Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Busy time for winter revamp
Marlins ready to move quickly at annual meeting
LAKE BUENA VISTA — Friday marked the halfway point of the Miami Marlins’ offseason, 68 days since their last game and 68 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. And despite the beginnings of organization-wide change the effect on the roster has only just begun.
That sets up a busy second half, starting this week at the sport’s annual Winter Meetings.
The off-field baseball world — including every front office, many agents, many more reporters, minor league team officials and even a few players — descended upon the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort over the weekend. They will stay through Thursday morning, and between actual formal meetings (for general managers, for public relations staffs, for job seekers at the minor league career fair) there will be plenty of trade talks and contract negotiations.
It is, traditionally, among the more active portions of the offseason.
“Everyone has a clear path — or hopefully has a clear path — of what they want to get accomplished,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said last week.
The Marlins know what they want to accomplish, even if they don’t publicly phrase it this way — cutting payroll. As such, they are positioned to be among the busiest clubs at the Winter Meetings, at least in rumors and conversations with other teams, if not consummated transactions.
Having already traded second baseman Dee Gordon to the Mariners and agreed to trade right fielder Giancarlo Stanton to the New York Yankees in a deal expected to be announced today, shedding more than $300 million in future payroll obligations in the process, Miami has several more players who are attractive to other clubs.
“The overall goal remains the same — We need to get better,” Hill said. “We need to improve our overall depth. I’m still not 100 percent sure how we will go about doing so, but that is still the goal as we head to [the Winter Meetings].”
Hill said last month that some players are more likely to be traded than others. The Marlins’ recent history and industry norms offer hints at who is more likely to go — players who are more expensive and closer to free agency.
But unlike with the Stanton and Gordon deals, in which the primary benefit to the Marlins was getting rid of the money, further major Miami moves this offseason should bring a more significant prospect return. The Marlins are reportedly targeting a payroll in the neighborhood of $90 million. Right now, they’re projected at about $107 million.
Left fielder Marcell Ozuna, projected to make about $11 million via salary arbitration, is the most expensive Marlin remaining after Stanton and Gordon (besides the difficult-totrade and highly paid Martin Prado and Edinson Volquez). Ozuna is scheduled to be a free agent after the 2019 season.
Second baseman Starlin Castro, the only major leaguer coming to South Florida in the pending Stanton deal, is set for $22 million over the next two seasons. It’s possible the Marlins could flip him to any of the several teams looking for a second baseman.
Beyond those two, several players fit the general description of significantly cheaper and further from free agency: Christian Yelich, Dan Straily, Justin Bour and J.T. Realmuto. They could be had — Hill and CEO Derek Jeter said last month the Marlins will listen on all of their players — but there is less urgency for the Marlins to trade them. Yelich and Realmuto in particular could fetch prospect hauls.
Jeter said last week he will not be at the Winter Meetings. If and when Hill and his cohort of baseballoperations underlings want to make a move, they’ll keep their chief executive updated.
“I can’t speculate on anything in terms of any of our specific players,” Hill said. “Yelich and Ozuna are Marlins and will be Marlins until they’re not. From our standpoint, we’ll head into the Winter Meetings with an open mind and looking at ways for us to get better.”