Three things Miami Marlins need to do to contend this year

Trade for an infielder 

Somewhere out there is the 2017 Miami Marlins version of 2003 Jeff Conine.

The Marlins front office needs to pay penance for giving on this team way too soon and go out and get him.

Jed Lowrie, Brandon Phillips, Steve Pearce, Logan Morrison, even Asdrubal Cabrera all come to mind as acceptable options here. Even a lesser talent would work. See, this isn’t about an already productive offense replacing Justin Bour or Martin Prado.

This is about replacing Mike Aviles and/or Tomas Telis.

Bour and Prado could return soon. Both are certainly trying. However, that is still at least two weeks off, and the Marlins are giving up plenty of at bats in the interim.

At bats that Marlins fans would feel a lot more comfortable about if they were being taken by someone who made you believe he could put up even a .260 average.

Even a veteran with some postseason mileage under his belt would be a boost. Conine himself only batted .238 in his time filling in for Mike Lowell. But you can bet there were some clutch hits in there (5 HR in a month span), and that he impacted the lineup on the field and in the clubhouse.

Both as an actual and emotional lift, time to reward the efforts of the clubhouse with a bit of reinforcement.