Miami Marlins position of need: SS

Neil Raymond

BOSTON, MA - MAY 21: Xander Bogaerts #2 of the Boston Red Sox scores the tying run during the fifth inning of a game against the Seattle Mariners on May 21, 2022 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)

This is the beginning of our new series where I will look at positions that the Miami Marlins need to improve in the foreseeable future. I wrote about it as a position to upgrade earlier, but now I’d like to get more in-depth about it. The Miami Marlins need help at some positions and SS is definitely one of them.

The Miami Marlins need to improve at SS.

The Miami Marlins currently have Miguel Rojas at the position, but as good of a clubhouse personality that he is, he’s not really cutting it as a starting player at an important position. Rojas is a career .262/.318/.363 hitter with 1.4 career WAR. He’s currently batting .220/.287/.333 in 47 games and 159 AB’s with 1.1 WAR. That’s clearly not good production offensively, though the 0.8 in dWAR is pretty impressive to say the least.

The Miami Marlins could use a middle of the order bat and while the trade market isn’t really the answer at the moment, barring some major collapses. Let’s look at the free agent market ahead in order to find realistic targets for The Fish. There are actually quite a few good ones…

The Miami Marlins must target Xander Bogaerts in free agency, though in case of Boston’s aforementioned major collapse he could be trade target this Summer. Of course the former depends heavily on The Fish being in playoff contention as well. Bogaerts is a great target as he’s a career .291/.355/.460 hitter with 31.1 WAR. This season he’s batting .319/.386/.476 with 1.9 WAR.

The big issue with Bogaerts (besides his likely price) is his bad defense at SS. He has a 0.1 dWAR so far this season and it’s not impressive to say the least. That said, he’s still an upgrade over Rojas and bringing in a legitimate superstar will be huge for the fanbase.

Is better defense at the position a priority? How about Carlos Correa who is likely to opt-out of his contract with the Minnesota Twins after the season? Correa is having a decent season. Last season he hit .279/.366/.485 with 7.2 WAR. This season he’s batting .286/.356/.429 with 1.3 WAR and 0.4 dWAR.

The Miami Marlins need to make a big splash during this off-season in order to show the fanbase that we’re serious about winning. This means signing a star SS that ideally (in these player’s cases) can hit in the middle of the order.

Neil Raymond

Neil Raymond has been a lifelong Miami Marlins fan, with the 2003 playoff run being one of his favorite childhood memories. Neil has been called a "walking encyclopedia" for his knowledge of MLB statistics and the sport's history. He follows every game and actually invented his own statistic for player value on his side project BaseballAnalyzed.com. Writing for Fansided's Marlin Maniac since 2022, he also loves Fantasy Baseball and as such is an FSWA member. Neil also loves to travel, read and follow "Futbol" teams: Germany, Argentina, Greece, Inter Miami, Bayern Munich and NYC FC.