Marlins will not be trade crazy
Hill: Nothing rash on the horizon with personnel
MIAMI — As the Marlins wallow in the basement of the National League in a season dominated by development and grounded in growth, the whispers of trade rumors swirl after an offseason flurry of deals emptied the team’s outfield in a series of highprofile trades.
Baseball’s trade deadline is less than three weeks away, and the Marlins entered Wednesday with the worst record in the NL, one season into new ownership’s rebuild of the franchise. They will be sellers leading to July 31, it’s just a matter of how much they sell.
“We have some talented players here,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “We’re happy with what they’re doing for us and helping us win ballgames, and we’ll continue on that path. You know the nature of this month. There’s a lot of phone calls and a lot teams that are exploring ways. That’s what you do this time of year, you explore ways to make your organization better.”
There are obvious candidates on the trading block for the Marlins: right-hander Brad Ziegler, 38, and outfielder Cameron Maybin, 31, will both be free agents at the end of the season. Second baseman Starlin Castro, 28, has one more year under club control and a $16 million team option for 2020.
Ziegler appears the most likely to be dealt to a playoff contender, especially after his recent resurgence since a demotion from the closer’s role. In his last 20 innings, Zieg-
ler has allowed just one earned run (0.45 ERA) and only 25 percent of inherited runners have scored against Ziegler.
Hill said they’ve “talked to some clubs that fit that mold, guys who are looking for that right-handed specialist.”
“This time of year, you normally see more rentals move,” Hill said. “With Ziegler, in this new role, it frees Donnie up to put him in the best possible situation to be successful. I think you look at how good he has been since he moved to earlier in the game after San Diego. You put him up against right-handed hitters and you like the matchup.”
After the veterans, though, the potential moves become more interesting.
Reports have linked young, controllable relievers Kyle Barraclough, Drew Steckenrider and Adam Conley to trade rumblings. Derek Dietrich’s name has been mentioned. All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto has had to endure trade rumors since the winter, when Miami traded Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon away.
Realmuto is a player the Marlins can build around. He’s a first-time All-Star this season and one of the best catchers in the game. He’s on pace to set career highs in batting average (.317), on-base percentage (.368), slugging percentage (.551) and OPS (.919), while providing elite defense and ranking near the top in the majors in caught stealing percentage and pop time.
Hill said Realmuto and the team both know where each other stands.
“We all have to answer these questions, but we don’t deal in rumors,” Hill said. “I think he knows where we’re at as an organization, where we stand with him as an organization.”
Realmuto won’t be a free agent for another two seasons, making him one of baseball’s most valuable assets. He’s making $2.9 million this season, and has arbitration rights the next two years.
When asked how the team’s ability to sign arbitration-eligible players to contract extensions affected Miami’s calculus approaching the trade deadline, Hill said the Marlins take each player “on a caseby-case basis.”
Right-hander Dan Straily, first baseman Justin Bour and infielder Miguel Rojas fall in the same boat as Realmuto and Dietrich, with two more seasons of club control.
“In Straily, you’ve got a controllable starting pitcher for the next 2 1⁄2 years,” Hill said. “The same with Realmuto. The same with Bour. Same with Rojas. All those guys, you have ultimate control on those guys, so it’s not something where you have to do anything.”
For players like Steckenrider (five more years of club control), Barraclough (three) and Conley (three), the Marlins hold all the chips. All three have been good — at times dominant — out of the bullpen this season, but the Marlins have them for the foreseeable future, driving the price to acquire them up.
“Our game is about maximizing value and control of players,” Hill said. “They’re our players. We drafted them. We signed them. We like them. We want to win as well.
“Any deal, unless it’s something that’s in the best interest of the Miami Marlins and our long-term goals of bringing a championship to South Florida, we’re not going to do anything rash, nothing emotional. We know where we’re at. We know where we want to go.”