Jayson Stark: Marlins Expected to Keep Josh Johnson

[andre0814]

demp to tex

for Third baseman Christian Villanueva and right-hander Kyle Hendricks

[Miamarlin21]

Manny Navarro @Manny_Navarro
#Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson: "Yes, I'm happy I'm still here." JJ signed through 2013 said he would like to end career with Fish

I'm down.

[AdamRavs]

Extend him and Stanton now

[Erick]

I hope JJ doesn't get extended.

[AdamRavs]

Why not? You get him at prolly a nice deal and cheaper than other FA options I'm sure

[Erick]

I do not want to give a pitcher a long-term extension when he's been injury prone for much of his career and has seen his velocity decline a couple mph this year.

If they want to keep him this offseason and try to win in 2013, fine. Re-evaluate the situation next July, if need be.

At this point, I don't see how an extension makes much sense, though.
Even if you think he's still a top-notch ace, this team has many needs. Giving him a long-term contract = money we can't spend on other things now.

The state of the Marlins right now has a great deal of uncertainty in it. What's the point in giving JJ an extension if those years are just going to be wasted because the rest of the team is not good enough?

As of right now, we have no 3B, we need another OF'er, and our pitching is a question mark simply because you never know what to expect with young pitchers.

On the field, we're basically down to two valuable players + one who's valuable simply because of his versatility.

I simply don't think this is the time to extend him.

Actually, if it were me, I'd try to trade him again this offseason to see what I can get in return at that point.

At this point, we're realistically looking at another rebuild. A lot of things would have to go right for this team to be competitive next year, especially when you consider the rest of the National League East.

[MiamiHomer]

Agree with everything Erick just said.

[Swifty]

Couldn't disagree more Erick/MH.

If you're looking at a way to build up a contender with this group, you build around JJ, Stanton, Buehrle and, I guess, Reyes. You figure that Yelich and Fernandez and Turner are going to be pieces. You count on Eovaldi/Hand/Conley to fill one, maybe two, rotation spots and the left overs be used as middle level trade bait to fill a middle level position of need (corner OF?).

You don't have a "super ace" in waiting. You can't count on Fernandez, simply because TNSTAPP. If you trade JJ for spare parts (because that's all he could get in-season with a year remaining, it's not likely to get significantly better in the offseason or at the next deadline) you're then looking at having wasted your two "best" assets in less than a calendar year and then not only having to plug the holes their departure(s) created, but also the holes that you didn't plug by trading them for equal value.

[MiamiHomer]

JJ isn't the caliber ace we once knew though and I think he carries a lot of risk in any contract he's signed to at this point.

[The_Godfather]

I agree with everything Swift is saying, it's spot on. Check a few pages back (a week ago when we thought we could play name that price on JJ) I was against moving JJ for even a package surrounding Olt. JJ is a valuable commodity and should be treated as such. We need to build this team around pitching and JJ gives us the best chance to have a true ace as a Marlin.

If the rumors of the Rangers not offering Olt to get the deal done are true they made a huge mistake.

[MiamiHomer]

They can't get that package because JJ isn't as valuable anymore. Some might say it's only a one year sample size but I don't see it that way considering JJ is coming off injury. His home/road splits are staggering this year. He's also giving a 24% LD rate with is 6% points higher than the previous three year average. That could be a glaring indication of his stuff not being as effective as it use to be to go along with his decreased K rate as well. Couple that with his injury history and I think it's fine to have my reservations of whether JJ is deserving of being considered a top shelf pitcher still. Sure he could still be a formidable pitcher for the staff but I don't see it as a huge loss if they looked to swap him to help fill multiple needs if the chance came.

[Mainge]

My counter would be that his road/home splits are meaningless, his swinging strike rate is identical to last season, and everything else is the product of a handful of bad luck and awful starts. It's too small of a sample size.

Injury history is what should worry you the most. I'm okay with dealing him for a strong package. I'm not okay with it being for Leonys Martin +

[Bobbob1313]

Injury history is what should worry you the most. I'm okay with dealing him for a strong package. I'm not okay with it being for Leonys Martin

And bingo went the Mainge-o.

[Mainge]

The home/road splits thing is especially silly. He's allowed more HRs at home than on the road. How else is our ballpark supposed to give him an advantage that teams not in Miami should be worried about, if it's not suppressing HRs?

[MiamiHomer]

They do need to pitch on the road do they not? JJ doesn't give up many HR's to begin with so not like looking at that is suppose to tell me anything. When he was going good, he was still dominant on the road, not the case anymore.

Apparently Ken Rosenthal said there were rumbling that the Diamondbacks target was indeed Josh Johnson.