Marlins finalize deal with Ziegler

The Marlins’ front office closed for the ChristmasNew Year’s stretch, but not before wrapping up a bit of leftover business: finalizing right-handed reliever Brad Ziegler’s two-year, $16 million contract.

The club made it official Friday afternoon, and president of baseball operations Michael Hill said the sidearming Ziegler will serve as a setup man to incumbent closer A.J. Ramos. Ziegler joins Kyle Barraclough, David Phelps and Junichi Tazawa as manager Don Mattingly’s primary setup options.

“That is the plan,” Hill said. “And we just wanted to add as many as high-leverage, impactful pieces to our bullpen as we could. We felt like with the addition of Tazawa and now Ziegler, we’ve been able to add two very good pieces to an already strong bullpen.”

Ziegler, 37, joins Miami after splitting 2016 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox, posting a 2.25 ERA and 1.37 WHIP. He also struck out a career-best 7.7 batters per nine innings and induced ground balls at a 63.3 percent clip — a top-five mark among major league relievers that was actually a tad worse than Ziegler’s career norm.

Although he didn’t break into the big leagues until he was 28 years old — with the Oakland A’s in 2008 — Ziegler has pitched in at least 60 games each of the past eight seasons, the only hurler in the majors who can lay claim to that feat. His 2.44 career ERA ranks eighth among relievers since 2008.