Miami Marlins 2016 Offseason Discussion Thread

[Swifty]

It's going to be a long winter.

Here's who the Marlins have under contract/club control:

C - J.T. Realmuto (Arbitration Eligible 2018)
1B - Justin Bour (Arbitration Eligible 2018)
2B - Dee Gordon
3B - Martin Prado
LF- Christian Yelich
RF - Giancarlo Stanton
IF - Xavier Scruggs
IF - Miguel Rojas


SP - Wei Yin Chen
SP - Adam Conley (Arbitration Eligible 2019)
SP - Justin Nicolino (Arb. El. 2019)
SP - Jose Urena (Arb. El. 2019)
RP - Kyle Barraclough (Arb. El. 2019)
RP - Brian Ellington
RP - Nick Wittgren

Arbitration Eligible:
SP - Tom Koehler
SP - David Phelps
CF - Marcel Ozuna
SS - Adeiny Hechavarria
RP - AJ Ramos
IF - Derek Dietrich

Club Options
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
RP - Fernando Rodney

Notable Free Agents:
SP - Andrew Cashner
C - Jeff Mathis
IF - Chris Johnson
RP - Dustin McGowan
RP - Mike Dunn


Irreplaceable: Jose Fernandez.

Team's going to get really expensive with the bumps to G, Chen, Yelich, Gordon (all of whom are still on pretty affordable deals in context of the 2017 obligation, even G).

I'd pick up Rodney and Ichiro's options. I'd probably non-tender Hech unless he'll take a 2 or 3 year deal because his arbitration award figures to be in excess of $5 mil which is a lot for an all glove no bat SS.

Team needs 3, maybe 4 SP (with one as an emergency guy / long man) assuming Koehler is kept. Makes sense to bring back Phelps and considering how awful he's been, maybe Cashner becomes cost effective to keep.

I just don't see how this team can be competitive (like 85+ wins as a certainty) without a payroll at or over $100 mil. Time for another rebuild...I guess around Yelich. Though at 24 and looking at a 4-5 year plan (because the minor league cupboard is bare) maybe it makes sense to dangle him too.

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But if you want to play the competitive game, I think dealing Ozuna for a pitcher, moving Yelich full time to center, signing a guy to give you 20-ish homers in left on a one year deal (Holliday?) and finding a chip SS or just giving the job to Rojas allows for some major spending on the rotation (which is what it will take) and lets you spend on two FA pitchers (though the pickings are slim) while keeping Cashner. The name that Barry Jackson keeps reporting the Marlins have interest in is Ivan Nova, but he's basically Ricky Nolasco. I'd rather Volquez and they're probably going to both be in line for five year deals. Or you focus on a big money guy that the team would like to get out from under and hope that a change of scenery works wonders.

[nny]

Cashner won't resign here with the whole facial hair thing.

I think Chen could bounce back considering he was injured. But that's still two #3's and three #5's. And the only thing they can get FA is #5's. And the best they can do for Ozuna is probably a #3.

The team is fucked in every possible orifice for the foreseeable future. They didn't just tragically lose the ace, the lost the piece that was going to restock the system. Here's to 2020 if we're lucky

[Swifty]

I think it's one #3 (Chen) and three #4's (Koehler, Conley, Phelps). The rest are too raw to project, except at this point you probably give up on Nicolino because he's had his chances and not done much.

[Nick]

I really think Phelps was a different pitcher this year than he was in the past, his stuff was way better than it ever was with the Yankees and in is first year with us. If he's in the rotation next year, and is able to stay healthy I'll go as far as to say I think he'll be our best starter.

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It makes me wonder how we would've done if we'd broke Spring Training with a rotation of Fernandez, Conley, Phelps, Chen, and Koehler. I know Phelps helped stabilize the bullpen at the beginning of the season, but let's also remember how royally the organization fucked up the bullpen out of spring training. If our proper bullpen wasn't in AAA at the beginning of the season I think they would've been fine.

What really hurt the rotation this year was how much of a disaster our fill-in guys were (Cosart, Nicolino, Urena, other guys who I can't remember their names) and then also how much a disaster Cashner was.

[nny]

I agree about Phelps, but I'll be legitimately surprised if he's in the rotation. The fact he finished the year in the pen makes me think he'll be in the pen again next year. Only 5 starts but 2.22 ERA/2.94 FIP/2.97 xFIP is incredibly good (only 3 SP in MLB finished with a sub-3 FIP), he showed it could translate as a starter. He wouldn't be that good over a full season but I think he's the only in-house option that has the possibility of being a top of the line SP. And fully expect him to be the 7 inning RP because Marlins

[geemoney]

Jon Heyman Tweeted that Barry Bonds is being let go.

[emkayseven]

I figured he wouldn't return but thought it'd be on his own volition. What did he do to warrant being let go??

[geemoney]

Heyman has a story up on it now on Inside Knuckleball. No real details other than the Marlins being low in the league in runs scored and some other offensive stats, despite the high team average.

[emkayseven]

Lenny Harris and Reid Cornelius also let go

[MiamiHomer]

Will Manso and some others say Stanton didn't like Bonds and how he handled some stuff. Like being openly critical of Stanton on some occasions.

[HUGG]

Mattingly reportedly would have quit if they retained Bonds.

http://nypost.com/2016/10/03/don-mat...bonds-anymore/

[nny]

Low runs is a dumb reasons (cuz that's the line up you constructed)

But Manager/Stanton pretty reasonable

[geemoney]

I don't know what other teams' situations are, but it seems like we always have a lot of coaching turnover, even on the rare occasion that the manager is retained.

[geemoney]

Clark Spencer floated Mike Pagliarulo as a possible hitting coach hire, and old friend Fredi Gonzalez as a 3B coach candidate.

[Madman81]

pretty much dumping the guys that were around regardless of whether mattingly wanted it, right?