Marlins See Aaron Crow As A Potential Starter

On Friday, the Marlins sent LHP Brian Flynn and RHP Reid Redman to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for reliever Aaron Crow in a deal that many consider a steal for Miami.

Crow has spent the past four seasons in the Royals bullpen, posting a 3.43 ERA and a 1.322 WHIP in 233.2 innings pitched. However, the righty’s role could be changing with his new team. According to the Sun Sentinels Juan C. Rodriguez, the Marlins will give Crow an opportunity to start for them in 2015.

He has started in the minor leagues, going 12-10 with a 5.22 ERA between the 2009-2010 seasons. Though his resume isn’t pretty, the Marlins hope that experience and his time in the bullpen will amount to success in the rotation.

The starting staff was decent for the Marlins in 2014 and with the return of 2013 NL Rookie Of the Year, Jose Fernandez, they hope to be even better in 2015. They are clearly led by Fernandez and Henderson Alvarez and have a decent group of mid to back end starters. Unfortunately, a couple of them had issues in the second half of 2014.

Nathan Eovaldi pitched extremely well in the first half of the season, going 5-4 with a 3.61 ERA, a .263 batting average against, and a 1.21 WHIP in 19 starts (119.2 innings pitched), though the second half was a different story. After the all-star break he was shelled, posting a 1-10 record, a 5.51 ERA, an opponents batting average of .310 in 14 starts (80 innings). This was a major setback for a highly talented arm.

Another starter who struggled a bit in the second half was Tom Koehler, though it didn’t appear that way on the surface. He went 6-7 with a 3.99 ERA in 19 first half starts (112.2 innings pitched) while boasting a 4-3 record and a 3.55 ERA in 13 starts (78.2 innings pitched) in the second half. In this case, the team was not supporting him. If he can have an ERA in 2015 similar to his second half in 2014, the Marlins would take it in a heartbeat.

Though this may appear to be an improved performance, it wasn’t. His WHIP went from 1.23 in the first half to 1.39 in the latter part of the season, while his batting average against jumped from a very solid .229 to a rather high .274. Though the results were better, he wasn’t nearly as effective in the second half. The ERA did not match the rest of his pitching stats.

Adding Crow (a former first round pick) would certainly give the Marlins another potentially lethal arm in the rotation. At the very least, he is an experienced arm in the pen. Will he succeed in the rotation? We’ll find out this Spring.

Next: Marlins Are On Jay Bruce's No Trade Clause