The Miami Marlins are being ignored as legitimate suitors for a a top bat

The Miami Marlins lost DH Jorge Soler this off-season. Soler was such a big power presence in the middle of the lineup, that The Fish have to bring someone to replace him. Right? It's not what some lineup projections say. It's also not what a recent article said about possible destinations for J.D. Martinez. It completely underrates The Fish...

Is J.D. Martinez a realistic DH option for the Miami Marlins?

The MLBTR article puts the Miami Marlins as a very unlikely team to sign J.D. Martinez. The author's argument is that since The Fish haven't signed any free agents, it's unlikely that the team will sign Martinez. That's pretty strange logic as we have reports that The Fish pursued multiple free agents, who simply signed with other teams, or remain unsigned.

The logic for Miami to sign Martinez is pretty strong. He's a Miami native of Cuban descent (the team of course plays in Little Havana), who could directly replace Jorge Soler at DH. At this late stage in the off-season and with his being 36 years old, he's likely to have to settle for a 1 year deal for less than $15 million.

The top teams that were mentioned in the article were the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Angels. The Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Guardians and Chicago Cubs were mentioned as well. Boston was an unusual choice, considering Masataka Yoshida is widely expected to start at DH for them.

Cleveland is unlikely to sign Martinez, having Kyle Manzardo and Josh Naylor in the 1B/DH mix. Chicago will likely sign one of the few remaining top free agents, such as Cody Bellinger or Matt Chapman. I find it hard to believe that they will sign J.D. Martinez instead. The Angels and Mets make sense, but the Angels may need to use the DH spot to rest their injury-prone stars CF Mike Trout and 3B Anthony Rendon.

The Mets make sense as they also have a bit of a hole at DH. That said, they're not trying to contend this season and may be better off cutting costs and saving the DH spot for Starling Marte. They seem to be content with Mark Vientos at the spot as well.

Looking at the suggested teams and how the field looks, I don't see why the Miami Marlins aren't one of the favorites to sign J.D. Martinez.