If I Were the GM: Miami Marlins
The Marlins future took a drastic hit with the shocking passing of Jose Fernandez last year. Expecting to have one of the best young pitchers front your rotation and then losing him suddenly completely changes the scope of a franchise. And that is all secondary to the well-being of the players family. Now as the Marlins get ready for 2017, if I were the GM, I would get bold and aggressive with transactions as the season approaches. The Nationals are the clear favorites to win the East, but I am of the thought that the East is really up for grabs with all the teams, except the Phillies, having a realistic shot at taking the crown. The Nats have the weakest overall team depth and still have not solidified their pen. With a few aggressive moves, the Marlins can put a lot of pressure on the Nationals and be right behind them should they stumble at all.
Lineup
Gordon 2B
Prado 3B
Yelich CF
Stanton RF
Bour 1B
Ozuna LF
Realmuto C
Hechevaria SS
Rotation: Koehler, Conley, Chen, Straily, Volquez
Closer: Ramos Setup: Phelps RH Cervenka LH
The lineup is impressive. There is youth at every spot outside of 3B, but Prado proved once again in 2016 how complete of a hitter he has become throughout his career. There is good power and speed from both sides with Hechevaria really the only glaring weakness in the everyday lineup. His value is primarily produced with his glove so any offense he can give is a bonus. The bullpen has lots of good right handed options, but lacks depth on the left side. As for the rotation, replacing Jose is impossible, but the Marlins were intent on adding veteran arms to add competition and depth to their staff in hopes that their presence will help mature the young arms. So what would it take to get to the top of the NL East in 2017
Trade for Quintana
This is the boldest move that I would make. Quintana is the best, young, potential ace available and I believe the Marlins have the player resources to pull off such a trade. The Marlins have never been shy about making high profile trades, whether it is shipping out talent or bringing it in.
TRADE OF Marcell Ozuna, C Tomas Tellis, & pitching prospect for Quintana
In a trade this big there may need to be some other minor parts to help balance it out, but a trade with this framework makes a lot of sense for both sides. We will spend more time talking about it from the White Sox perspective in a later post but they need long term OF help, a catcher of the future, and would of course want a pitching piece back in return. Realmuto is the Marlins answer at catcher, and Bour is locked in at first making Tellis expendable. Ozuna has been trade banter for years and has lost his CF job this season to Yelich. For Sale, the Red Sox gave up their #1, #3, and #8 prospects plus a low level player. Sale is better than Quintana. The top three prospects according to mlb.com in the Marlins system are pitchers. Allow the White Sox to have one of them, plus Tellis (#10 prospect), plus Ozuna, a young controllable OF who can play center, and I think we would be real close to a deal. This type of attention grabbing deal is right up the Marlins alley.
To replace Ozuna, the Marlins would be able to platoon (though they are both lefties) Ichiro and Deitrich in LF, move Prado to LF full time and let Deitrich take over 3B, or find some veteran help in free agency. The Marlins have the depth to take from their offense and significantly upgrade their rotation. A rotation lead by Quintana instead of Chen looks more like a playoff rotation.
Add a Lefty
This seems to be a key topic for a lot of teams this time of the offseason. As it stands the only proven bullpen lefty is Hunter Cervenka, and he is only a year removed from indy ball. The other potential lefty pen pieces are two starters in Jeff Locke and Justin Nicolino, or a young arm in Jarlin Garcia. Adding a proven vet to work along side Cervenka is very important. The top choice for the Marlins should be Travis Wood.
Last year working solely out of the pen, Wood held lefties to a .128/.208/.239 while posting a 2.95 ERA over 61 IP. Looking at those numbers, its quite surprising he is still available. He may still be waiting to sign because he wants a chance to return to a rotation and not a bullpen. The Marlins could entice him by, at least, given him a chance in Spring Training to beat out Straily or Volquez for a spot in the rotation with plan B simply being putting Wood in the pen. Either way, adding a lefty, such as Wood, is a key component left to their offseason shopping.
Add a RH Compliment
The last key transaction to make to take the NL East would be to compliment Justin Bour's power lefty bat with a platoon partner. Looking through February free agent left overs, the name I believe makes most sense is Chris Johnson. Johnson can platoon with Bour and help out at the hot corner after an Ozuna trade if Prado were to move to LF. But seeing how he was not resigned by the Marlins early on as one of their own free agents, I am guessing they are moving on. With that in mind, I like the idea of bringing in Billy Butler. Butler has always been known as a professional hitter with very little value in any other area of the game. All the Marlins need from this spot is someone who can handle first base while hitting left handed pitchers. Butler last year hit .280/.331 against lefties (and nearly the same against righties actually.) Upon looking at his splits further, I actually noticed that he hit almost 60 points higher when playing 1B than he did while in the lineup as a DH. If Butler can still hit lefties like that, say in one start a week at 1B, the Marlins lineup would be complete. The price he would cost at this point in the offseason would make him a virtual no-risk investment with the potential to really stablize the lineup.