Should the Miami Marlins attempt a trade for a hometown bat?!

The Miami Marlins are looking for help in free agency, and also looking to the trade market as well. There's one name however that may not be immediately obvious, but has been the subject of trade rumors. A trade between the two division rivals is not very likely, but a big one happened not that long ago. Does this one actually make a lot of sense for The Fish?

The Miami Marlins could look into acquiring Nick Castellanos from the Philadelphia Phillies.

A couple years ago there was a whole mess revolving around the Miami Marlins not signing Nick Castellanos. He even regrets not signing himself. Derek Jeter allegedly even left the team because of it. Castellanos has since fallen out of favor (seemingly) in Philly, so could a move be on the works.

Let's get something out of the way, teams rarely say that a player on their roster is being actively shopped around. Remember when the Washington Nationals couldn't sign Juan Soto to an extension, claimed he was going nowhere, and then traded him to the San Diego Padres about a month later?! Usually where there's smoke there's fire as they say, and Nick Castellanos has been falling out of favor in the city of brotherly love.

Nick Castellanos has been bumped from the middle of the order to the bottom during the playoffs. This is a telling sign. He's still owed $60 million for the next three seasons ($20 million a year), but he's not really needed there. He's a poor defender who they have to play in RF, because DH is taken by Kyle Schwarber. Castellanos has been very inconsistent in Philly.

He batted .263/.305/.389 with just 13 home runs and 62 RBI, in 136 games and 524 AB. He was worth 0.0 WAR. He was worth a better 1.5 WAR in 2022, as he batted .272/.311/.476 with 29 home runs and 106 RBI, in 157 games and 626 AB. He then proceeded to bat just .213/.269/.574 in the playoffs. Last season, he batted .185/.232.246 in the playoffs.

So why should the Miami Marlins target him? Well he's a career .276/.324/.475 hitter and is from Hialeah. Maybe he'll do better playing home? He's also an annual threat for 20 home runs and 80 RBI. If Philly eat half of his annual salary or enough to drop it down to $13 million a year, would that work for both sides? The Fish get a RF/DH upgrade and Philly get more money to spend and improve their bad defense. It probably won't even cost much to acquire him.

What do you think?