Miami Marlins: 3 potential trade targets to help the bullpen

The first half of the Miami Marlins season was on that exceeded everyone’s expectations and in part the pitching staff was the key factor. Now the impact the first half has had leaves the second half in question, due to the use of the pitching staff.  Most starting pitchers in the first half, aside from Sandy Alcantara, pitched around five or six innings at the most.

Manager Skip Schumaker is partly to blame both in good and bad ways about the current state of the Marlins pen. Skip has limited his starting pitchers and put them on pitch counts for at least three of the five pitchers.  Most notoriously, skip has kept the young rookie Eury Perez to a very tight pitch count around 80 pitches, which led to him exiting most games in the 5th and some later in the year in the 6th.  

In addition Braxton Garrett is also on a similar pitch count and is averaging around five innings per appearance.  He is most often pulled before the fourth time through the order, to which some fans cheer the move for analytics sake but now we are seeing the impact.  When you have two pitchers who leave the game and need four innings out of the bullpen each time, unless you have a very good long relief pitcher, you’re going  to hurt.  Now at the deadline, it is imperative for the Marlins to trade for pitching, both a starter to eat innings and a bullpen arm to help the suffering pen, so we take a look at 3 potential candidates. 

Brooks Raley - NYM

The Mets are said to be sellers at the deadline due to their large salary and lackluster record and one easy way to address that is to trade high dollar relief pitchers.  Brooks Raley is on the block as a result, and he has a team option for next season but is ostensibly a free agent and a pricy one, sitting at $5 million a year.  Raley seems is rumored to be on the block more than other Mets relievers and so something worth looking into for Marlins faithful.

That may not seem like much for the Mets but dropping $5 million would be a good thing to get them on the right track and the Marlins could be a good landing spot.  Raley has a 2.18 ERA over 33 innings pitched this season and a 1.182 WHIP.  

Raley can help the most at shutting down opponents right and left handed hitters as he actually has better splits versus right handers.  Right handed batters are hitting .170 off Raley versus left handers hitting .254 and right handers have a paltry .220 BAbip.  Raley would be a great option for the Marlins if they can swing a trade that doesn’t lose much capital for a relief rental.  

Keynan Middleton - CWS

Keynan Middleton might be the Marlins bread and butter if they can pry him from the White Sox.  Middleton is making under $1 million this year and is a solid bullpen piece that I would love to see on the Marlins squad.  Middleton would fit in well with the back of the game relief options and be a great stopgap in close games.  

Middleton’s stats are outstanding as he sits at a 3.00 ERA and his clutch stats really shine.  With 2 outs and runners in scoring position Middle has held hitters to 3 hits in 13 at bats and a .231 average.  Even more impressive however are his late and close stats, which is why we need him on the team.  In that situation he has held players to a .175 average and 11 hits on 63 at-bats.  

Finally he has a 3.38 ERA in the 8th inning which could be a great spot for him out of the pen and a 3.14 ERA in innings 7-9 combined.  If I’m Kim Ng this is who I want to go for!  He has great potential, longer term availability, a lower salary point, which would free up monies to go after a bigger name bat which is think is first priority, more than anything else.