Miami Marlins finally acquire some catching help

The Miami Marlins catching situation has been a complete mess this season. It's no surprise then that the team would be looking for help at the position. That help has finally arrived in the form of the Pittsburgh Pirates' Ali Sanchez. The trade was made for cash in return and Sanchez will first go down to Triple A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

Ali Sanchez joins the Miami Marlins catching mix.

What can I say? Catcher has not been a good position for The Fish this season. Nick Fortes is currently batting .156/.191/.222, with 2 home runs and 11 RBI in 53 games and 135 AB. He's been a complete disaster and is worth an abysmal -0.8 WAR. The backup Christian Bethancourt is not doing much better. He's currently batting .159/.198/.268, with 2 home runs and 7 RBI in 38 games and 82 AB.

Bethancourt is currently worth a similarly abysmal -0.2 WAR. It's certainly time for The Fish to improve at the position. If we're being honest about this however, Ali Sanchez isn't going to move the needle here. Sanchez debuted in the shortened 2020 season with the New York Mets and batted .111/.200/.111, in 5 games and 9 AB. He did much better in his follow-up 2021 season. If you count 2 games and 4 AB of .500/.500/1.000 batting as really impressive. Sanchez was worth -0.1 WAR in 2020 and 0.1 WAR in 2021.

It shouldn't be much of a surprise to say that the Miami Marlins seem to be working more towards the Trade Deadline at this point. That means that a real solution at the position probably won't come until later. Sanchez did have a 91.2 EV in 2021, so maybe Peter Bendix does indeed see something there. I guess time will tell if that's true, or if he's just another player who won't make much of a difference for The Fish.

As hope for Nick Fortes to get back to his 2021 .290/.353/.677 form is likely gone, Ali Sanchez will be the latest in a line of solutions. Let's just hope that he won't do much worse.