramis or Beltran sign 1 or 2 year deals? It isn't like they need a bounce back year and they're at the age where this is the last chance they probably have to get a multi year (4+) year deal, no?