What’s next for the Marlins this Winter?

Have the Miami Marlins done enough this offseason to improve from their record in 2019?

The Miami Marlins are slowly plodding through Hot Stove and free agency and have made a few moves that have helped make this roster better for the upcoming season. While the team has not signed the “big” name others have acquired – such as Gerrit Cole or Anthony Rendon or even Nicholas Castellanos, who is still out there in free agency – the moves the team has made will pay off over a longer haul with less money spent from the team’s vault.

This has not been a lost cause so far in the offseason. The fan base may not see everything come to fruition yet, which has again caused frustration, but the team is not standing still, hoping to get by with what it already had in the treasure chest.

The team did move from the “sellers” stage of free agency, as many of us preached prior to the end of the MLB season, however assessing the moves this team has made can be explained better by Joe Frisaro of MLB.com.

Frisaro was asked in his most recent “InBox” feature how can the team be called a “buying” franchise is the moves aren’t impactful immediately.

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"“I think we need to add some context. Being “buyers,” in the case of the Marlins this offseason, that doesn’t mean they intend to spend at the top of the free-agent market. They are looking to add proven big leaguers on short-term contracts, because they don’t want to block some of their close to big league-ready prospects,” Frisaro writes."

The Marlins have done the following…

• Added infielder Jonathan Villar from Baltimore. He adds spend on the base pads and power at the plate.
• They signed Jesus Aguilar off waivers from Tampa Bay. Aguilar could solve the team’s issues at first base and has 35-home run power.
• The team grabbed Sterling Sharp in the Rule 5 Draft. Sharp will work out of the bullpen and add depth as a potential long reliever.
• Yimi Garcia agreed to terms with the team from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Garcia provides another veteran arm the club needs for balance.
• The front office continues to talk with Corey Dickerson, Avisail Garcia, Kole Calhoun, and Yasiel Puig about coming to play ball in South Florida after it was announced the front office was moving the fences in to provide more possibility of home runs hit in Marlins Park.

If anything, the Marlins are sticking to their belief in a system build through their farm system and trading for talented minor league prospects. There still could be a deal or two involving Major League hitters, but management does not want to relinquish top minor league prospects in the process.

"“That’s a change from the past two seasons when they traded away their core players. Secondly, the Marlins were very aggressive at the Winter Meetings trying to sign at least one of the free-agent outfielders previously mentioned — Calhoun, Dickerson, Puig, and others,” Frisaro added.But those free agents informed the Marlins they weren’t quite ready to sign. By Christmas, we could see at least one significant signing. At least that’s the hope, to prevent dragging things out into January.”"

The Marlins were expected to pick up some speed in free agency following the Winter Meetings. That is now on track. If one of these sluggers sign in the next week or so, it could also open the front office up to bringing back Sergio Romo to reclaim the team’s closer role.

It’s been a long offseason so far but making more moves could push the space between now and the start of Spring Training up a bit faster.