
In my last post about the Marlins I went into brief detail about the history of the franchise. You can find that post here. The main point that I wanted to get across was that the Marlins are no stranger to an extreme roster turnover. Nothing is out of the question with that organization and many of their decisions are for lack of a better word – questionable.
Given the opportunity – I think that I could lay the groundwork for another drastic rebuild of the Marlins.
Unfortunately, I do not have any access to the Miami Marlins front office. I am just a simple elementary school teacher. The only tool that I have at my disposal is my Playstation 4 and MLB The Show 19.
With that in mind, here is my plan for tearing down and rebuilding the Miami Marlins for the 2019 season and beyond.
Rules
- I cannot tinker with trades. I can only offer up players, or identify players that I am interested in.
- Players have to be played at their primary position, unless there are injuries.
- That is all I can think of right now.
State Of The Initial Roster

This team is not good. Looking at this lineup there are only two players that I could see building around – Brian Anderson and Jorge Alfaro. The rest are either bloated contracts with old players, or younger players that would not produce a competitive roster.

I am a little more optimistic about the state of the rotation. We are missing a true ace on the hill – and the bullpen is lacking – but at least I have some young arms to work with here.
Budget

We started out with $71,000,000 on the books for 2019 and only were committed to $17,000,000 for 2020. While that is still relatively low in terms of an overall salary, for the amount of talent that I had, I wanted it to be much lower.
Getting Rid Of The Bad Contracts
My first big move as the new GM of the Miami Marlins was to dump as much salary as possible. Fortunately for me the Marlins do not have many players that I deem keepable. I pretty much took whatever I could get prospects-wise for my big contracts. The first player that I wanted to get rid of was Wei-Yin Chen. He is worth $32 million over the next two years. That is insane for a 33 year old of his caliber.

I offered Wei-Yin Chen out to the baseball universe and this was the best I could get. A 34 year old outfielder in Jon Jay and two 29 year old D potential prospect. On the bright side I was able to save $10 million for 2019 and remove $17 million from the 2020 season.
To save some scrolling space I made a number of moves in the table below that resulted in some extreme salary savings as well as obtaining a few decent prospects.
Traded | Age | Ovr. | Pot. | To | Rec. | Age | Pos. | Ovr. | Pot |
Jon Jay | 34 | 69 | D | Rays | Joe Park | 21 | C | 46 | C |
Bryan Holaday | 31 | 72 | C | Rays | Lewis Radford | 18 | 3B | 53 | B |
Martin Prado | 35 | 67 | D | Brewers | Edgar Lopez | 23 | CF | 47 | C |
– | – | – | – | – | Matt Albers | 36 | RP | 65 | C |
– | – | – | – | – | David Freitas | 30 | C | 59 | D |
Miguel Rojas | 30 | 72 | D | A’s | Juan Franco | 22 | 1B | 48 | B |
Adam Conley | 28 | 74 | C | Mariners | Marco Montanez | 20 | 3B | 61 | C |
Sergio Romo | 36 | 80 | B | Indians | Maxwell Castillo | 22 | RP | 71 | C |
Starlin Castro | 29 | 82 | C | Twins | Carmen Cedeno | 18 | SP | 64 | B |
Curtis Granderson | 38 | 74 | C | Giants | Julio Lopez | 23 | CP | 62 | B |
Matt Albers | 36 | 70 | C | D-Backs | Steve Garvey | 22 | 1B | 48 | C |
Neil Walker | 33 | 74 | C | Mets | Rodney Tucker | 26 | 3B | 48 | A |
Martin Prado was the only player that I was able to move for multiple players, two of which were in their 30’s. Jon Jay and Matt Albers were immediately traded once I received them, they just didn’t fit into my vision for the future of the franchise. Overall, I am pretty happy with this roster clean-out and salary dump. I was able to shed all of my heavy contracts and aging players without having to eat any of the contracts.

Now I am at a spot where I am totally happy with my player salaries. I am down from $71M to $25M. I went from having $17M guaranteed in bad contracts to being left with $0 committed for the 2020 season.
Trading For Talent
This question gets asked often – if you were starting a franchise, which player would you want to build around?
Unlike the history of the Marlins, I envision this being a competitive and consistent team in the future. I do not want to continue the history of extreme roster turnover. With that in mind – I would want to start my franchise with the #1 prospect in baseball. That prospect being just 19 years old – Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
I went to the Blue Jays and told them I was interested. To my surprise, they came back with the following offer:

Traded | Age | Ovr. | Pot. | To | Rec. | Age | Pos. | Ovr. | Pot |
Brian Anderson | 25 | 79 | A | Blue Jays | Vladamir Guerrero Jr. | 19 | 3B | 87 | A |
Trevor Richards | 25 | 76 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
William Ryu | 20 | 74 | A | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Of course I accepted this trade. I gave up a lot – my two best prospects and a starter from my rotation. I had the opportunity to grab a generational talent – at just 19 years old – I had to take it. Would this trade happen in real life? Probably not. I doubt the Blue Jays would trade him for anyone not named Mike Trout. Guess what? This isn’t real life, and I now have Vlad Jr.
Now that I had the building block of my franchise I needed to fill out the rest of my lineup. I wanted to target versatile players – I want to be able to have about 12 players rotate in and out of the lineup playing consistently.
I made the following additional trades:
Traded | Age | Ovr. | Pot. | To | Rec. | Age | Pos. | Ovr. | Pot |
Jose Urena | 27 | 77 | C | Padres | Franchy Cordero | 24 | CF | 64 | B |
T.J. Hager | 25 | 73 | B | Dodgers | Max Muncy | 28 | 1B | 78 | B |
Peter O’Brien | 28 | 69 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Franchy Cordero | 24 | 65 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Austin Dean | 25 | 67 | B | Dodgers | Kike Hernandez | 27 | LF | 83 | C |
Darius Craven | 20 | 46 | A | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Andreas Escobar | 26 | 66 | C | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Lewis Brinson | 24 | 62 | A | Mets | Michael Conforto | 26 | RF | 80 | B |
Elieser Hernandez | 23 | 67 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Austin Brice | 25 | 68 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Pablo Lopez | 23 | 73 | B | Dodgers | Chris Taylor | 28 | CF | 78 | B |
Willy Ramirez | 25 | 72 | A | Royals | Aldaberto Mondesi | 23 | SS | 82 | B |
Drew Steckenrider | 28 | 83 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Jarlin Garcia | 26 | 68 | B | Cardinals | Jose Martinez | 30 | RF | 78 | C |
Rosell Herrera | 26 | 66 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Lewis Radford | 18 | 53 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
J.T. Riddle | 27 | B | 71 | Pirates | Adam Frazier | 27 | 2B | 77 | B |
Randal Johnson | 19 | B | 56 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Patrick Potts | 23 | C | 70 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Michael Conforto | 26 | B | 78 | Pirates | Chris Archer | 30 | SP | 83 | B |
Rob Harris | 20 | C | 71 | – | Trevor Williams | 26 | SP | 81 | B |
Gabby Guerrero | 25 | B | 67 | Yankees | Cameron Maybin | 31 | CF | 71 | C |
– | – | – | – | – | Troy Tulowitzki | 34 | SS | 69 | C |
– | – | – | – | – | Tommy Kahnle | 29 | RP | 77 | C |
Cameron Maybin | 31 | C | 72 | Giants | Gerardo Parra | 31 | RF | 75 | C |
– | – | – | – | – | Eric Kratz | 38 | C | 72 | B |
Gerardo Parra | 31 | C | 69 | Angels | Louis Garcia | 32 | RP | 78 | C |
I decided to move on from Jose Urena – my best starting pitcher at the time. He was the one true salary outlier I had left. His potential was not great either, so I acquired a good outfield prospect in Franchy Cordero. I assumed Cordero would provide better trade value.
I made a ton of moves – players acquired that I deemed as on my major league roster were:
- Max Muncy – 1B
- Devon Travis – 2B
- Kike Hernandez – LF
- Jose Martinez – RF
- Chris Archer – SP
- Trevor Willians – SP
- Adam Frazier – 2B
- Aldaberto Mondesi – SS
- Chris Taylor – CF
- Troy Tulowitzki – SS
I obviously needed to supplement my roster some more, so I turned to Free Agency next.
Free Agency
I definitely had some big holes to fill (thats what she said) with my major league roster. My pitching staff was limited Trevor Williams and Chris Archer. Dallas Keuchel was available so I went out and saw what I could sign him at.

Pretty great signing in my option. A former Cy Young winner to be the ace of my staff at under $6 million for a year. Obviously my next move was to grab a closer, and Craig Kimbrel was the obvious answer to anchor my bullpen.

I feel like the salary was a bit high, but it is only for one season and I am not committed to anything long-term. I can’t complain about that. I can always flip him at the deadline for prospects if we are not competitive.
The next batch of free agents were signed to fill out my bench and my pitching staff. I wanted to keep things short-term and relatively low cost.
Major League Free Agents Signed:
Name | Age | Position | OVR | Years | Yearly Salary |
Logan Morrison | 31 | 1B | 73 | 1 | $2.5M |
A.J. Ramos | 32 | RP | 80 | 2 | $3.9M |
Josh Fields | 33 | RP | 78 | 1 | $2.7M |
Pedro Alvarez | 32 | 1B | 70 | 2 | $1.8M |
Danny Valencia | 34 | RF | 73 | 2 | $2.5M |
Ervin Santana | 36 | SP | 77 | 1 | $4.1M |
Adam Liberatore | 31 | RP | 80 | 2 | $2.0M |
Ryan Madson | 38 | RP | 79 | 1 | $3.7M |
Chase Whitley | 29 | SP | 77 | 1 | $3.0M |
I now have a few solid bats and veteran leadership on my bench. Morrison and Alvarez provide some pop from the left side, while Valencia will be my go to guy against left handed pitching. Santana will be a solid starter in my rotation, and the other arms fill out my bullpen pretty nicely.
Minor League Free Agents Signed:
Name | Age | Position | OVR | Years | Yearly Salary |
Alfredo Molina | 24 | RF | 72 | 1 | $70K |
Charlie Weaver | 19 | CF | 73 | 1 | $100K |
Martin Riedling | 18 | RF | 74 | 1 | $100K |
Elliott Zimmer | 19 | SP | 65 | 1 | $70K |
Cyrus Reyna | 19 | RP | 70 | 1 | $90K |
Bryce Geiger | 18 | 1B | 75 | 1 | $100K |
Alex Jordan | 22 | SS | 68 | 1 | $80K |
Lawrence Jackson | 25 | SP | 72 | 1 | $90K |
Clifton Hand | 20 | CF | 64 | 1 | $70K |
Brian Chu | 24 | SS | 71 | 1 | $100K |
Antone Cruz | 18 | LF | 75 | 1 | $100K |
Russell Brooks | 21 | 1B | 66 | 1 | $80K |
Tom Park | 19 | SP | 67 | 1 | $80K |
Julio Francisco | 20 | 3B | 62 | 1 | $70K |
Guillermo Perez | 19 | SP | 65 | 1 | $70K |
Alden Floyd | 22 | RP | 68 | 1 | $70K |
Gilberto Becerra | 21 | CP | 69 | 1 | $90K |
Jamie Leece | 22 | 3B | 72 | 1 | $90K |
Fuzzy Miklich | 22 | CF | 67 | 1 | $90K |
There was quite a lot of talent and potential hidden in free agency. I am excited to see how Geiger, Weaver, and Riedling turn out – there is a ton of talent there with all three being under 20 years old.
More Trades
I really liked where my team was at this point, but I wanted to add a little speed to my outfield. I also didn’t have a great contact guy for the top of my lineup. I took a look at the trading block and saw that Starling Marte was listed on the block.
I decided to make these last few trades to firm up my roster:
Traded | Age | Ovr. | Pot. | To | Rec. | Age | Pos. | Ovr. | Pot |
Chris Taylor | 28 | 77 | B | Pirates | Starling Marte | 30 | CF | 86 | B |
Adam Frazier | 27 | 73 | B | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Chad Wallach | 27 | B | 59 | Blue Jays | Devon Travis | 28 | 2B | 75 | B |
Tommy Kahnle | 29 | C | 79 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Magneuris Sierra | 22 | B | 63 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Caleb Smith | 27 | B | 74 | Rangers | Delino Deshields Jr. | 26 | CF | 78 | B |
– | – | – | – | – | Chris Martin | 32 | RP | 78 | C |
I was a little frustrated to have to include Chris Taylor in that deal. He provided me an incredible amount of versatility in my lineup. I also had to include Adam Frazier, who was slated to start at second base for me. I am pretty excited to plug in Marte at the top of my lineup and in CF though.
After losing Frazier I was able to acquire Devon Travis for a reliever, a career minor leaguer, and a decent prospect. I then sought to add some speed to my bench, as I was not able to add any during free agency. Delino Deshields Jr. provides me a solid option as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement in the outfield and at second base. He can also help Vlad Jr. navigate life as a major leaguer that is the son of a former major leaguer.
Starting Lineup

I am extremely happy with where the roster is at compared to where it started.
- Starling Marte has great speed and contact at the top of my lineup – while also providing excellent defense in center field.
- Jose Martinez is tremendous hitter, defense is a bit shaky but his bat should make up for it.
- Max Muncy gives me some lefty power from the three hole and versatility on defense.
- Vladamir Guerrero Jr. is the heart and should of this lineup in the four spot.
- Jorge Alfaro is one of the few holdovers from the Marlins roster that I inherited. He is a solid young catcher with a decent bat.
- Kike Hernandez provides me a ton of lineup flexibility and a good bat from the right handed side.
- Aldaberto Mondesi provides great speed and good defense from shortstop.
- Devon Travis is a serviceable second baseball with a good bat.
My bench provides me with some good options – especially using pinch hitters in the National League.
- Delino Deshields Jr. will be primarily used as a pinch runner and defensive replacement.
- Logan Morrison will be used as a lefty bat off the bench, much like Pedro Alvarez.
- Troy Tulowitzki is veteran leadership to help out my young players.
- Danny Valencia is around to attack left-handed pitchers.
- Erik Kratz will be used sparingly to help spell Alfaro.
Rotation

The Marlins have much better rotation and bullpen at this point as well.
- Dallas Keuchel is my Cy Young and the ace of the staff.
- Chris Archer provides a consistent righty arm and necessary swagger.
- Ervin Santana brings that veteran leadership and will do a good job eating innings throughout the season.
- Chase Whitley and Trevor Williams will be solid back of the rotation guys.
The bullpen has some solid guys – but is a different story. It is essentially a group of rag-tag free agents. All solid arms, but none will be with the club for long. Craig Kimbrel is the marquee guy in my pen.
Analysis
As of today (May 16th, 2019), the Miami Marlins are projected to finish the season at 59-103 by FanGraphs – 27 games behind the Phillies in the NL East.
FiveThirtyEight currently has the Marlins with a <1% chance to make the playoffs. They are projected on that website to finish at 55-107.
I am pretty optimistic with where the roster that I have created is at – and fully expect my Marlins to surpass both projected win totals by the All-Star break.
Where do you think my new-look Marlins will end up in the 2019 season? What moves did you like? Which moves do you think will backfire on my franchise? Who should I target as the season progresses?
– Buzz