The 3 moves that the Miami Marlins must make at the deadline

The trading deadline is coming up and it’s time for the Miami Marlins to figure out what we should do. The playoff picture is not looking very promising at the moment, but you never know and The Fish can always go on a run. So what should the Miami Marlins do? Sell? Buy? There are three things that the Miami Marlins must do and they’re the same whether we’re going to be buyers or sellers at the trading deadline.

The Miami Marlins have three things that we must do before the trading deadline.

1. Do everything possible to trade Avisaíl García.

It’s not a mystery, but Avisaíl García has been terrible this season and it’s clear that signing him was a major mistake for the Miami Marlins. The right fielder is batting a woeful .230/.265/.326 with a terrible -0.6 WAR. He’s literally hurting the team!

Avisaíl García has been a bad signing from the beginning, but this is taking things to a whole new level. He’s not even going to come close to 20 home runs this season, and even 70 RBI will be a major reach for him. The fact that the Miami Marlins have him locked up until 2025 and owe him $53 million is quite frankly embarrassing.

I came up with bad contract swap scenarios that the Miami Marlins can do to be rid of his contract. Is it realistic for any of them to actually happen? Bad contract swaps do happen, so an attempt at least needs to be made.

The Fish should also be prepared to eat some money, and honestly since he’s unlikely to be worth his contract anyway, the question is whether we lose $53 million or less in the next four years.

Bottom line is there’s no reason to pay Avisaíl García of to play him. The Miami Marlins need to do whatever it takes to trade him as far from the team as possible.

2. Don Mattingly needs to go 

Don Mattingly was a great player whose career ended prematurely. He also is not a bad manager, but he might not be the right one for the Miami Marlins anymore. The Fish are struggling despite an easy schedule, and despite roster issues, it sure looks like Mattingly’s bullpen management and obsession with lefty/righty matchups isn’t helping matters.

The Miami Marlins might need to replace Don Mattingly.

I wrote about how Don Mattingly should be replaced as the Miami Marlins manager and I think I was on to something there. He’s actually the worst manager in Dodgers franchise history in playoffs series, losing a historic number of them. He won his only one with The Fish, but he also hadn’t been able to take the team to the next level.

Why are the Miami Marlins not playing better? Is it really just the injuries and the bad hitting? Don Mattingly doesn’t seem very good to me at taking charge of the clubhouse and motivating his players to win. The Miami Marlins often blow games in the late innings due to bullpen mismanagement and the offense dies worse due to heavy righty/lefty matchup emphasis.

The Miami Marlins should look at the Philadelphia Phillies and take their example of firing a manager mid-season. It worked out well for them so far, why can’t it work out even better for us?