Marlins Sign Mike Morse to a Two Year Deal

[lou]

ESPN says 8 mil over 2 years with some incentives

$8 million total? That's got to be per year. That's amazing if he is $4 a year.

Either way, that's fine for him. It's an upgrade, even if only likely 1 win on the year. Still would have thought Headley and shift McGehee is a better idea.

Still feel they are a healthy Fernandez and 1 more player away
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I can't believe it's 2/$8. The incentives have got to be tasty.

That's really solid.

[Madman81]

even if it's a couple million in incentives, it still seems like a huge home run, especially compared to the mountain of money that headley got (and that he supposedly left more on the table)

[Jay]

We had another .800+ OPS candidate in house??

No but Morse isn't a clear .800+ OPS candidate either. Sure his line looked that way last year but he hasn't consistently performed at that level.

It's a good signing if it's $4 mill a year because it adds depth but to be excited about Morse as the big bat is absurd.
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Signing Headley to a 4 year / $60 mill deal would have made much more sense than this.

[sports24/7]

No but Morse isn't a clear .800+ OPS candidate either. Sure his line looked that way last year but he hasn't consistently performed at that level.

It's a good signing if it's $4 mill a year because it adds depth but to be excited about Morse as the big bat is absurd.
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Signing Headley to a 4 year / $60 mill deal would have made much more sense than this.

Morse's career OPS: .808

[Nick]

He's got a career OPS of .808, his OPS last year was .811 so I'd say it's reasonable to expect about .800 OPS out of Morse, and considering it's really not reasonable to expect much more than a .700 OPS out of Jones or McGehee at this point then yes it's a significant upgrade.

[Madman81]

Signing Headley to a 4 year / $60 mill deal would have made much more sense than this.

wut

[Erick]

Can someone explain why you are excited about Morse? I just don't see him making a bigger impact than what was available in house.

He's definitely better than what we had.
He's a good hitter. Hopefully he can stay healthy now that he doesn't have to play the OF anymore.
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No but Morse isn't a clear .800+ OPS candidate either. Sure his line looked that way last year but he hasn't consistently performed at that level.

It's a good signing if it's $4 mill a year because it adds depth but to be excited about Morse as the big bat is absurd.
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Signing Headley to a 4 year / $60 mill deal would have made much more sense than this.

Morse is a better hitter than Headley.

[HUGG]

His bad 2013 featured a .254babip

[Erick]

If he only signed for 2/8 and Haren doesn't comeback, that would mean that we'd have room for another impact player even with our ridiculous $65m budget, right?

[lou]

If he only signed for 2/8 and Haren doesn't comeback, that would mean that we'd have room for another impact player even with our ridiculous $65m budget, right?

I think they are around $78 right now, not including the Dodgers $12.5 million.

If they ditch/retire Haren, can save half of G. Jones contract, and trade Eovaldi for I guess a young 3B who is MLB ready very soon, they have reduced that $78 to $62 range (again not including Dodger Bucks, so let's say $50 out of Loria's pocket).

Meaning yes, they can dump Shields on top of this. Shields, Alvarez, Latos, Cosart, Koehler, with Fernandez coming, plus some additional trade assets.

Decrease salary even more with moving Cishek's $7
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Shields also means no draft pick, meaning save another $2-2.5 signing bonus money for Loria
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I also say Shields because he's just the most expensive, as an example of still a ton of flexibility.

Still can't believe he is 2/$8

[Swifty]

It's too bad the rest of the infield will likely be replacement level or below (but Gordon can run fast) because that's a crazy deal.

I really think this team's a hitter away.

[Jay]

Headley is much more valuable player than Morse and at a position of scarcity which we have no one in the system that can be projected to be average. Morse starting is worth a win at most over what we had which isn't much of an upgrade. Headley would be be worth ~3 wins over anything we had and would fill that position for a few years. A good GM is still looking for an upgrade over Morse at first because he isn't that valuable. If he was as valuable as you guys are acting like he is, he'd be signing a 3 year deal for much more than $4 mill a year.

We haven't had stability and production at third base since Cabs was traded. I'd happily overpay someone like Headley to give us that for a few years. Who do we slot in third base when McGhee's OPS is below .650 for the first half like it was for the second half? The only option we have is Cox I believe. Unless you want to have any gain from the bat be worthless because of Dietrich's defense or if you want to just go pure defense with Rojas. The front office should have realized that upgrading third base was the number one priority after extending players.

[Bobbob1313]

Still don't love the Gordon trade, but I love Latos and Morse at their prices.

I think Gordon and Morse at 2B and 1B can represent 4-5 collective win upgrade over what they ran out there last season. And if Latos can find even his 2011-2012 form while staying healthy, that's a massive upgrade over the 30-something starts they got from the Penny/Slowey/Turner/Heaney/Wolf combo a year ago.

Like, that could be a 50-run upgrade.

[Madman81]

the organization ain't playing with monopoly money, and didn't headley turn down more money from houston to play in new york?

[Bobbob1313]

I'm on board with Lou's idea of trying to snag Luis Valbuena from the Cubs as a utility guy/eventual replacement for McGehee when he's OPSing .640 and leading the league in GDP's in June.