Catching target for the Miami Marlins

The off-season's biggest job for the Miami Marlins is the managerial search. That aside, another major issue has already been solved. The Fish can however make some improvements to the lineup. One of those problems is of course catcher, as Nick Fortes may not be a good answer at the position. Could someone else such as Danny Jansen be the solution?

The Miami Marlins may need to upgrade at catcher this off-season.

Nick Fortes has played for the Miami Marlins since the 2021 season. He batted .222/.275/.344 for his career so far. It's obviously not a good batting line of course. This season, he's batted
.227/.259/.318, with 4 home runs and 29 RBI in 110 games and 308 AB. It's clear that he's not an offensive force.

He does have a 1.2 dWAR this season, so he's certainly not a liability defensively. The offense however can be improved upon. This brings us to a potential solution on the off-season free agent market. That option is none other than Danny Jansen, who spent the 2024 season with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox.

To be fair, Jansen wasn't that great during this time. He batted .212/.303/.369, with 6 home runs and 18 RBI in 62 games and 198 AB. Moving on to the Boston Red Sox at the Trade Deadline, he batted .188/.323/.300 with 3 home runs and 6 RBI, in 30 games and 80 AB. His overall batting line was .205/.309/.349, with 9 home runs and 24 RBI in 91 games and 278 AB.

Danny Jansen did however do better in the 2023 season with Toronto. He batted .228/.312/.474, with 17 home runs and 53 RBI in 86 games and 268 AB. The power is obviously very appealing, though his dWAR was only 0.2 last season. It's 0.1 this season.

Jansen is 29 years old so he still has some good years ahead. Presumably at least of course. It makes sense for the Miami Marlins to look into him and he almost certainly won't be expensive to sign. Personally, I still prefer just sticking with Nick Fortes, but why not give him some competition?