Free Agent Signees the Marlins Shouldn’t Be Afraid of

This Halloween, we’re going to take a look at players the Miami Marlins shouldn’t be afraid of signing for the 2020 season.

Last offseason, the Marlins signed the likes of Sergio Romo, Neil Walker, Harold Ramirez, and Curtis Granderson.

Romo was a solid closer, considering the state of the team. They sent him to the Twins as part of a trade deadline deal.

Walker outperformed his sad 2018 numbers achieved with the Yankees, but will be 34 this season.

Ramirez was an exciting addition to a young team with nowhere to go but up. Despite a relatively good slashline of .276/.312/.416 in 119 contests, he was only 0.2 wins above replacement, according to baseball reference.

Granderson provided solid leadership in the clubhouse, but wasn’t able to get it done as well as his younger self, as evidenced by a .183/.281/.356 slashline and 98 strikeouts in 363 plate appearances. For the first time in his career, a full-season’s yield resulted in a sub-replacement level brWAR, at -0.6.

Were these four signees good enough for the major leagues? Of course! Any baseball player who appeared on a major league baseball team is a pretty good player. But the point of this whole major league baseball thing is not to be “pretty good,” it’s to be better than the other team’s “pretty good” players.

Signing free agents is at best, a risky proposition. You never know if you’re going to get another “prime” season from an established talent or a shadow of what that player used to be. Sometimes, it’s a question of feast or famine. These Marlins could do well to luck into a sweet deal in the free agent market, but there’s also hazards along the way.

So which players do you think the Marlins shouldn’t be scared of avoiding? We here at Marlin Maniac have identified five that we think could be worth a look.