Miami Marlins settle on arbitration with Pablo Lopez

The Miami Marlins are working on trades involving Pablo Lopez. It's just one of many different news items that came out lately, but an important one as Pablo's days pitching from the Miami Marlins rotation could be coming to an end. I feel that the fans are split on this, wit some believing that it's the right move and others thinking that The Fish need to keep him to contend. Opposing teams' fans have split opinions on him as well. In the meantime, he's got a raise thanks to arbitration...

The Miami Marlins gave Pablo Lopez a raise through arbitration.

Pablo Lopez was finally healthy in 2022 and that led to better results for a bit at least. Pablo pitched like an absolute ace during the first half of the 2022 season: he had a 2.86 ERA through the first 104.0 innings that he's pitched. His second half and the next 76.0 innings told a different story however... he produced a 4.97 ERA. That was a pretty big difference between an ace and a bottom of the rotation starting pitcher.

Interestingly, Pablo's advanced metrics painte dhim as a similar pitcher during both halves: 3.64 FIP/3.55 xFIP in the first half and 3.81 FIP/3.58 xFIP in the second half. It appears that he's a mid-rotation starter that overachieved in the first half and underachieved in the second half. He's still valuable to teams as he was able to pitch for 180.0 innings. The downside is that is the first time that he was able to do so because of injuries in his career.

Pablo Lopez will receive $5.45 million in arbitration in 2023. That still sems low doesn't it? It seems that he's worth quite a bit more than that, when you consider how much players are getting paid these days. It's even a bargain price when you really think about it. This is something that other teams are aware of, which is why they're after him and which is why the likelihood of a trade before Spring Training starts is very likely. Is Kim Ng also trying to trade him to save money is the question as well.