Miami Marlins designated Charles Leblanc for assignment

The Miami Marlins are parting ways with Charles Leblanc. In more positive news, a January signing once helped us win the World Series. Back to Leblanc, was it the right decision? The move seems to have been motivated by the recent signing of Jean Segura as The Fish's new third baseman. It seems that Leblanc was the unfortunate casualty of this transaction. My immediate first reaction was that it was a bad call as the team needed him for depth, but let's take a deeper look at Leblanc and whether that was a good move.

The Miami Marlins parted ways with Charles Leblanc.

Charles Leblanc was a late bloomer at 26 years old, who debuted during the 2022 season. Leblanc batted .263/.320/.404 in 48 games and 156 AB with 4 home runs and 11 RBI. He also added 4 stolen bases. He did have a poor 86.8 Exit Velocity, an unimpressive 0.0 dWAR and never particularly impressed in the Minor Leagues. This combines to make Kim Ng not see him as worth an investment for the 2023 season.

Leblanc is able to play both third base and shortstop, which means that he was versatile enough defensively where he could've helped The Fish at multiple positions. I think that versatility is always valuable and find it odd that we would get rid of someone that seems pretty helpful. Being a late-bloomer shouldn't disqualify him from being seen as a useful producer, considering it was a late-bloomer who broke the AL home run record last season.

It is of course true that Fangraphs isn't particularly high on him. They project him for a .228/.294/.365 batting line in 2023, which is obviously not exciting to look at. They also project him for a very high 30.6% strikeout rate (he had a 31.4%) strikeout rate in 2022. The high strikeout rate, his late-bloomer status.

So was the Miami Marlins designating Charles Leblanc for assignment a mistake? I think that it may have been a bit of a rushed move. I think that he was cheap enough where he could've been kept for depth.