The Miami Marlins were in on José Abreu

Craig Mish isn’t known for making up rumors so this looks like great news. In fact, one of the commenters questioned Craig, only for him to shut them down by saying that he’s not in the business of spreading empty rumors. First the bad news, José Abreu is the latest bat not coming to the Miami Marlins. Abreu signed a 3 year contract with the Houston Astros, that will pay him around $20 million a year. There are no more excuses for us not to spend, so what are we really taking from this signing?

José Abreu is not going to play for the Miami Marlins.

The Miami Marlins are not projected to hit very well in 2023 as currently constructed. José Abreu would’ve been an upgrade for the lineup as a careee .292/.354/.506 hitter who averages 31 home runs per season. The problem is that he only hit 15 home runs in 2022, in 601 AB. Considering he’ll be 36-38 throughout his new contract, it’s questionable if he’ll really produce as paid.

Players who show a sudden sharp power decline at 35 years old, don’t typically go back to hitting 30 home runs a season at 36. The most logical scenario here is that Abreu is done as a genuine middle of the order bat. The Houston Astros don’t currently have a GM, and actually have their owner (with no prior managerial experience) making these moves. It’s not hard to see that the owner overpaid to bring in a well-known top first baseman over the last decade.

Did the Miami Marlins dodge a bullet here? I think so. We wouldn’t have seen a 30 home run bat lighting up the scoreboard, but a declining slugger who would’ve angered the already frustrated fanbase. The talk of Kim Ng continuously making bad moves would’ve been the narrative brought on by signing José Abreu.

So what can we learn from this? The Miami Marlins dodged a bullet and proved that we will actually spend to improve the team. Will we actually bring in some quality bags? I sure hope so. Not bringing in bats to improve the offense, would be taking a major L for the off-season.