Rival teams of the Miami Marlins are planning to have a busy off-season. This is an interesting start to the off-season, as it almost feels like an end of an era. Peter Bendix will finally have a chance to shape the team to his liking. Of course it's also up to how much Bruce Sherman is willing to spend on the team.
The Miami Marlins are being humiliated in current rumors.
It's not a surprise that Juan Soto is the biggest prize of the free agent market. It's also hardly a surprise that the Miami Marlins are not expected to be after him. There's no reason to really question that, The Fish don't spend big on free agents and Soto is looking at a historic contract. There's basically no chance that The Fish will be the ones to give out that contract.
According to reports, Soto's current team the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox, the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets have already been linked to him. That isn't even remotely surprising and is pretty obvious. Personally, I fully expect him to stay with the Bronx Bombers. I don't see Boston actually spending on him, I don't see San Francisco being appealing and I don't see him downgrading to the worse New York team.
The biggest surprise here is that the Tampa Bay Rays are also linked to Juan Soto. The idea that TAMPA of all teams are actually in on Soto seems insane to even suggest. They never spend on the top free agents and never even gave out a big contract. Even the Miami Marlins did that, so it's just hard to process how this could be real.
There's basically no chance that Tampa will sign Juan Soto. The fact that they're in on him however, and that the Miami Marlins almost certainly won't even bid is insulting. Bruce Sherman should at the very least reach out to him and see what it would take. At least make some effort if even Tampa is willing to do so.