Miami Marlins make important roster decisions...

There's some interesting Miami Marlins news that were recently announced having to do with the team's roster decisions for Opening Day. I talked about the decisions that had to be made and they were finally announced. This also affects the team's first base positional rankings. So what are these news? Yuli Gurriel will make the OD roster! He will be the first base platoon partner for Garrett Cooper. Jose Iglesias on the other hand will not be making the OD roster.

The Miami Marlins made some roster moves.

Jose Iglesias will not make the Miami Marlins roster for Opening Day, but decided to forego his opt-out clause and stay on the team as Minor League depth. The once elite defender saw his defensive stats drop over the last few seasons, but can still hit for average, and will be useful bench depth in case of any injuries or underperformances. Iglesias is a career .279/.319/.382 hitter, who batted .292/.328/.380 in 2022 with the Colorado Rockies.

Jon Berti will platoon with Joey Wendle at SS instead of Iglesias, and after leading the Major Leagues in stolen bases in 2022 it could be a good decision. Bigger bases may allow the right-handed hitting Berti to steal more bases and thus be a very useful complement to the lefty-hitting Joey Wendle. I hope that this platoon will be as effective as it seems to be at first glance.

Garrett Cooper can't stay healthy, so having a platoon partner for him is another wise decision. Cooper is a righty as is Yuli Gurriel, so it may not look like a perfect platoon at first. That said, Gurriel is an elite contact hitter that has a career .284/.328/.448 batting line and has batted .319/.383/.462 for the Houston Astros in 2021. He did of course bat a poor .242/.288/.360 for Houston in 2022.

Relief pitchers Steven Okert and Tommy Nance will be starting the season on the 15-day IL. Okert will miss a couple of weeks due to a left adductor issue and Nance will miss more time due to shoulder discomfort. Okert has a 2.98 ERA/4.36 FIP with 11.0 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in 60 games and 51.1 innings pitched in 2022. Nance had a 4.33 ERA/3.71 FIP with 11.7 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 35 games and 43.2 innings pitched in 2023.