Miami Marlins should claim a power bat

The Miami Marlins are trying to make the playoffs and every little bit can help. I actually wrote about this before, and my opinion still stands. Back then the Los Angeles Angels waived RF Hunter Renfroe and I wanted The Fish to claim him. The Cincinnati Reds are now waiving him and The Fish have a second chance to claim him.

Hunter Renfroe is once again available for the Miami Marlins.

Hunter Renfroe is not having a great season. Let's get that out of the way first. He's currently worth -0.5 WAR for his 140 games and 498 AB with the Los Angeles Angels and the Cincinnati Reds. In that time, he batted .233/.297/.416, with 20 home runs and 60 RBI. Those are not encouraging numbers of course, but last season he batted .255/.315/.492 and had 29 home runs and 72 RBI.

Renfroe is a pretty decent power hitter, and has been such throughout his career. He's a career .239/.300/.478 hitter, who averaged 31 home runs for his last three full seasons (2019, 2021, 2022). He's 31 years old and a free agent at the end of the season. Would he be worth paying what's left of his salary to? Granted, he's getting paid $11.9 million for the whole season, but we're talking about a couple of weeks here. To be fair, he does have a low 88.3 Exit Velocity. Last season his EV was 90.5.

I can understand the argument that even for a couple weeks, whatever remains to be paid to him is too high. I can understand the argument that he's not very good this season, and that he isn't worth a roster spot. To be honest, I'm not even saying that Kim Ng has to claim him. What I'm saying is that he might be worth a look, considering the power potential that he has.

Hunter Renfroe wasn't able to turn his season around in Cincinnati, but he has power potential. Having a 30 home run bat in his contract year, isn't that bad for a playoff contending team. It's possible that he will be motivated enough to hit a few game-changing homers. Is he worth a shot?