The Marlins lost more than a ball game on Friday night. Notwithstanding tumbling to the Dodgers, LAD 7, MIA 1, the Marlins lost slugger Giancarlo Stanton to an arm injury. He endured a broken bone up his left hand while swinging in the 6th inning. The Marlins has not authoritatively reported anything yet, but rather our Jon Heyman has affirmed the news:
There are a ton of small, simple to-break bones in your grasp, and they can take a few weeks to mend. (Stanton is relied upon to miss 4-6 weeks.) And they need to mend as well, there’s no playing through this sort of harm. You can’t swing the bat appropriately in the event that you can’t grasp the bat legitimately.
Friday’s misfortune dropped the Marlins to 30-45 this season, which has been a gigantic frustration to date. The group let go director Mike Redmond a couple of weeks prior and replaced him with GM Dan Jennings in an inquisitive move that did not help things. In the event that anything, the move has exacerbated things.
Miami is currently 11.5 match back in the NL East and 10.5 match back of a trump card spot, so moving over into the race with Stanton would be extreme. Doing it without MLB’s grand slam 27 and RBI 67 pioneer will be near to unthinkable. FanGraphs has their postseason chances at a minor 0.7 percent. Wow.
In the event that the Marlins weren’t trading sooner the due date – there were zero signs they were – the Stanton harm ought to push them in that course. It’s an intense pill to swallow, particularly after their occupied offseason, however its the best move for the establishment. They most likely have some attractive pieces:
– Dan Haren: Workhorse veteran righty with a 3.38 ERA, 114 ERA+, in 15 begins and 93.1 innings he’s to be a free agent after this season. Are the Dodgers bringing him back? In the end they’re paying his salary.
– Mat Latos: Another free agent starter, which are the sort of players who are constantly well known at the trade deadline. Latos has a 5.49 ERA, 70 ERA+ average, and as improved tremendously 4.12 ERA in June, finally recovering his speed.
– Jeff Baker: Baker is another free agent-to-be, and while he is only a utility player, he’s a career lefty masher, hitting .297/.352/.513 (129 OPS+) against southpaws in his career (125 OPS+ in 2015). Surely a contender would give up a prospect to add Baker to their bench for the stretch run, right?
– Ichiro Suzuki: Ichiro! Ichiro is best used as a fourth outfielder at this point of his career, though he’s still a bat control freak and is hitting a respectable .275 with a .325 on-base percentage this year (zero power, however). Plus he’s Ichiro. He’ll help sell tickets.
– Martin Prado: Prado could be tough to trade. For starters, he’s had a really disappointing year, hitting just .272/.311/.370 (89 OPS+), plus he’s now on the DL with a shoulder injury and will miss several weeks. Prado’s also owed $8 million next year, which isn’t a ton in today’s game but it’s not nothing either.
– Mike Dunn: Dunn would be a very popular trade piece as a hard-throwing left-handed reliever who is under team control as an arbitration-eligible player in 2016. His ERA is inflated this season, 4.68, but teams will look at the strikeouts, 9.0 K/9, the velocity (averages 94.6 mph) and the lefty dominance (53 OPS+ against) and see a big bullpen upgrade. There should be a ton of interest in Dunn.
The Marlins could try to move some other pieces, Michael Morse? Steve Cishek? David Phelps? but those six names above seem to be the most likely trade candidates. That assumes Miami won’t look to move youngsters like Christian Yelich, Dee Gordon, Adeiny Hechavarria and Marcell Ozuna.
Losing Stanton is a huge blow to the Marlins and a big blow to all baseball fans who love seeing long home runs. Baseball is less fun without Stanton. The Marlins were pretty much out of the race without their franchise player and his injury all but confirms it. The best thing for them right now is selling off veteran pieces at the trade deadline and re-stocking the farm system, especially since there appear to be so few sellers. This is a chance to take advantage of the market.