More pitchers finally reporting for Miami Marlins with Quantrill move

Let's get right to it: the Miami Marlins needed Jason Hammel.

Okay, not Jason Hammel exactly. Hammel hasn't thrown an MLB pitch since 2018, so probably not exactly in game shape. And to be honest, when I first came up with this article, I'd forgotten he existed completely. I had him mixed up with Jeff Samardzija, and was excited to go on a whole tangent about how the Miami Marlins could also benefit from an interesting side story, such as a former college football star deciding to be a big league pitcher. Turns out Samardzija was actually a bit better than I thought too...

Anyway, I digress. What the Miami Marlins needed was a signing like 2014 Jason Hammel, when a pretty lousy Chicago Cubs team banked what might have been the been the best three months of his MLB career, and then packaged him off to the Athletics (with Samardzija, thus the confusion) for a package of prospects. Hammel had just signed with the Cubs on a cheap, 1-yr deal that offseason, despite zero plans to contend in 2014.

Let's put aside the fun trivia fact where Hammel resigned with the Cubs the next offseason and became a key piece of a World Series winning club two years later. In the winter of 2014, no one knew that was coming. At that time, Hammel was just a cheap free agent pitcher looking for work. Plenty of names still available in free agency fit the bill there. Andrew Heaney, Spencer Turnbull, Lance Lynn, even (gulp) Jose Urena, among many others.

Among those many others was Cal Quantrill, who signed with the Miami Marlins roughly two minutes before this article was originally submitted. So- tone change! The Marlins did it!

To say the move is a welcome one would be the understatement of the offseason. Despite losing two projected starting rotation members over a month ago, all the Miami Marlins had added so far pitching wise were Janson Junk and Ronny Henriquez. Pitchers that are longshots at best to crack the starting rotation, and not even sure things to make the roster as relief pitchers. Shoring up pitching depth is admirable, and given Peter Bendix' track record, some cautious optimism might even be warranted here on their ability to contribute.

However, even if they do, those names aren't fetching the same prospect return that an established veteran showing they still have something in the tank would command. Junk and Henriquez also have a combined 71 IP at the MLB level. Hardly enough to make one think they can put a meaningful dent in the workload demands the Marlins are facing.

Quantrill is a different story, though. In three of the last four seasons, he's racked up at least 148 IP, even reaching 186 IP back in 2022. The one exception, back in 2023? He threw only 99.2 IP, as much as or more than any currently projected member of the Miami Marlins starting rotation threw last season. He even has three games worth of postseason experience! Which, out of respect to the newest Marlin, I won't tell you the details of here. Fortunately, they do say failure is the best teacher.

The innings eating is no joke though, nor is his penchant for inducing groundballs. The career 4.07 ERA is more than acceptable for this kind of signing, and he is just two years removed from a much more impressive 3.38 ERA mark. While it could be seen as concerning that a pitching starved Rockies team decided to non tender him, per MLB Trade Rumors, I'm honestly just choosing to be encouraged that was as effective as he was last season despite the handicap of playing for a team as bad as Colorado and in an environment as unfriendly to piching awesomeness as Coors Field.

Whether it's getting the best deal at the deadline they can, or just lightening the load for their young arms, the Miami Marlins needed more pitchers to report this spring. Quantrill checks all the boxes, and is exactly the kind of move the team needed to make. What's more, they were able to do at a very reasonable price of $3.5 million. Granted, there could be a reason he was that cheap. Until that reason shows up though, there's nothing negative to say about this move.

Excellent work.