Another Marlins bullpen shake-up took place

An injured starting pitcher has recently returned to the Miami Marlins, while another is coming back in full force next week. In the meantime, The Fish are making changes once again, or at least made one change. The team has made a lot of pitching moves this off-season for good reason, as the focus is now on improving things for next season.

The Miami Marlins are making bullpen changes for a better mix next season.

The Fish welcomed back starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, unfortunately it didn't work out too well for him. He's still having a good season otherwise, but it definitely wasn't his best performance as he faced the Los Angeles Dodgers of all teams in his first start back.

There was a pitcher whose spot he took. Who was the pitcher? None other than 28 year old righty relief pitcher Jeff Lindgren. He is another one in a bit of a list of late-bloomers who played for the Miami Marlins this season. In Lindgren's case, he's clearly only on the team for pitching depth rather than as a key part of the bullpen.

Jeff Lindgren has pitched to a 5.14 ERA/4.68 FIP, with 1.3 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9 in 3 games and 7.0 innings pitched. It was a very small sample size, so it's important to keep that under consideration. That said, the results are obviously not exciting. The ERA and FIP are both pretty poor, though the FIP is at least borderline average. The strikeout rate is horrible, though it's also almost certainly due to the small sample size. He had an 8.3 K/9 mark in the Minor Leagues.

Lindgren's control isn't particularly appealing either. Interestingly, he has the same 5.1 BB/9 rate in the Minor Leagues. That's a bizarre coincidence to be honest. Overall, he definitely needs to improve his control and more importantly to perhaps simply receive more playing time. Unfortunately for him, he probably won't get much of that with the Miami Marlins at this point. He has been designated for assignment and it's unclear if he will remain in the system.