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Miami Marlins: An Early Look Ahead at 2016

By Michael Sonbeek

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Playoff baseball is in full swing (get it, full swing?) and yet it’s another postseason without the Miami Marlins.

After a 2015 season that went exactly opposite of how the Marlins envisioned it go, the franchise has to go back to the drawing board to try to put together the best club possible for the 2016 season.

Last year the Miami Marlins “went all in” and ended up gutting their farm system for a Major League team that won just 71 games. But the Marlins need to get over the 2015 season quickly and look right into 2016. I truly believe the Marlins have a set core in place which is obviously a good thing. Now, let me get to the purpose of this article. I’m going to break this article into three things:

1) What has to change for the Marlins.

2) What manager they should hire.

3) Early roster projections.

The Miami Marlins are like that grumpy grandpa you have who hates modern things. The Marlins are stuck in 90’s and it’s very embarrassing. The Marlins are now just putting together an analytics department.

Seriously.

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It took them until the 2016 season for them to decide that it was a good idea for them to put together an anayltics department. Knowing the Marlins, the department won’t be too advanced so that’s where my first point comes in.

YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOUR DEPARTMENT AS ADVANCED AS POSSIBLE.

If you look at the majority of the teams in the playoffs, most of the teams’ front offices are true believers in advanced metrics so the Marlins must find a way to model after teams like the Cubs and Pirates. I know analytics isn’t everything but you have to use the resources you have available if you want to play games in late October.

Now, let me jump to my second point. The good ole’ managerial position. The Marlins will be on their SIXTH manager since the beginning of the 2011 season (including interim manager). On top of that, the Marlins are still paying two managers to not manage the team (Ozzie Guillen and Mike Redmond.).

The person I would give the vacant position to is Ozzie Guillen. Yes, they should bring back Ozzie, I mean why not?

The Marlins are still paying him and the players seem to love him. There were reports going around that the Marlins almost approached Ozzie to take the job back when they let go of Redmond but then decided to go against it at the last-minute because they didn’t want their new TV deal to be in jeopardy.

(Editors Note: Ozzie’s contract came off the Marlins books at the end of the 2015 season)

If Ozzie isn’t an option then the Marlins should approach a manager who has an open mind to advanced metrics.

Before you die of boredom from reading this, let’s go into the most interesting part.

Roster projections.

As I mentioned earlier in this article, the Marlins have a core in place so you can pencil in this position players to start next year: J.T Realmuto, Dee Gordon, Adeiny Hechavarria, Martin Prado, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton.

This leaves first base open. Justin Bour had himself a decent year, but I still would not pencil him as a starter.

For the rotation, you can pencil in three starters who are Jose Fernandez, Henderson Alvarez and Jared Cosart.

For the bullpen you can put Tom Koehler, Carter Capps, Kyle Barraclough, Bryan Morris and A.J Ramos as for sure spots.

We also know three bench spots are secured for Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Dietrich and Miguel Rojas.

That means 18 players have secured spots for the roster next season so the Marlins must look to add  six players.

First lets look to finish up the rotation. In my opinion, I think the Marlins make an aggressive push for either Johnny Cueto or David Price, with Price being my preference. 

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Yes I know, handing out big money to free agent pitching sometimes doesn’t work, but I think it’s something the Marlins have to do. So I would give David Price 7 years and $210 million. Which would give you a dynamic 1/2 punch with Jose Fernandez and Price. The next starter the Marlins should go after is Brett Anderson who posted a 3.94 FIP with the Dodgers last year. I think 3 years $21 million gets that deal done.

So after those two signings you have a rotation of Jose Fernandez, David Price, Henderson Alvarez, Brett Anderson and Jared Cosart. This also allows you to have depth in AAA with Justin Nicolino and Adam Conley.

Now let’s fill in the first base vacancy. Marlins fans will be split on this, but the Marlins should trade for an old friend by the name of Hanley Ramirez. A trade proposal that would probably get it done is trading Justin Bour straight up for Hanley.

So now that we have the lineup and rotation figured out, that leaves four spots on the roster, two for the bullpen and two for the bench.

For the bullpen, the two names I would consider would be Tyler Clippard and Jerry Belvins.

Lastly the bench spots, one obviously has to go to a backup catcher so my gut would say Thomas Tellis (Or Jeff Mathis, if he is brought back) and then sign Mike Napoli.

So now I’ll put the 25 man roster in a list.

Starters:

  1. Jose Fernandez
  2. David Price
  3. Henderson Alvarez
  4. Brett Anderson
  5. Jared Cosart

Lineup

  1. Dee Gordon
  2. Christian Yelich
  3. Giancarlo Stanton
  4. Hanley Ramirez
  5. Marcell Ozuna
  6. Martin Prado
  7. JT Realmuto
  8. Adeiny Hechavarria

Bullpen:

Tom Koehler

Carter Capps

Kyle Barraclough

Bryan Morris

A.j Ramos

Jerry Belvins

Tyler Clippard.

Bench:

Ichiro

Thomas Tellis (Or Jeff Mathis)

Miguel Rojas

Derek Dietrich

Mike Napoli.

I believe with these group of guys the Marlins can find themselves competing for a spot to play in the playoffs next season. But it’s easy to type this stuff, now the front office must do it.

Follow Marlin Maniac on Twitter @MarlinManiac for all your Miami Marlins news, opinion and analysis!

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