Is defense going to be an issue for the Miami Marlins?

The recent blockbuster trade between the Miami Marlins and the Minnesota Twins created a positional change that has drastically changed the defensive organization of the team. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the new CF; Luis Arraez takes over second base, Joey Wendle gets SS and Jean Segura takes over third base. There's been a lot of worry over the defensive alignment, but I think that it will be fine and in fact that the defense has improved.

The Miami Marlins are going to be better defensively.

There's been a lot of concern over Jazz Chisholm Jr. moving to CF from second base, but I don't get the concern. Jazz is a very athletic and talented player, he VOLUNTEERED to play CF. Jazz knows what he's talking about and I strongly believe that he will AT LEAST not be worse than everyone that the Miami Marlins recently had in center field. At worst, we can expect him to be as good as our recent options.

Miguel Rojas was a NL Gold Glove contender in 2022, but he's replaceable. Joey Wendle is expected to replace him and to be more than capable of doing so. The difference between the two is tiny and The Fish aren't taking much of a hit. What about Luis Aarraez playing second base? For some reason it's been a criticized move due to the Minnesota Twins playing him at first base. In 2021, Arraez had a .987 FP% in 48 games at second base. I'm not worried about him at the position in 2023.

A big improvement for the Miami Marlins is moving Jorge Soler. Soler is a terrible defender who produced a -1.8 dWAR in his last full season in the Majors. Moving him to designated hitter is addition by subtraction. This also allows Soler to focus exclusively on his offense, which is the main asset that he has and that he brings to The Fish in the first place. Jean Segura has been a solid defender his entire career, so moving to a less stressful defensive position shouldn't hurt him either.

I feel confident that the Miami Marlins will have a better defense in 2023.