Why the Miami Marlins recent trade rumors make sense

The Miami Marlins are looking to make some trades for the upcoming trading deadline. It created a lot of controversy on Twitter naturally:

Is it really a bad thing though? Why shouldn’t the Miami Marlins shop those players? Let’s look into whether this is a good or bad thing for The Fish to do. We already covered some of these trades here and here recently. Now let’s dive into this dilemma…

The Miami Marlins need to look towards competing in 2023.

Let’s be realistic, the chances of the Miami Marlins making the playoffs are pretty low. We lost too many games recently and are without Jazz Chisholm Jr. for the foreseeable future. Buying for this season doesn’t make much sense and looking towards 2023 actually does.

The Miami Marlins are reportedly shopping starting pitcher Pablo López and it’s sad to hear. The sad part for me however was that we didn’t offer him an extension according to the linked report. Had we done so and he rejected, I’d feel much more comfortable about him getting traded. That said, he’s a free agent in two years, with an injury history (116.0 innings this season is his career high), and a career 3.77 ERA/3.63 FIP. This season he has a 3.03 ERA, but a 3.63 FIP.

Irs not a stretch to see Pablo López as more of a #2/#3 starter who is kind of unreliable going forward. It’s not as if the Miami Marlins are planning to give him away either, The Fish need bats and that’s supposedly what we want for him. There’s also the fact that we have considerable pitching depth. Trading him for a middle of the order bat HELPS us for 2023 and doesn’t hurt us.

Whst about first baseman Garrett Cooper? Cooper is a free agent after next season, and despite being 31 years old, hasn’t played more than 107 games in a season. The reason is that Cooper is injury-prone and that’s alarming. He has a career .281/.352/.446 batting line and a .279/.347/.426 batting line for this season. Those are good but not of a middle of the order bat.

It’s not fun to see the Miami Marlins trade good players, but neither Pablo López or Garrett Cooper can be counted on to stay healthy. They also are hitting free agency soon snd are risky extension candidates. Would you rather The Fish had bad contracts on the books or cost-controlled middle of the order bats?