Miami Marlins arbitration battle with Jazz Chisholm Jr. hurts future contract negotiations

The Miami Marlins need a DH and we found out some interesting things about new PBO Peter Bendix. Today we have news on Jazz Chisholm Jr. and his arbitration case with The Fish. Jazz wanted $2.9 million, but The Fish wanted to pay him $2.625 million. It's a minor difference (a much as $300,000 can be in this scenario), but teams like to take hard stances, in order to avoid raising the floor in future cases.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. is expected to play CF for the Miami Marlins in the 2024 season.

There's little doubt that Jazz Chisholm Jr. can be a superstar if he simply stays healthy. Jazz's season high is still the 124 games that he played in 2021. Putting aside his 21 games in the shortened 2020 season, he played 60 games in 2022 and 97 in 2023 due to various ailments. It's definitely alarming and hopefully he can stay healthy in 2024. Not only would that be beneficial for him, but also immensely help the team stay competitive.

Jazz has flashed superstar potential throughout his career. He batted .242/.321/.563 in 2020. He then batted .248/.303/.425, with 18 home runs and 53 RBI in 464 AB. He added 23 stolen bases, showing potential five tool talent if he can also boost his batting average.

He batted an improved .254/.325/.535 with 14 home runs and 45 RBI, in 213 AB. This was definitely promising from a power perspective, but again the batting average and the missed time were the big issues. Last season Jazz batted .250/.304/.467, with 19 home runs and 51 RBI, in 97 games and 352 AB. Jazz Chisholm Jr's Exit Velocities have not reached 90.0, topping out at 89.6 in 2022. That doesn't seem to take away from his power potential however.

On the surface side of things, it's not logical for the Miami Marlins to go to an arbitration hearing over $300,000. Why not just give Jazz Chisholm Jr. the money to keep him happy? Bruce Sherman should certainly be able to pay that and more to keep a team based in Miami competitive. I do understand why The Fish took a different position and just hope that Jazz won't hold it against the team.