Miami Marlins attempted to sign 2 bats

Kim Ng wants Miami Marlins fans to stay patient. That’s not exactly easy considering how slow this off-season is going for us. I actually wrote about acquiring one particular player, who as it turned out we really did try to sign. We didn’t sign CF Cody Bellinger, but we did actually try. Bellinger ended us signing with the Chicago Cubs. We also lost out on another target: 1B Josh Bell who signed with the Cleveland Guardians.

The Miami Marlins actually pursued and lost out on two targets so far.

Cody Bellinger debuted in 2017 for the Los Angeles Dodgees with a .267/.352/.581 batting line, with 39 home runs and 97 RBI in 132 games and 480 AB. He was worth 3.9 WAR. In 2018, he batted.260/.343/.470 batting line with 25 home runs and 76 RBI in 162 games and 557 AB. He was worth 4.2 WAR this time.

In 2019, Cody Bellinger won the NL MVP award, as he batted .305/.406/.629 with 47 home runs and 115 RBI in 156 games and 558 AB. He was worth 8.6 WAR. Bellinger looked like one of the top hitters in the game… and then thibgs changed very drastically for him and LA. Bellinger suffered a serious shoulder injury in 2020 and hasn’t been able to match his previous success since.

In the shortened 2020 season, he batted just.239/.333/.455. In 2021, he batted .165/.240/.302 with 10 home runs and 31 RBI in 95 games and 315 AB. This was very bad to say the least. He followed that poor production  with a mild improvement in 2022: .210/.265/.389 with 19 home runs and 68 RBI in 144 games and 504 AB. Will he do better for the Chicago Cubs? Who knows.

Josh Bell is a career .262/.351/.459 bat who broke out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017. He batted .255/.334/.466 in the aforementioned 2017 season with 26 home runs and 90 RBI. He then surprisingly declined in 2018 with a .261/.357/.411 batting line with just 12 home runs and 62 RBI. In 2019, the juiced ball helped him bat .277/.367/.569 with 37 home runs and 116 RBI.

Josh Bell was back to struggling in the shortened 2020 season with a .226/.305/.364 batting line. In 2021, he batted .261/.347/.476 with 27 home runs and 88 RBI. Finally in 2022, he batted .266/.362/.422 with 17 home runs and 71 RBI. Bell is pretty inconsistent, so I can see why it might’ve been not easy for teams to decide what he is right to pay him.

The good news is that the Miami Marlins were in on a couple interesting players. The bad news is that we didn’t get them.