Volquez joins the staff

Right-hander can log innings

MIAMI — One midweek series last August — a win sandwiched between narrow losses to the Kansas City Royals — served as the planting of a seed that has blossomed into the Miami Marlins’ first major offseason addition.

Right-hander Edinson Volquez, who the club introduced at Marlins Park on Thursday after finalizing a twoyear, $22-million contract, watched the first two games that week from the visitors’ dugout as the Marlins showed flashes of why the front office is so high on the team’s core: a three-hit night from Dee Gordon, a game-winning hit from Christian Yelich, strong relief work from young bullpen arms. Volquez started the series finale, his last win of the season.

“I told myself, that’s a pretty good team right there,” Volquez said, recalling the midsummer matchup. “Today, I’m here to play for them. I’m very happy to be here.”

For the Marlins, adding Volquez — and making him their second highest paid

pitcher behind Wei-Yin Chen — is a calculated gamble. The 33-year-old Dominican is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career (5.37 ERA, 1.55 WHIP), but Miami is betting on him bouncing back.

The equation goes something like this: Take Volquez, a pitcher with one All-Star appearance (2008 with Cincinnati) and one World Series championship (2015 with Kansas City) on his resume, and give him a bigger ballpark to pitch in, a little more offseason rest and pitching guru Jim Benedict.

Marlins Park, with its cavernous outfield, is a pitcher’s park. Kauffman Stadium, Volquez’s home field the past two seasons, is not.

“I love it. It’s a big ballpark,” Volquez said with a smile of his new home. “Especially me, getting old — I had to keep the ball down in a small ballpark. Here, I don’t have to worry about that.”

In 2015, Volquez threw 229 innings in 39 games, pitching as late as Nov. 1 as the Royals beat the Mets in the World Series. In 2016, Volquez said he felt tired. The Marlins’ thinking is that coming off a lesser workload (34 starts, 189 1⁄3 innings) and with an extra month of recuperation time, Volquez will be fresher come spring.

And then there is Benedict, Miami’s vice president of pitching development, hired away from the Pirates last offseason. Volquez worked with Benedict in Pittsburgh in 2014, when he had a 3.04 ERA and 1.23 WHIP. Benedict had some pull with regard to the organization’s decision to pursue Volquez.

“That was definitely a big part of it,” said Michael Hill, the Marlins’ president of baseball operations. “As we started our offseason meetings and we started to identify pitchers we felt could be a good fit for us, [Volquez] was at the top of the list.”

It turns out the Marlins were at the top of Volquez’s list, too. Volquez, who has lived in Miami in recent offseasons, called the Marlins his No. 1 choice.

And so the Marlins have their first addition to a starting rotation that sorely needs it, a rotation that is only beginning to feel the baseball effects of ace Jose Fernandez’s death in a boat crash in September. Volquez said he won’t try to replace Fernandez, and Hill noted that where Volquez slots into the rotation — a case can be made for anywhere from Opening Day starter to back-end filler — will be determined by manager Don Mattingly and pitching coach Juan Nieves in the spring.

“Everyone knows how the season ended for us and the challenges that we faced heading into the offseason,” Hill said. “[Starting pitching] was a need. It was an obvious need. I speak a lot about our desire to add pitching and pieces we think can help us .... ”

ALAN DIAZ/AP Marlins President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill, left, and right-hander Edinson Volquez hold up the pitcher’s new jersey as they pose during the press conference Thursday. His two-year deal is for $22 million.