2024 Game Thread

[lou]

This team is laughably bad. DLC with a truly awful 3 pitch strikeout to end the game with Arraez on first. I’m about done with this franchise. What exactly is there to root for? 5 years from now when max Meyer will be traded anyways? Or maybe that rotation on paper that never pans out due to injuries?

I think this is the only glimmer of hope.

At some point, Sandy, Eury, Cabrera, and we'll say Garrett and Max, could be the best rotation in baseball and it may happen the second Eury is back call in summer 2025. They'd have that gang together fully 2025-2027, and in 2028 everyone is still controlled but Sandy and maybe Noble takes Sandy's spot then as he'll be 23 with 4 full seasons in the minors theoretically. If they buy out Eury, Cabrera, and Max a few free agency years, the rotation may legitimately be set into the early 2030s with what they have in house today.

Yes yes yes I know guys get hurt, unknowns, unproven. But we're talking about what to root for, and what we have to root for is a collection of pitchers who may grow into being outstanding together at the same time. And they do have the budget to lock this all down for 7-8 years from today assuming we start getting some arbitration buyouts this upcoming offseason or at latest post 2025 so you don't get into Luzardo situations.

Will it happen? No idea. Is Bendix going to trade all these arms and then aim to go Baltimore-style and aggressively draft bats and find pitching later to kick the can to 2027? Who knows. But if we're looking at the fastest on the field way to contending, it's (obviously) the rotation and maybe this year is the necessary course correction to get to a cheaper overall team payroll + having Sandy back + more arm inventory for Max/Cabrera in 2025. I frankly just hate the dishonesty. If they told us the team was smoke and mirrors in November with 1 run record and said we are tearing down 2024 unapologetically to go big in 2025, I'd be annoyed Bruce is so cheap but get it entirely from the Bendix perspective. It shows vision and a plan. What's happening now just shows no vision even with the Bruce payroll limitations. And that's frankly a rinse/repeat Kim comment as we can be sympathetic to her owner situation, but still criticize the various misses with using the resources she had poorly (bad drafts, Garcia, Segura, Cueto, etc.).


Don't get me wrong, this might be the most checked out I have ever been with the Marlins since 1992 (literally), but I'm just responding to what do we have to root for. I still really love the SP arms longterm (and there is still A LOT of club control) ignoring all the other cheap owner/seems like a dumb POBO hire so far/etc. going on. So that's what we got. We gotta hope Eury is the last of the major injuries, and then Bendix has a clue about roster building as the team is going to cost $60m next year (once they move Arraez and Luzardo) and have 20+ roster spots accounted for. How much will Bruce spend to let them build the team on top of that. The $25-75-million question one might say. If he'll greenlight $110m for 2025 (i.e. what was roughly spent in 2023), I think we will all really like the team on paper. That's the glimmer.

[Nick]

7th inning 3 run lead and the answer is Burch Smith apparently.

[Nick]

Burch fails miserably and the guy they bring in is another guy I don’t know. This is crazy.

[Todd]

Faucher is the guy they got with Brujan from TB.

[Nick]

Well he’s already contributed more than Brujan.

[Nick]

Some thoughts on our hitters so far.

Sanchez has been awful. I thought last year was a step in the right direction. He needs to get his shit together.
Garcia still needs to go.
Gordon has provided some surprising power, probably need to see more of him. His WAR is still negative. Do the metrics show he's a very bad OF? Because offensively he's been pretty good.
Anderson is washed? Looking more that way, seems to have lost all pop in his bat. 1 HR in his last 150 some games says it all.
Arraez has to be moved to 1st Base, you can't fight it any more.
Catching situation is pathetic.
Hasn't shown up in results yet, but I like what I've seen from Rivera.
DLC is DLC. His hitting numbers will be respectable end of the year, but he's a terrible outfielder, and not a good enough hitter to be a DH, so what do you do with him?
Jazz has been ok, but he's a very frustrating player to watch. He alternates from over-hustling and being reckless with his body to not hustling at all and hurting the team. There was a double in the Atlanta series where he just flat out jogged to the ball and allowed it to turn into a triple, it was super-egregious.

Xavier Edwards' injury has him missing a golden opportunity right now. He should be playing every day when healthy.

[lou]

Some thoughts on our hitters so far.

Sanchez has been awful. I thought last year was a step in the right direction. He needs to get his shit together.
Garcia still needs to go.
Gordon has provided some surprising power, probably need to see more of him. His WAR is still negative. Do the metrics show he's a very bad OF? Because offensively he's been pretty good.
Anderson is washed? Looking more that way, seems to have lost all pop in his bat. 1 HR in his last 150 some games says it all.
Arraez has to be moved to 1st Base, you can't fight it any more.
Catching situation is pathetic.
Hasn't shown up in results yet, but I like what I've seen from Rivera.
DLC is DLC. His hitting numbers will be respectable end of the year, but he's a terrible outfielder, and not a good enough hitter to be a DH, so what do you do with him?
Jazz has been ok, but he's a very frustrating player to watch. He alternates from over-hustling and being reckless with his body to not hustling at all and hurting the team. There was a double in the Atlanta series where he just flat out jogged to the ball and allowed it to turn into a triple, it was super-egregious.

Xavier Edwards' injury has him missing a golden opportunity right now. He should be playing every day when healthy.

Gordon hasn't been terrible, slightly below average defensively. It's probably the OBP for Gordon dragging him down. BTW, he has a .222 BABIP. Only 35 PA, but he should trend up to hitting higher than .226 soon. Statcast says he should be hitting .268 (with the same slugging,https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb). If the power spike is real, he could be something quickly. Remember, he has that RHP split too so that could get interesting.

A big yes to Arraez, but practically, he has to be moved to another team for a good young position player with 6 years of control + saving the monies.

Given the team is going nowhere, you give DLC 500+ PA and see if he works out that swing, or rather plate discipline. He does have his moments among all the dumb ones. His statcast (https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savan...-r-hitting-mlb) is very red and his expected slash right now is..... .299/.309/.533. His actual right now is .276/.286/.408. It's a SSS, but something is going to give here big time. This is a check in in another 100 PA for me and see, but he still hits the ball extremely hard and just swings at everything and won't walk. That's the whole story. If they can convince him to hack less he may get very good fast. Yes I know its all hopes and dreams with him, but what else are you going to do with their personnel and being a non-contender? See if something sticks. Just play him for now even if it is aggravating. DLC is lucky to be a Marlin with a big leash here.

We'll see if Edwards gets the service time manipulation treatment. It's 2+ months when he is healthy in AAA. But I hope he gets 300+ PA at the MLB level for sure.


I frankly think about this more in a rebuilding capacity at this point. I'd keep Jazz, Edwards, and then have a bucket of whoever looks good of Fortes, Pereda, Johnston, O. Lopez, Rivera, Bride, D. Myers, Sanchez, DLC, and Gordon can stay. And if not, cut'em loose (+ keep Banfield, Sasaki, and Mesa Jr. on 40 man). Full ass offensive rebuild, but hopefully 3-4 guys are good enough in that second batch of names. 10+ new guys if needed. Turn Luzardo into 2, Burger 1 (corner players easier to replace and he probably has a Mark Trumbo career trajectory where it falls apart fast in 2 years, etc.), Arraez 1, Rogers 1, and Scott 1 young bats, and use the money you'd be paying all of them in 2025 (at least $30m, plus 2024 savings which could be over $10m), to get 2-3 more bats. It's just very doable and they'd have Sandy, Cabrera, Garrett, Max, Weathers + Puk in the pen + Eury midseason. Weathers was also awesome last night. A very encouraging start for him. Would be huge if he turns into a legitimate # 4 170+ innings guy at minimum.

[Nick]

If Arraez and Bell are gone next year. IMO you have Burger and Jazz and 7 other spots that need to be filled, maybe you get a decent platoon out of Gordon/Sanchez/DLC. We definitely should not be playing service time games with Edwards, that would be ridiculous, now is the time for him to prove he's an every day player, or even an MLB player at all. So maybe 5-7 starting spots. I don't care what you get from Luzardo-Arraez trades, you're not getting 5-7 starting position players in those 2 trades.

[lou]

If Arraez and Bell are gone next year. IMO you have Burger and Jazz and 7 other spots that need to be filled, maybe you get a decent platoon out of Gordon/Sanchez/DLC. We definitely should not be playing service time games with Edwards, that would be ridiculous, now is the time for him to prove he's an every day player, or even an MLB player at all. So maybe 5-7 starting spots. I don't care what you get from Luzardo-Arraez trades, you're not getting 5-7 starting position players in those 2 trades.

I agree 5-7 is unrealistic via trade, but you can see 5-7 players including the bench easily.

I'm on the fence with Burger. It's not that I don't like him (I do), but the team just needs so much getting rid of a non-defense slugger, hitting super2 arbitration, who likely rapidly declines so you can't really view him as a 4 year player really, makes a lot of sense of this team to move if he's good right now. I'm fine either way, but if he comes back strong and looks good I think they have to seriously consider it if they can get someone with more control. And yes, I know this is the same thing one can say about DLC and he is nowhere near as good, but if he makes it he likely would age more gracefully (plus has little to no trade value probably so why not just keep him and hope versus getting more years out of Burger):

I think my hope would be they have 6 guys by the end of this year internally. My bar is really low here too:

1- Jazz - CF starter and a total stud
2- Fortes/Banfield/Pereda/Bethancourt/TBD Waiver claims - Someone is at least a solid backup
3- Edwards/Lopez/Brujan/Bride - Primary 2B or top utility ala Berti level playing time
4- Sanchez/DLC/Gordon/Brujan/Dane/Garcia/Sasaki/Mesa Jr. - 3rd/4th OF
5- Sanchez/DLC/Gordon/Brujan/Dane/Garcia/Sasaki/Mesa Jr. - Platoon/4th OF
6- Brujan/Lopez/Rivera/Bride/T. Gray/Devers/TBD Waiver claims - Solid backup IF
+ Burger if they keep him
+ Arraez if they keep him

Then its

Luzardo 2 bats, both play now
Arraez 1 bat, play now
Burger 1 bat, play now
Rogers 1 bat, play very soon
Scott 1 bat, play very soon
Plus flyer guys for probably everyone above to help the farm in a Sasaki kind of way, and others for Bell, maybe Tim, Chargois, etc.

Might not be all starting young position players there, but you're filling out the 40 man roster quickly with bats and the money you opened covers the rest. They have to spend it of course. I think 3+ young starting bats is probable via trade (Kjerstad/Mayo and Norby (Luzardo guys), K. Teel/E. Rodriguez(Arraez), and Foscoe(Rogers), etc.) and if money buys you 2 more (Adames/Gleyber? Jansen? Teoscar?), that's starting to look pretty good even if you only have Jazz and 5 platoon/bench guys coming back. Even better if they keep Burger too and he's easily getting something good if moved. This is where you fill in with Rosario for $1.5m or M. Taylor for $4m for a season if 1-2 spots are needed like normal teams operate, etc.

It's all about the money here. They will have to spend what they trade out. They can do it if Bruce wants to actually run a team. Because even if they traded all of those guys, this is coming back and cue the "please just sign a # 5 innings eater" annual comment as I think Bendix will efficiently build out a bullpen as that is a very Rays thing and he's shown he can do that as part of his last team.

Sandy, Cabrera, Garrett, Max, Weathers (Eury midseason)
___, Bender, ___, ___, ____ (likely get some of Sixto, Soriano, Faucher, Cronin, Maldonado, etc. to make it)
Nardi, Puk, _____ (maybe Simpson or Monterverde or quick Fulton recovery makes it here)


The SP must stay healthy to open 2025. It's the only hope this doesn't tailspin into the As/White Sox. But this is generally I think the smart plan assuming they don't go on an epic win streak to right the ship.

[Namaste]

DLC just hit a game tying HR.

[Namaste]

Giants almost instantly retake the lead

[Nick]

I agree 5-7 is unrealistic via trade, but you can see 5-7 players including the bench easily.

I'm on the fence with Burger. It's not that I don't like him (I do), but the team just needs so much getting rid of a non-defense slugger, hitting super2 arbitration, who likely rapidly declines so you can't really view him as a 4 year player really, makes a lot of sense of this team to move if he's good right now. I'm fine either way, but if he comes back strong and looks good I think they have to seriously consider it if they can get someone with more control. And yes, I know this is the same thing one can say about DLC and he is nowhere near as good, but if he makes it he likely would age more gracefully (plus has little to no trade value probably so why not just keep him and hope versus getting more years out of Burger):

What is this Bold part based on?

[Nick]

Luzardo 2 bats, both play now
Arraez 1 bat, play now
Burger 1 bat, play now
Rogers 1 bat, play very soon
Scott 1 bat, play very soon

How the heck are you going to expect to go 5 for 5 in trades, to give us exactly what we need in 6 young, cheap bats?

Here's a solution, keep Burger and Arraez, and you need 4 bats instead of 6.

[Nick]

C - ????
1B - Arraez
2B - Edwards
3B - ????
SS - ????
LF - Gordon/DLC/Sanchez - Pick 2
CF - Jazz
RF - ????
DH - Burger

Deal Rogers, Luzardo, Scott and one of Meyer/White

Hopefully you can get a C, 3B and OF out of that. Sign Willy Adames, Sign a SP innings eater, find a way to cobble together a bullpen through free agency and trades, and maybe if the Rotation holds up, you got something there.

[Nick]

Find a way to get Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad from Baltimore and you're halfway there IMO. Then you find a way to get a Catcher.