And the offseason is underway. The Rays lose to the Phillies in 5 games, a bit of a shocker in my opinion, and with that, the offseason is official. Now the Marlins have to look to find a way to compete against the new world champions, the Phillies. Just raises the stakes a bit.
The Marlins had been long rumored to deal Mike Jacobs and today they traded away the left handed power hitting firstbaseman to the Kansas City Royals for pitcher Leo Nunez.
Jacobs was acquired from the Mets for Carlos Delgado. A converted catcher, Jacobs has shown at times manageable defense while at the same time blossoming into a pretty impressive power hitter. He was a member of the historic infield that hit over 30 home runs at each position, putting up 32 himself (once every 14.9 ABs) while also driving in 93 RBIs. His average, .247, and his OBP, .299, were what ultimately drove the Marlins to go in a new direction. That and the Marlins feel they have depth at the corner spots which makes Jacobs expendable.
In Nunez, the Marlins are getting a reliever for the bullpen that could be a late inning reliever and a possible closer candidate. The 22 year old struck out 26 in 48.1 IP, walking 15 and giving up 45 hits. He was 4-1 with a 2.85 ERA. His velocity seems pretty good, reaching into the solid 90′s.
Still, early analysis is that the Royals got the better end of this deal. The Marlins were already looking to ship Jacobs and in fact, this may have been a deal that was pretty much done around mid-season as we come to find out the Royals were very interested in Jacobs back then as well. The Marlins had to make a deal because they were not planning on going to arbitration with Jacobs and paying him what is expected to be around $3.5M for this next season. With his low OBP, and the generally high strike out ratio of the Marlins offense, some re-tooling is needed by the Marlins who are looking to get back to speed and defense to create more balance.
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Rays in World Series; What Does This Mean for Marlins Offseason?
I know it is a strange thing to ask – so let’s first give congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays for making it into their first ever World Series. They went from worst to first – and truly turned around one of the worst franchises in baseball. It was done in a very short amount of time as the new ownership continued to stress building with young talent and focusing on their hitting surplus to get them there.
I hate to sound like a bandwagoner but I actually picked the Rays to win the whole thing back on October 7th. I just feel that this team is playing the best baseball in the league these days and they have been doing it for so long now. So, good luck Rays. I hope I didn’t curse you.
This begs the question though for us Marlin fans, what about us? The Marlins were hanging tough at the end of this season staying in contention when no one picked this team to even finish anywhere near .500. The fact of the matter is, this team is very talented and really, just a few blown saves from a playoff appearance and who knows? The pivotal sign was the final series against the Phillies – the Marlins blew them out in the first game, but dropped the next two in close matches.
And that team is now in the World Series facing the Rays, who swept the Marlins earlier in the year by the way.
Still, if you’re a fan of the Marlins, you got to feel pretty good about things. The Marlins need to re-tool their lineup, get more contact and put the ball in play more, but the pitching is there if it can finally stay healthy. Will the Rays amazing season push the Marlins brass to dig a little deeper into their pockets in order to get back into the playoffs? It is an interesting proposition but signs point to no as the Marlins will most likely continue to be frugal and not overpay for talent and instead look to maximize value on their returns.
There is virtually a whole team on this roster that is arbitration eligible – which means the Marlins will most likely be faced with some hard decisions and some turnover. Yet, if the Rays can beat the Phillies, who are in the World Series, the measuring stick for the Marlins is not all that big in terms of landing into the playoffs again.
And maybe the Rays success will push the Marlins to be a little bit more competitive during this upcoming offseason.