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00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Kyle Stowers, and you're listening to Fish on First. Fish on First, episode 128. We are in the offseason, the first of Probably way too many episodes of Fish Unfiltered. I'm Kevin Baral here with Eli Sussman, founder of Fish Unfiltered on the Foul Territory Network. Make sure to check us out and leave a five-star review. Eli, 162 is gone. The Marlins are 80 and 82 to finish the season. And in 81 season, I think at least the 80 makes it look a little bit better. But, you know, long offseason coming up. Peter Bendix already did his end of season press conference. Revealed. uh, one coaching staff change revealed, uh, Jacob Marcy injury. And we got a lot of injury updates as well. How's, uh, how's the off season treating you? I know it's a lot of craziness, at least at the start. And then it kind of gets into this nice rhythm, which we'll definitely get into. And we'll try to figure out what day we'll, we'll get these episodes out on a specific day. So I have all the fans, just what to expect. It'll be only two shows a week now as well. So that's definitely a nice little help for us, at least not having to go through the craziness of three a week. And, uh, gives us the opportunity to, I guess, dive a little bit into more content than usual.
00:01:28
Speaker 2: For whatever reason, I found myself kind of counting down the days until this regular season ended as soon as they got eliminated. And it turned out that they played relatively impressive baseball after getting eliminated. The last week and a half or so had some definite bright points for this team heading into the offseason and getting to a point where I think when you do zoom out, you see that this team was more talented and I think more ready to compete than they were the previous year. Close games didn't go quite their way as often. That made the difference. The quality of competition in the National League was steeper compared to the year before. That made it seem like they were further away from being a contender than they had been the year before. But yeah, overall, it was compared to a lot of other seasons that I've endured running Marlin's side. This was better than most of them, all things considered. And there is a genuine path forward. It is a very desirable season. position for the organization to be in just because so many of the players are under their control. So many of these players are theoretically in their prime or close to entering their prime. So it leads to an off season where they could make a lot of interesting decisions in terms of just finding the path moving forward, because you can't totally trust everybody to just level up one year to the next. It's going to be a situation where they have to just get really creative in terms of capitalizing on guys that have value at this moment, in order to put together the best-fitting roster. Because if there's one complaint really throughout most of the season, it was that this roster was at times imbalanced, at times the pieces weren't always complementary. That was one of the frustrations. That's one thing that is on the front office. Peter Bendix heading into what will be year four already of his regime and still no winning records, no postseason appearances. That's on him. This is on him and his front office to put together a roster that is more cohesive and is better than the sum of their parts moving forward.
00:03:18
Speaker 1: We kind of spoke about it a little bit on the live stream right after the season ended, assuming that Clayton would return. Peter Bendix did confirm Clayton McCullough will return for a third season. First Marlins manager to do that since Don Mattingly, which is not a very high bar to set. But Clayton McCullough has probably the best two-year stretch for a Marlins manager ever. I believe that was the record, 159 wins. Still under. 500 overall, so let's take that with a grain of salt. But, you know, two-year stretch is a two-year stretch where Clearly, the Marlins have improved at least record-wise year after year in the Peter Bendix era. So you're assuming 2027 is, all right, you're finishing over at 500 or over it, and you're going to compete for a playoff spot. So, Eli, your thoughts on the Marlins retaining Clayton, your thoughts on how he's handled the managerial position and where you still think there is growth to be made for Clayton. And I think it's something that he admitted to us in his last interview with us of the year. There's still a lot to grow from. But at the end of the day, you know what? The wins are the wins, and the players seem to really like Clayton. And that's something that I know Peter values. And as much as the biggest fans of Clayton are very divided on him, he's a fine manager, I think. He still definitely has a lot of decision-making or a lack of feel, in my opinion, of the game at times, like we've seen at parts. But I think overall, Clayton finds himself in a position where this is the year. He's going to be possibly managing on a one-year deal unless an extension is announced before spring training, which this could be very possible, but yeah, Eli thoughts on, on the Marlins retaining Clayton. And then I guess just to dive a little bit into the one coaching staff change, which is Pedro Guerrero, no longer there. The one, I guess, somewhat surprising in my, on my eyes. I know the offense definitely struggled at times this season, but I didn't, I wouldn't put it all on Pedro Guerrero. I mean, some guys took a step back, a lot of struggles in the second half. The Marlins were really carried by Otto, Liam, until he got traded an X in that first half. And, The rest of them were kind of meh. So I don't know. Just your thoughts on that coaching staff move and the Marlins retaining Clayton.
00:05:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, with Clayton, that was a funny technicality in terms of pointing out the wins record for the first two years of a Marlins manager. Just to put into full context,
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somebody like Jack McKeon, who took over in the middle of 2003, he was a much more effective manager his first two years with the team. It's just they didn't have a full season in order to stack up those wins in 03. That being said, I think you touched on it, the fact that it should not be understated how important it is to be keeping the clubhouse moving in the same direction and to have strong relationships with the players. And Clayton clearly has that with so many different guys on this roster. It has been essentially a drama-free past couple years for this team. Very few player-led or player-involved controversies. I'd say that Sandy Alcantara is kind of the biggest ingredient in that, the fact that Sandy has bought in to a lot of very different aspects of this. You touched on this in your article that went up on Friday, the way that Sandy has bought in on how much his organization has changed in a short time in terms of the preparation in between starts and even the way he was used himself down the stretch of this season, the way that the coaching staff has pushed on him to make adjustments to his own pitch mix and pitch usage, things like that, to have the cooperation of one of your team leaders. And I'd say they're the team leader throughout the entire process. that reflects well on what McCullough does in terms of keeping everybody in the same direction. And this also just goes back to the previous point that I feel like McCullough and the Marlins, they were held back quite a bit by the construction of the roster itself. That is out of Clayton's hands. It wasn't his choice to have Leo Jimenez on the roster for five out of six months, to have Brian Navarretto on the roster for the majority of the season. There were just limited pieces for him to move when it came offensively in late-game situations. Also on the bullpen side, too. The fact that he was given Pete Fairbanks as a closer, told to make it work, and everybody assumed that somebody like Fairbanks would be a clear positive for this bullpen. And with just a few stretches as exceptions, for the most part, he was the guy that was holding them back to try to make that work in the bullpen where outside of him, so many guys were lacking in experience, where injuries popped up. I felt like he wasn't really given the tools to put together a playoff team under these circumstances and for reasons that were largely out of his control. So I think it's fine to have him back. It's just that it's going to take growth from both him and from the front office as a whole in order to take that next step. When it comes to Guerrero, that also took me somewhat by surprise that he would be the one notable guy that's leaving right now. Going back to last year, they lost three coaches, but that's because those guys received promotions from other teams. In this case, with Guerrero, it's clearly not the case. The Marlins very gently firing him without using those words. in a year where their offense was fine
for, you know, for the majority of the year, they struggled against left-handed pitching. You, you were very consistent about pointing that out. The Marlins gave away a lot of games against left-handed starters because it would use their, they'd force their right-handed bats in the lineup. Again, it's not Guerrero's responsibility in terms of making those lineups. I guess you could say it was again, an interesting choice just because there were several guys that did take big steps forward offensively. Otto being the shining example of doing that. a guy that was one of the very best players at his entire position this season after being more of a league average overall shortstop in the previous couple of years. So Otto took that step forward. Somebody like Jacob Marcy, at least he rebounded very strongly in the second half after getting off to a slow start. There were guys, of course, that took steps back offensively. Augustine Ramirez is a big example, but even last year he had his flaws. So maybe I think some of this might date back to last year, too, with some of those guys. Kyle Stowers regressed a little bit from his amazing heights in 2025. And as a whole, like there weren't too many team wide weaknesses with this offense, aside from hitting lefties. As a whole, their strikeout rate was right around league average. They hit more homers this year than previous years. So it's hard to put your finger on exactly what they're looking to improve that they didn't already have on the coaching staff side. But I'll be excited to see about where they move forward with that process, because to reiterate, it is different than than last year where they are looking to they're looking for something that they believe the previous coach didn't have. And in that regard, so reaching wishing Pedro the best of luck wherever he lands moving forward.
00:09:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, great guy to interact with a couple of times I did. Yeah, real quick. I mean, the Marlins offense was 16th in WRC Plus at 100 league average, exactly. And they were above teams like the Braves and the Phillies who had way down league average OPSs. They were in the 26th, 27th. range. OPS, they were 9th, 23rd in homers. And then as I noted, 684 OPS against left-handed pitching compared to the 743. I think another note to mention is this second half offense was not good. Obviously, you lose Liam Hicks, that makes an impact. And then at the same time, you look at someone like you know Otto and X who just completely went downhill in the second half of the season so those are huge struggles there obviously you can't put that all on Pedro I also think a big reason for this was and Peter used the word alignment you know that they want to find someone who's aligned with what they think maybe Pedro just wasn't aligned with what Peter and the rest of that hitting staff wanted to do they have directors of hitting directors of pitching and they those guys need to align with everyone from top to bottom maybe there just wasn't an alignment there because they're keeping the assistant hitting coaches those guys are staying for Corbin Day and Ben Hess or David Hess, Chris Hess. I just used two names. But, yeah, so those two guys are coming back. Clearly there's an alignment there. Maybe there's a world where one of those guys are promoted. It doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. But I'm curious. The Marlins have made some very obscure hires on their coaching staff. I don't think they've ever hired a guy who has experience at that same position before. So I'm curious to see what that looks like. But moving forward, Eli, a lot of injuries. We won't even dive into the Fairbanks one. He's having a thoracic outlet. surgery or syndrome surgery, whatever it is, but he's going to be a free agent in a couple weeks, so he won't really have much to do there. But Andrew Nardi seems like he's not coming back, probably going to get non-tendered. And then the other guys seem to be back on track for spring training, so I guess that's a good thing. Thomas should be back for spring training too. Thomas White, the Marlins' top prospect. Robbie Snelling as well, at some point, should be throwing off a mound in spring training. Obviously, spring training, we say that, but it'll be a little longer, so maybe it helps Robbie Snelling a little bit that The season could start later on there. Yeah, Tyler Zuber is going to visit Dr. Keith Meister, so we should get an update on him at some point next week. Anthony Bender is a big one there, obviously. Season got cut short pretty early. After a couple up and downs, Max Meyer should be ready for spring training. That's a huge one as well, Eli. Anything else that stands out to you? I think everything pretty much to what we expect. A lot of guys ready for spring training. A guy like Snelling probably going to come back midway through the season. And yeah, that's huge. Anytime you get all your starting pitching back, it's huge because that's probably it. And we look back at the reasons why the Marlins struggled in 2026, or at least struggled to win more games, was the fact that they did not have enough starting pitching. And that really crushed them. And the lack of trying to go out there and find someone who could help them in that case.
00:12:36
Speaker 2: Some little clues here. You referenced one of them in terms of non-center candidates, Andrew Nardi. a guy that we thought was a strong non-tender candidate last offseason. Some were surprised that they kept him. There was a little glimmer of hope from him in spring training, and I think in his very first appearance of the season. And then from there, it was struggles and then this injury. So this will almost certainly end his tenure. That very one in the bottom with Tyler Zuber, where Zuber had some flashes of being a decent middle reliever this year and then tailed off towards the end. The fact that he's also seeing Dr. Meister again, He's another guy that is
surprisingly already in his arbitration years, so that's another likely non-tender candidate for this Marlins team that overall has a very large arbitration class. I think we'll get into that in an upcoming episode of all these guys that are due pay raises and many of whom are deserving of that. But due to injury, I think both Zuber and Nardi are gone. It really shouldn't be overlooked how much of a difference Bender's absence made during the entire second half of the season. That did drag on a lot longer than we thought it would. So for him to be on track to return is fine, although, believe it or not, he's already entering his very final year of club control with Bender. So that's an interesting decision for the team to make, even entering the season, in terms of whether they want to flip a guy with such a good major league track record or whether they're just going to ride it out through to free agency with him. That's one of the few guys that are getting close to hitting the open market for this team. And William Kempner is a bummer, too. I think he's going to stick around on this roster, but the fact that his elbow surgery is potentially going to cost him a full year. That is a bit of a hit at their depth, considering that he pitched very well in his limited opportunity at the big league level. I mentioned this in the roundtable. I'm just most excited to see Ronnie Enriquez back at full strength. His season was astounding. The one and only full season he's had at the major league level to this point. So if he comes back as anything close to that version of it, then he's going to be the best reliever on this team. And he's going to very crucially be adding swing and miss to this Marlins bullpen. because outside of Fairbanks and Peterson, they really just did not have a ton of strikeouts from this staff. That's like a more particular area that I felt that they can definitely improve in terms of whether it's acquiring guys with the requisite stuff or whether it's making adjustments to the way that some of these guys use their pitches. They're just going to need more strikeouts in order to become an elite pitching staff. We talked about their offense being kind of middle of the pack. Their pitching staff was essentially middle of the pack too, and the standard has to be higher for them. If they're going to be a contending team. They need to have a great pitching staff, which we really have not seen in a ton of like barely at all in the history of this Marlins organization where top to bottom, they have guys that can dominate. So they, they have guys at the top of the rotation that we like, and they have somebody in Enriquez that I think is going to be an elite reliever. If he's healthy, they're just going to need more outside of that. So, so many of these entries, as you touched on every single one of them, Is pitching related outside of the Marcy one that came up in the press conference? It just shows you can never have enough pitching. And that's one thing this organization is going to have to simply improve upon in terms of developing more depth at that position in order for them to take that step forward. Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida, they present all of our podcast efforts here on Fish on First. Miami's best jet ski and boat adventures. Jet ski rentals of South Florida with six jet ski locations and over 120 boats. There's something for every style and every budget. Ride jet skis right in front of the downtown skyline in Ferris wheel or book your own private boat starting as low as $ 300 with the captain included. Bring your drinks, your friends, and enjoy the water your way. The boat is completely yours for the time you reserve it. The reservation based only to book call 305-990-2192 or check them out online at sfjetskirentals.com. Make sure to use our promo code fish on first, and that gets you a 10% discount off your next booking. Again, that's 305-990-2192 or online at sfjetskirentals.com.
00:16:37
Speaker 1: Another big name to talk about here. And I think the Marlins definitely are going to have at some, I'm, I'm sure they're gonna have some conversation with him is Samuel Contra. He is currently, I guess, technically a Marlin still, but could not be in a matter of a month or two if they decide to decline his $ 21 million club option. My expectation is that they will take that very much. They need it, especially if there is a salary floor or, you know, ceiling, whatever you want to call it after the CBA negotiations. But Outside of that, I mean, Sandy's value to the organization goes beyond the money and beyond what he does on the field. But here's what Peter said on Sandy. He is so meaningful to this organization, and that is not lost on me. Really fun to watch and pitch his leadership in the clubhouse, the way he handles himself, and the way he sets an example for the rest of the team. Yeah, so there's a lot of value there from him. Bruce is a big fan of Sandy. He made it very clear. He went on the record multiple times. during the trade deadline saying that Sandy will remain in Marlin through the remainder of the 2026 season. That was the case. Led Major League Baseball innings pitched. Eli, we're kind of talking about this because I was drafting up this article on Sandy, but he really could be the first Peter extension of this time. This is a guy who's made it very clear, very openly, I think, since I want to say Kyle Stowers maybe in spring training, even Luis Urias if we go way back. who's openly said he wants to remain in Marlin. He wants to sign an extension. He wants to be here in Miami. He has no reason to leave. He's the face of the franchise. So, yeah, just your thoughts on what the Marlins could do here, what type of contract extension we could see if they do try to do something. It seems like Sandy really wouldn't take a lot. I mean, if you give the $ 21 million to $ 25 million range a season, it seems like that could potentially get it done, and that's
what I've been hearing too.
00:18:31
Speaker 2: It is– in one standpoint, it doesn't seem– that much of an ask, but at the same time, it's just there's no history of the Marlins as an organization doing that for any player. This would be uncharted territory for them to pay that much for a pitcher on an annual basis, and one that, if we want to be really critical, one that just is not going to get back to being an ace, a true ace for an organization. He's a guy that is eating as many innings as anybody in the league and has those individual performances that really make you wow. And he is somebody that intangibly is everything that you want in the clubhouse. But at the same time, there's a gap between him and the guys that are the unconditional aces that are still pitching in the postseason, for example, in leading their teams. So there has to be some push and pull in terms of paying him what they feel is market value, but also him getting what he feels makes him that he deserves as well. So I'll be fascinated to see the way those conversations go. heading into that year. It is, at one standpoint, there are a lot of extensions you see for guys entering the very final year of a contract. That's when the urgency kicks in to get a deal done. From his perspective, he just hasn't tested free agency before. You just wonder from his shot if he wants that opportunity to be on the open market, even if it leads him back to staying in Miami. Does he want a chance just to have that experience in his career when he's never had it before? And if he does sign a relatively long-term deal, then he might never actually get to test free agency in his career. So perhaps he wants... Knowing him as we do, I think he'd actually be fine with avoiding that drama, with getting that deal done and staying in Miami. He has just been so consistent with how much he enjoys being here and enjoys the way that his overall life is, not just his baseball career, but his life as a whole is living in Miami. So that makes you think that even though he's in a different spot of his career than a lot of these other players under club control, he might be the most logical extension candidate just because he knows in and out what it means to be a Marlin. And he's satisfied with that. And everybody seems to be satisfied with him. You got quotes in that article from everybody that matters from the manager to the president of baseball operations to the owner there, they're all kind of aligned on what he means to this team and the specific things that he provides on and off the field. So yeah, it's just about hitting that number and hitting the length of the deal that he feels is fair. So there are, there are some comps out there that I think are reasonable, whether it's, somewhat of like what Nathan Evaldi was earning these past couple of years, $ 25 million a year. Merrill Kelly earning 20 plus million dollars. Seth Lugo, 23 million a year this year and next year. Yeah, somewhere in that range
that you already threw out, I think is fair. At the same time, because he still throws so hard, because there are still those moments where he dominates, it's maybe in his mind, he values himself a little bit more than that. Maybe he does think there is he's closer to being a Cy Young candidate than he actually is. Well, let's just to see exactly how it plays out. And as you mentioned, kind of hovering over this is the entire financial system in baseball. If the Marlins are in a shot in this position where they need to spend a certain amount of money for the first time ever, actually having a clear floor that they have to get above, then this would be a no brainer way for them to potentially overpay a player. If you're going to overpay anybody in order to reach a floor, it should be the guy that is the leader of your team. So yeah, I would think that there's a reasonable shot of him being a Marlin beyond 2027. It's just that it really is just a whole different scenario than anything this Marlin team has encountered before when it comes to that.
00:22:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you mentioned the fact that he could test the free agent market. I think it's worth noting, like this is probably the last big contract he's going to get, right? I mean, he's already 31. So he's, a four or five year deal that takes from the age 36, maybe 37, if he gets a little bit more than a four or five year deal. So two things there to keep in mind, like, Hey, go out there, get your money. But if he wants to remain a Marlin and he's willing to take the hometown discount again, like he did the first time. Cause right now, I mean, this is probably one of the better, best contract values. Marlins have ever signed a player to in a very long time. Like it was five for 56. It's, it's very impressive to see the fact that he got that much or that little for the, I guess the work that he had done or what the Marlins ended up getting out of Sandy, right? Because the year after he wins the Cy Young, goes to the All-Star game. He ends up breaking all these franchise records. I mean, it really is impressive what he's done. Leads Major League Baseball in innings pitched this year and over 200 innings that Cy Young season. So yeah, it definitely means a lot to have Sandy, I think. And it's a guy that you could market your team around. It's the face of the franchise at the end of the day. So I think it just means a little more for the Marlins to keep Sandy and long-term here in Miami, and it is worth noting Peter Benix has yet to sign a player to a long-term extension here since he has arrived. He hasn't signed no player to an extension. So we're going into year four of this and no extensions yet. I know, obviously, it was very well reported that he tried to do that last year, but I think it takes two to tango is the best way to put it.
00:23:42
Speaker 2: This is something I want to hit home just about extensions and how it's just been so bizarre to me that he hasn't done any yet just because this is supposed to be the most valuable tool that a small market team has. getting a guy to lock into a long-term deal before they reach their peak. So Sandy's kind of the exception to that. But with so many other guys in this organization, I thought we'd see a lot of them in the same mold as the Tampa Bay Rays. That has been so crucial.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: Oh, the A's. Even the A's. The A's extended a ton of guys.
00:24:11
Speaker 2: The A's have extended a ton of guys, and so far they haven't gotten too much success out of that. I'll say just a lot of these other small market teams, the Brewers are, I think the Brewers might be the trendiest example just because they've been the best team in baseball the last few years in a row with extensions, with Jackson Churio is kind of at the center of that. Christian Yelich they extended, of course, soon after they got him. This is supposed to be such a valuable tool to give small market teams a shot at having potential star players earning a fraction of star salaries into the prime of their careers. It's a little bit of a risk in the moment, I still thought that it was the kind of calculated risk that they would take with somebody at this point. If they'd done it with Otto anytime over the past couple of years, that'd be paying off pretty well. And if they'd done it to, yeah, to this point, we'll see. I think this is a, another critical off season for them to take some of those leaps, whether it is with Marcy or even Otto after this breakout season, a lot of other candidates, they didn't take it with Stowers. And if they go back to the table now, maybe Stowers would be willing to take a lower number, but he was kind of a weird candidate in the first place. So I've been surprised by the lack of movement in that regard and also some of the names that have come up, the fact that Stowers did come up when he was kind of the one guy that I felt didn't really fit that vision. I just thought that was a tool that they'd be using at some point to give themselves a shot to have these guys at good values. Instead, they've been taking it year by year, one at a time with every single guy, and eventually that's how those guys wind up being traded or just not fitting with the team moving forward. Um, and I think, I hope for everybody's sake that we see them because I think more than anybody, fans love that. Marlins fans in particular are so desperate to be able to relax and trust that certain players are going to be with them longterm. And they, this front office just does not give them that level of comfort, but with the way that they speak publicly and then the way that they have enacted in terms of extensions, uh, it leaves everybody kind of on edge in terms of what the future of this team actually is.
00:26:06
Speaker 1: All right. Looking at the needs, right? Uh, Every offseason, the Marlins are going to have needs. As much as you think this is a very well-rounded team, they have a lot of pieces, which
they do. And to Peter's credit, to what he said, you don't really feel like you have a whole ton of needs, but there are needs. And at the end of the day, regardless of if you have a young roster with a lot of control, there are guys who just either haven't worked out or aren't going to work out, or you feel like you could add a little more. I think the biggest need right now is a right-handed hitting bat in the middle of that order. I mean, the Marlins completely struggled against left-handed pitching. You need a guy who could hit right-handed and hit in the middle of the order. They tried to get that or tried to find some production there, but it just didn't work. And you know what? That's fine. Now, I'm sure they tried to add that at the trade deadline. Options weren't there to do that. Now they have an opportunity this offseason to do that. I think the Marlins are at a point where their farm system is pretty well layered to where they can make some sort of trades. I don't see them really attacking the free agent market all too much. in terms of big names. And to be fair, there aren't really big names out there this region class. This is a pretty weak one. I mean, the biggest name out there is like Randy Roserain and Jazz Chisholm. Those are the two biggest names on the position player side, right? And then like a breakout candidate in Jake Bowers had a really good year. And then on the pitching side, Tarek Skubal won't be a Marlin. So outside of that, you got to say, all right, maybe you could sacrifice a little bit of that future to help your present. And that's something that I think I could see the Marlins doing. Eli, outside of that, I mean, I really think they need a backup catcher. Brian Alvarado in all likelihood will not be a backup catcher for 162 games. Augustin Ramirez is your emergency third with a guy who could catch here and there every month. I mean, third base is, I guess, a need, or unless you want to, you know, address that and just say Sanoja's your guy, but you could also see a world where maybe, hey, the Marlins traded a guy like Xavier Edwards. They capitalized on that value guy who I know has had trade interest in the last couple years you finally take that you trade him you put sonoha second then you find your third baseman you know sonoha's really put himself in a position where he is an everyday guy and had that type of season now will he replicate it is the question i'm sure he can at least get close to that but outside of that i mean relievers are always good to bring in i don't think they'll bring in another closure like fairbanks i think they'll do a closure by committee this upcoming season of starting pitching-wise. I mean, it never hurts to bring as many of those as you can, at least for depth purposes. I don't see Tyler Phillips as a starter moving forward. I think he'll go back to the bullpen. That'll definitely help, and that'll allow you to find a starting pitcher. Because I think some guys like Ryan Guster really made a name for himself to at least compete for a spot, right? But how do you see this all working out? What type of options are out there for the Marlins to make some moves this offseason? What needs do they have?
00:28:53
Speaker 2: To me, a starting pitcher is much higher on the list than maybe for you. I think it's about being burned by that last offseason. It feels like forever ago, but they signed Chris Paddock, of course, at the start of spring training last year, and that didn't last long. They're going to be in a similar spot this time around just because of the aforementioned pitchers that are coming back from injuries. We're not going to see Mazer quite ready for opening day. We're not going to see Snelling quite ready until May or June. And Thomas White coming off of his own shoulder injury. These are guys that have a chance of being up early in the year and sticking in the rotation. It's just that you really cannot rely on that. If you're going to take this season seriously as a competitive year. So I like going back to the free agency aiming higher than they did with paddock. The name that I put in the round table is Robbie Ray, who I think is at that nice, reasonable middle ground where he's going to be affordable for them on a relatively short-term deal. And we've seen in his relatively recent career that the ceiling is extremely high. This is a guy that won a Cy Young Award the year before Sandy did and is one that is just overall just very consistently difficult to hit. As long as he's throwing strikes at a reasonable rate, then he's a good starting pitcher. And so that's kind of the one question mark with him is whether they can get him in the zone on a more consistent basis at this stage of his career. Somebody like that in that tier, I think they should be aiming for. And it doesn't hurt to have somebody that's left-handed as well, given that they just went through a year almost entirely right-handed pitching staff from top to bottom, both starters and relievers. Yeah, just generally left-handedness out of their pitching staff will be important. Again, that's something they tried last year with Michael King, Justin King, John King. John King got the third time around. John King, who was awesome the first half of the year and then very quickly just fell off a cliff. They're going to need some more left-handedness just in general as their pitching staff on a whole. So that's there. You mentioned the backup catcher. I agree with that too. Everything you laid out with Gus as the emergency third catcher, the idea that they actually are going to plan for him to catch any innings in 2027, I think would be absurd. You just have him there if you absolutely need him. If his bat is so extraordinary that you need to force him into the lineup as the year goes on, entering the season, you need to have a plan for somebody else in particular to back up Joe Mack. And I don't think that somebody else is in the organization right
now. When it comes to right-handed hitting, it shouldn't be overlooked that Herberto Hernandez had a good year and he's still around and he offers power from that position. That's something you could count on. And the fact that Otto is a righty, even though he doesn't provide the power that this team may be looking for, he offers so much more from that side of the plate and you can trust him as an everyday player from that side of the plate too. So I think they should be looking at more offense as well. I do agree with that. Like for example, the way that Ruiz really faded the second half of the year is unfortunate, but undeniable that they felt that they may have struggled on a story Ruiz as a breakout player, somebody that was finally reaching his top 100 prospect potential. And as the year went on, it's just a swing and miss became so overwhelming that it really limits him to a smaller role, which means that I think in general, There is still opportunities for right-handed hitters, whether they're an everyday player or not. It would be great if they shot for the moon and they tried for a Rosarena, a Seiya Suzuki, somebody in that mold. But a fallback plan of somebody that is more of a platoon guy, but a very trusted guy against left-handed pitching, that's going to be really important too. Yeah, I do think they need a bit more firepower from that side of the plate. So yeah, there is going to be there should be some money to spend that would be again, we're holding out for the details in terms of what the, how the financial model might change overall for major league baseball and that might compel them to spend more money in ways that they haven't before. Yeah. I'd like to see it if they really, because we're coming up on a year where I think fans realistically are continuing to raise expectations for how this team should be performing and how deep they should be going into October and for them to go deeper into Yeah, they're just going to have to be more aggressive than they've been the previous few years. They've dipped their toe in the water when it comes to free agency, and the results have been awful because that's just how it works. Those guys that come really cheaply at the very end of the offseason, those tend to be the guys that have huge holes in their profile and big error bars in terms of their performance. If you want better results, you're just going to have to make a bigger commitment to players that are more reliable.
00:33:17
Speaker 1: I think someone like Randy or Rosarino would be obvious for this team. I mean, first of all, just The numbers, six straight 2020 seasons. That's impressive. I mean, regardless of where you do it, how you do it, with who you do it, it is impressive. This is a guy who Peter Bendix is very familiar with, like very, very familiar with. He got traded in the 2024 season of Seattle. Peter wasn't there anymore, but Peter was there before that. I can see a world where they could try to go after this type of player. He won the rookie of the year in 2021. I mean, still putting up really good numbers, regardless if I put it like the defense is okay. but I think if you want a right-handed power bat in the middle of your order, Randy Rosarino is the guy. He's also Cuban, would certainly attract a lot of fans to Lone Depot Park, I'm sure of it. He's very proud of his Cuban descent, and surprisingly, a lot of Mexicans, too, would come. He played for Team Mexico in the WBC. I mean, yeah, so that overall, just from the marketing standpoint of it, bringing in a big name, that would be the guy. Now, will it happen? Unlikely. The catching market is very bad. It is not very good, so I'm surprised to see what the Lions will prioritize, but they'll prioritize a defensive first type catcher, which that would be fine. But again, I mean, that's kind of like what a Navarretto is, just not a very good version of it. But, you know, we'll see what they do there. But we'll wrap it up here. A lot we dove into. There's still a lot to dive into. We'll have AJ on next week with Isaac. So we'll dive into, I believe it's five names who will be back next season and five names who will likely not be back next season. It's going to be a little tough to find the names that will not be back because of how many players are under team control on this Marlins team. But we'll wrap it up here from Eli and myself. We'll see you guys all next week. Peace out. And as always, go fish.