The Miami Marlins, after a 60-game season of .500 baseball, are once again cellar dwellers in the NL East. At 33-44, they’ve already started the sell-off process by making the first fairly significant trade of the deadline:
Even though Corey Dickerson is in a boot and a timetable has not been put in place for his return, he will return and the hope is that he’ll help the Blue Jays off the bench. Overall, Adam Cimber might be the bigger get here for the Jays as he’s carrying a 3.82 ERA, albeit a fairly fluky one, in 34.1 innings and also comes with 3 more years of control. It’s assumed that the Marlins will continue to deal some expiring and/or expendable assets and there’s one in-particular that looks like an extra tasty rental.
I’ll not shy away from my stance on Cristian Pache. I believe he’s the Braves CFer of the future for the next 5-6 years. However, I’ll fully admit it that he’s got work to do with his swing. His lower-half was a full blown mess at the beginning of 2021 and, while I’ve seen much better swings in AAA in the past few months, he’s still got work to do. If Braves don’t make a move, they’ll likely have to continue gambling on Guillermo Heredia and a .358 BABIP. Personally, I’d rather upgrade both offensively and defensively to allow both Heredia and Almonte to slide back to platoon roles/bench bats.
Bringing Starling Marte to the Braves
Starling Marte is having a fascinating season. He’s tripled his career walk rate, is playing the best defense of his life, is stealing bags at a high rate, and is carrying a .295/.404/.477 slash-line. Do you know what the Braves really need right now? They need a guy that can run, can play good CF defense, and can get on base. Want to fix this offense in one move? This is it.
Marte will be a free agent in 2022. He’s owed $12.5MM. The Marlins will need the Braves to cover the rest of the salary AND to give a substantial package for Marte, as with the in-season trade, they’ll be losing the comp pick. Luckily, the Braves have the means to make this trade happen, but will they do it? Likely, no, but I’ll still build it and hope they’ll come.
The Package for Starling Marte
- Marlins get Kyle Wright and Braden Shewmake
- Braves get Starling Marte
I’ve come to terms that Dansby Swanson will be the Braves SS for 2022. I’ve also come to terms that the Braves will likely keep him around past 2022 as he’s a fan favorite and plays fine as the 6th-7th best offensive player on the team. Kyle Wright deserves an everyday shot to get right in the majors and he’s just not going to get that in the Braves organization anytime soon. I could basically copy/paste this and it’d be the same for Bryse Wilson and Touki Toussaint (so sub them in/out if you like). This move gives the Braves the real offensive boost they need, someone that gets on base at a high clip, and allows Brian Snitker to move to the 3rd spot or, better yet, Ronald Acuna Jr. to the 2nd spot and Freddie to the 3rd. Runner(s) on in front of our 2 best hitters is a good thing.
I was looking at who was in the top 30 in fWAR for the month of June, and I was just looking at team names to see if I could find teams who would be selling. One clear seller and name REALLY stuck out: Miami and Starling Marte. And boom, here you are. Nice work. He’s getting hot at the right time for teams to give up a boatload for him, and I hope it’s us. I don’t think he’s quite as good as the guy he’s been (he’s on pace for 10 WAR), but I don’t think the Marlins will get a package as if he’s a 10 WAR player.
I’m ok with this.
Also, @Ed from the last thread, this summer has been so crappy that I would love to see a trade of a ’96 Yugo for a ’97 Yugo. The grass is greener! Just don’t make me watch the same 25 stiffs without some meaningless deckchair shifting.
What makes anyone think that the Braves can pull off a Marte trade when they can’t even add a Cimber to the roster for basically nothing except a few million bucks ($1.3M to be precise).
Also, Marte would likely bat second and Acuna still first. I’d prefer Freddie at #3 and keep Riley at #4 with Albies moving to 5th.
I think it takes more then Wright and Shewmake though to get Marte.
I don’t think Shewmake is worth much.
@5
First round pick. Had a great 2019. Was scuffling at AA but is playing really well in June. He hasn’t lost his value and made Keith Law’s top 100 prospect list.
Ryan – I love that trade. Let’s do it.
On another note, poor ol’ Byron Buxton is hurt again, while having his best season yet:
https://www.mlb.com/news/byron-buxton-rocco-baldelli-injury-history
I also think Marte is a great fit–get it done!
Truth is, we need two outfielders–Marte in center and someone else in left. I don’t think we can ride out the season with Almonte and/or Heredia.
What is Shewmake’s ceiling?
Ian Anderson will start the 3rd game of the Mets series instead of Smyly. The Braves have our 3 best guys lined up to start against the Mets.
Honestly, this team has a lot of holes. LF, CF, backup catcher, and 2-3 relievers are needed. Though if TDA makes it back, then that erases that need for a backup C with Contreras.
I actually think we could get by without adding any rotation help, though. Our top 3 are pretty good and Smyly is a perfectly cromulent back of the rotation guy. And the early returns on Muller are promising. Ynoa’s addition will help too. I’m skeptical that Davidson will be able to come back without going under the knife, though.
It’s true the bullpen is a big problem, but I don’t see AA adding several bullpen arms as he did in 2019. That bullpen was if anything worse than this year’s, and the addition of Melancon, Martin, and Greene probably allowed them to win the division.
This year, he needs to spend the prospect capital on outfielders. They may add one reliever, but I think otherwise they will count on Martin, Smith, Greene, Matzek, and Minter to pitch better than they have.
I’m just not convinced this team should be a buyer, especially for rental players. They have too many needs. I also think Marte will be traded for more than that package of players.
Any news on Lucroy? I’m about done with the Kevan Smith experiment.
Our offense is about as dangerous as a can of Moxie.
As far as being a buyer or seller, if I was impressed with any team in the division and thought they would run away with things, I would say sellers. I’m definitely not impressed with anyone. I think we would be crazy not to go for it.
I would absolutely be down for this trade, but I think Wright and Shoemake are a fair distance short of what it’s gonna take to get Marte. My guess would’ve been we’d need to throw somebody better than either of them into that pot to have any chance.
With Trae Young inactive tonight, the Hawks are completely boned. Like, they’re drawing dead on this season level of boned. Might cause me to pay more attention to the Braves game tonight, we’ll see how it goes.
When I see someone say that we should be sellers, I really wonder what they’re expecting (outside of Chief’s wanting to sell everything not tied down and go on another multi-year rebuild). Things could go badly enough between now and the end of next month where we’re not active buyers, but this team isn’t going on a selling spree beyond maybe like Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly or something. We just entered this team’s competitive window like two years ago, they’re not gonna go around trading Freddie Freeman and the like…it’s not gonna happen. I could see them maybe making moves with next year in mind rather than this year, but if you’re waiting for them to dump big pieces for prospect hauls or something, you’ll be waiting awhile.
This is heartwarming.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31734292/new-york-gm-brian-cashman-blunt-state-struggling-yankees
A BLIZZARD OF OZZ!!!!
Sometimes it’s OK for Ozzie to swing on the first pitch.
Beaten by the shift again with two strikes.
Orlando Arcia is playing left field tonight. Something to keep an eye on.
Nolan Kingham got roughed up in his first Triple A start.
Charlie Morton has been fantastic tonight. The pitching has improved so much the last couple of weeks. If the hitting would come around then we’d be ready to make a run. I think Almonte is a bigger pumpkin than Heredia, so maybe a switch of Almonte for Arcia in LF could be the catalyst for a run.
A guy can dream.
Pillar was struck out because it was in the zone AND his checked swing broke the plane. Both umpires blew it.
James F. McCann.
Seems like it’s the Mets’ year.
@24 The Braves benefitted from some calls earlier. But the umps this whole year have been awful.
I hate that this keep happening on 2-strike pitches. What an awful pitch at exactly the wrong time.
I wonder if they should have pinch-hit for Morton in the bottom of the 6th with 2 on and 2 out.
And then Peraza doubled on an 0-2 pitch.
Well, this game has really started to suck.
Minter just should not be the top high leverage guy out of the bullpen.
Top of the order coming up this inning. Got to strike back here.
@26, yes, they absolutely should’ve.
I hate this team. They are a bunch of chokers. Can’t punch out hitters with two strikes, can’t hit with runners on and two out. The “one streak from being kn contention” crowd is fooling themselves. I don’t know if it is Liberty, AA or both, but they are playing with a 15 man MLB roster against teams with a full 25. If Dansby is your 5 hitter you have huge problems
Future hall of famers Peraza, Nido, Pillar and Mccann have cost the braves a few games this year.
Just punt the season, there are too many holes to fill, including the empty space between Snitkers ears.
Minter always in when we need a stop…why is he always in there … he gets used way too much ..
Good at bat by Acuna. 2-0 count and then swing at 3 balls well out of the strike zone .
AA won’t go get us any help. .. need a bat and a reliever .. we’re 4.5 out and we aren’t trying to improve .. disappointing..
This team is just so aggressively depressing. You can’t enjoy a moment like the 3-run homer, because you know there is a good chance the lead will be barfed up before too long. And they send the same bullpen detritus out there night after night because there are no better options.
@36
After the events of tonight’s seventh inning, there’s a decent chance it’s 7.5 out by the close of business Thursday.
With deGrom on Thursday they are guaranteeing that we lose ground in the series by at least one game and probably a sweep at this point
You guys know it’s still a one-run game, right?
@32 If you want to find the real fault it is Covid with an assist from the owners. The Braves payroll depends a lot on gate receipts and income from the battery. This income was lost for a year. Liberty Media, owners of a billion dollar franchise that was within a game of the World Series, could have opted to supplement the budget so that payroll would not be disrupted. As corporate owners, they chose not to do that and cut AA’s budget by a significant amount.
If you “hate” this team then move on. They aren’t chokers. They are poorly managed and the pitching coach needs to be replaced by someone from this century. I think it’s just not their year.
DeGrom is going to get lit up soon for one or two runs, count on it. In all seriousness, he is great but no one is. 50 ERA great. He could have easily given up 2 or 3 runs in his last start against the Braves.
Chip is so annoying
@40 … and other teams didn’t suffer from covid …. Braves will never go all out to improve .. too conservative .. nothing risked . Nothing gained..
Just shoot me.
@40 other teams either have private owners or have high paying TV deals. The Braves were hurt worse than any team.
@40
Good points, although with Liberty Media owning the team, I feel safe betting that it will never be “their year.” When John Malone called the Braves a “real-estate business,” he said it all about the priorities.
@40 so you like the make up of the team? I love the Braves and hate this team. I get the COVID reasoning but to continue to carry Adrianza, Ender, Almonte, Panda, Newk, Santana and Kevan Smith is awful. At least the guys at AAA are lottery tickets. The guys mentioned above have shown they can’t/won’t produce at the MLB level
Chip says a lot of things that aren’t true, but it would be nice if the statement he just made stating “Kranitz is on his way out” meant more than just a trip to the mound
Almonte is now hitting .194.
I don’t think pinch hitting Adrianza for Contreras gains anything.
Those first-pitch swings. Cripes.
In games like this it would be nice if Pablo was actually a useful major league baseball player again
Not a good feeling. There’s another one tomorrow though.
In every way, Pablo has become a pumpkin.
@40 I agree. It’s all about the money for them. If they cared they would not have stripped the budget this year, of ALL years. It could be worse however. Some private owners meddle too much and some corporate owners strip profits from the team.
@47 Of course not. I said before this season started that the bullpen and bench weren’t strong enough. I was mad all winter waiting for them to sign relievers, a backup catcher and a couple of solid bench guys. NONE of that happened. Then I found out that LM had stripped the payroll by millions. AA didn’t even have the money for a backup catcher…..that is nuts. He is getting the blame for this mess but most of it is not his fault.
@48 I will agree with you there. Kranitz does NOTHING. If this lousy season helps us get rid of Snit and “Kranny” then maybe we have a chance next year.
Phillies and Nats win. 4th place now.
Recapped, or something.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/06/29/mets-4-braves-3-8/