The Miami Marlins must be careful in free agency

It’s believed by many fans that teams must spend a lot of money to win. I agree with that and even wrote about the Miami Marlins doing a free agent splash recently. All of that said, there are also potential pitfalls to just freely spending large amounts of money. As a result, it’s important to be careful with spending and to avoid making free agent mistakes that could cripple the team’s finances and hurt the team. Teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays are examples that you don’t have to spend too much money to win.

The Miami Marlins need to be careful when signing free agents.

Let’s talk about a particular example of what I’m talking about. Albert Pujols was a generational superstar when he hit free agency after the 2011 season ended. The Miami Marlins were very interested in him and almost signed him. In fact we were the FAVORITES to sign him and offered him a massive 10 year/$300 million contract. this was actually the largest contract offer that he received that offseason, but turned it down due to lack of  the no-trade clause.

Albert Pujols rejected the Miami Marlins and signed with the Los Angeles Angels instead. It turned out to be a disaster for Anaheim. Pujols went from hitting .299/.366/.541 in 2011 to .285/.343/.516 in 2012 and then .258/.330/.437 in 2013 and it went downhill from there. The Los Angeles Angels surely regretted this contract once a couple seasons passed. Can you imagine what would’ve happened had the Miami Marlins signed him?

As you can see free agent contracts are hardly guaranteed championships. Just ask the low payroll Tampa Bay Rays who won the pennant in 2020. The Miami Marlins need to spend and are doing it already, but The Fish obviously need to sign more players to extensions and free agent contracts. The point is that these financial expenditures must be done carefully and cannot be rushed.