2023-2024 Offseason Thread

[Todd]

this dipshit owner is so tone deaf that he is also getting rid of the old teal pin stripe unis on friday nights now too

That might be Nike's decision.

MLB gave NIKE way too much oversight on unis when they switched IMO.

[fish16]

To appease Fish16's rage, they DFA'd Groshans and picked up this guy Jonah Bride from Oakland (cash considerations) - https://www.fangraphs.com/players/jo...position=2B/3B

.305/.432/.544 in AAA last year, but in the PCL. A .330 BABIP with a 17%/15% BB/K which is all great. He was pretty bad though at the MLB level in a small sample (.170/.286/.205), but his expected slash was .242/.348/.313 with how low his BABIP was. His xwOBA was just about what Hampson did last year. He has 1 option left. Hes also 28.

These scouting reports are two years old but not much else out there on him. This is MLB and FG. He was a FV40 and came up with Puk in Oakland's system so they know each other.

Talk about perseverance. Bride was nowhere near the prospect radar as a 23rd-round pick by the A’s in 2018. In fact, his struggles in 2019 as a 23-year-old had the A’s thinking they might need to demote him to Low-A. However, he returned from the pandemic and put together a solid 2021 season in which he showed supreme versatility while hitting .265 with nine home runs and 49 RBIs for Double-A Midland. Bride is considered to have the best fastball contact of any player in the entire system, particularly against fastballs in the zone. There is some power in his game, and he’s always been able to get on base at a high clip. The definition of super-utility, Bride can play third, first, second and left field well. This past season, he added catcher to his list of positions, getting extra reps behind the plate in the Fall League due to the injury to Tyler Soderstrom. Known to be a great teammate who is hard-nosed and has already overcome several challenges in his career, he’s moved his way up the system and reached the big leagues in June as a solid utility man.

A catcher conversion will likely carry the squat Bride through the threshold of the big leagues and into a very cool bench role as a third catcher who can also play both corner infield spots. Bride walked as much as he struck out at Double-A this year but doesn’t have the raw power to profile at first base, where he’s now spending most of his time. He only began catching in a normal game environment during the fall of 2021, both at instructs and during Fall League, the latter being an absurd assignment for someone new to the position. Bride handled it with aplomb and is likely to improve into a viable big league catcher. We considered Bride for the 40+ tier to indicate that he might track similarly to Austin Nola, who made a similar late conversion and looks like a suitable everyday catcher when healthy, but we didn’t receive a lot of industry support for that potential outcome here. Scouts instead think Bride will be a Swiss Army knife bench player.


I can't imagine Oakland is giving away anyone they think is valuable for nothing because they are terrible so there is that, but there are some interesting things here if Oakland is just keeping their 40 man full of ceilings and not floors. Nola who was referenced above ended up improving the second he got out of Miami's system and dropped 4+ WAR over 1,000 PA his age 29-32 seasons. Maybe Bride turns into a poor man's version of that, which is something like Joe Panik/Logan Forsythe kind of guy and is a suitable uninspiring bench player for a few years. It seems like the catching teetered off, but that would be really interesting if that's the plan. Seems like this is a much higher floor player than Groshans for 2024, so it's a fine move if they've sadly lost confidence in him turning into something. Hey Berti didn't make it until he was 29, you never know. This is probably nothing but a back end 40 man swap, but we're starved for baseball content and this is somehow their third largest bat move this offseason so far.

his minor league stats are inflated being in the PCL. His road OPS was 1.043 in AAA and his hope ops was .894 in the vegas heat. He sucks. He is a 28 year old with a career .528 OPS in 250 major league at bats. Groshans also sucked.

[fish16]

fangraphs apparently has us with the same odds as the rangers to make the playoffs at 34%. maybe dont rely on fangraphs so much because that's absurd.

[lou]

fangraphs apparently has us with the same odds as the rangers to make the playoffs at 34%. maybe dont rely on fangraphs so much because that's absurd.

Starting shit unprovoked - just stop.

Also the Rangers are very injured, they lost some guys, and the rotation is not impressive. Marlins top 3 are better than anyone they have. It's not surprising. They really need Montgomery. That being said, certainly they are a bit too low on them as they are going to (really) hit and I think Langford may be pretty amazing immediately.

[lou]

But I came here...... If you have Gary Sanchez, Eric Haase, and say acquire a backup catcher, someone like Bethancourt for instance, and have a top 100 prospect (Quero) in AA at your catcher position.... and you need SP.... why not Luzardo/Bethancourt/FV40 throw in for W. Contreras? And, you've also now saved money in this swap too as Contreras is cheap this year and not in arb yet. Brewers have catching depth all of a sudden. I wonder if they really love Quero if they'd do that kind of swap. It's frankly doing the Pablo-Arraez trade all over again as they chucked in two prospects with Pablo.

Very few guys are probably worth it for Milwaukee to consider to move Contreras, but Luzardo sure as hell is one of them. And if you could throw Adames onto that deal and the Marlins jack them up with Fulton, Nardi, Berti, and some other stuff, oh man that gets interesting real fast for everybody. Everything gets forgiven pretty damn quick right there.

[rmc523]

https://theathletic.com/5247943/2024...shared_article



the Athletic very correctly gave the Marlins an offseason grade of F, citing how we’ve done nothing.

[Todd]

The move for Bride is a bit puzzling. Especially since the guy they DFAd to make room for him, Groshans, could probably do everything Bride does if not better.

[lou]

https://theathletic.com/5247943/2024...shared_article



the Athletic very correctly gave the Marlins an offseason grade of F, citing how we’ve done nothing.

Did anyone else get an F out of curiosity?

[lou]

The move for Bride is a bit puzzling. Especially since the guy they DFAd to make room for him, Groshans, could probably do everything Bride does if not better.

Fish16 is right, it means everyone probably sucks here. But if I had to guess it’s that they think Bride can help more this year as an older player (who does have a good/great BB/K in his defense) versus a guy who may need a few years still. This just seems like a whatever churn of a bottom 5 spot on the 40 man and this offseason is so bad, this gets multiple posts because this is the 3rd or 4th biggest roster move of the offseason depending on ones opinion on how big that Roddery Munoz deal was. Sigh.

[Namaste]

Did anyone else get an F out of curiosity?

The F just stands for Fish. It’s not an F in the traditional sense haha.

[lou]

The F just stands for Fish. It’s not an F in the traditional sense haha.

Floundering Ownership?

[rmc523]

Did anyone else get an F out of curiosity?

The Rockies also got an F

there were 10 D’s.

[Namaste]

Well know for sure in about 20 days or so if the Marlins have circled 2025

[fish16]

Well know for sure in about 20 days or so if the Marlins have circled 2025

Here's the thing- they should have 2025 circled. But you can be realistic that 2025 is the year to compete and also not completely punt on this offseason for 2024. Those arent mutually exclusive propositions. Signing guys to 1 year deals this offseason can also help for 2025 if we fall out of it at the deadline. Doing nothing is a disgrace.

[Todd]

This ownership group is just there.

They make little effort to sign free agents. They make little effort to build up the farm system through the draft or international signings. They make little effort to lock up young players to team friendly deals.

They basically operate to spend as little as possible so they can funnel money into Sherman's pocket.

I am tired of the Marlins essentially being used as a money laundering operation for cash poor owners.

And Sherman is one of the few people who could make Loria look not that bad.