Miami Marlins: Top 5 Free Agent Targets For 2017

As the calendar turns to October, and we all settle in for another exciting MLB postseason, it seems like a perfect time to start looking ahead to who the Miami Marlins might make a run at in free agency for the 2017 campaign.

Obviously, as the Marlins aren’t currently playing, there’s work to be done if 2017 is to end any differently for a franchise thirteen years removed from their last postseason birth.

That much was true a month ago, when the writing on the wall started to show that the team wasn’t going to overcome the Justin Bour and Giancarlo Stanton injuries that combined to make August a nightmare for a team that had shown so much promise over the first two-thirds of the season. The existence of Andrew “Don’t Shave Me Bro” Cashner didn’t help much either.

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And then the Jose Fernandez tragedy turned needed tinkering into massive overhauling.

So how do the Marlins get out of this, infusing talent into a talented roster that wasn’t quite talented enough…that just lost a once in a generation talent that was the face of the franchise and well on his way to becoming the face of baseball? What do you fix? Where do you start?

Before Fernandez, the primary problem was the same: starting pitching. Cashner was brought in to bring No. 2 to No. 3 level pitching, and spent his time getting consistently and significantly outperformed by Tom Koehler. Without Fernandez, the goal would seem to be the acquisition of a No. 1. A new ace.

Unfortunately, this is the worst free agent pitching market in recent memory. Sure, the only true replacement for a pitcher of Fernandez’ ilk would be Clayton Kershaw. But there’s not a free-agent name out there that would even be a lock for No. 2 hurler on any of the ten 2016 playoff teams.

Which leaves the Marlins best strategy to be addition by subtraction. They’re going to need to move a position regular for a top of the rotation arm, sign the average pitcher they would have signed anyway, and then aggressively replace that position player they dealt with some serious offensive muscle.

Teams are going to score on the 2017 Marlins. The 2017 Marlins are just going to have to get better at outscoring them.

The following are five names I think make the most sense for the Fish to target, provided circumstances break that way; both talent and circumstances are broken down in each case.

These are high upside, high reward moves, and in all cases expensive by Marlins standards. But it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see the front office make one notable splash this offseason.

Fingers crossed it’s one of these.