Marlins playing the free-agent market, but it's difficult to say they'll play hard

Tom Gatto

Marlins playing the free-agent market, but it's difficult to say they'll play hard image

One day, it's Nicholas Castellanos. The next, it's Jose Abreu. Two players the last-place, lower-than-low-payroll Marlins are reportedly pursuing as free agents early this offseason. Team president Michael Hill told reporters (per MLB.com) Wednesday at MLB's general managers meetings that Castellanos is on the radar.

Both would improve the roster, but they wouldn't be franchise-changers. Castellanos, 27, hit well above his career norms after a July trade from the Tigers to the Cubs. Abreu can slug and was a mentor to young players with the White Sox (the Marlins also have lots of young players), but he'll be 33 next Opening Day.

Why pursue these two and not Anthony Rendon or Josh Donaldson, who, though a year older than Abreu, is seen as the much better player?

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From one outsider's perspective, it looks as though the Miami front office is trying to make a safe play (or is it ploy?) by looking active, pursuing two players with local ties (Castellanos is from the Miami area; Abreu is from Cuba and has lived in the Miami area in the offseason), getting fans excited or at least engaged, and then ultimately not meeting the players' salary demands, which are expected to be lower than those of the top-end Rendon and Donaldson.

In Abreu's case, there have been reports that he and the White Sox are already in contract talks. In Castellanos' case, his price point figures to be inflated, according to projections by MLBTradeRumors.com. Again, from the outside, it's difficult to see him taking a hometown discount after becoming one of the top free agents this offseason based on two hot months. The Marlins, then, will have cover if/when they go elsewhere.

As for other high-end free agents with Miami connections, such as Yasmani Grandal (Cuba native, University of Miami) and Marcell Ozuna (former Marlins outfielder), the Marlins have built-in excuses not to strongly pursue them.

In Grandal's case, Miami has a young catcher, Jorge Alfaro, whom it acquired in the J.T. Realmuto trade. In Ozuna's case, the Marlins traded him to shed salary after the sale of the team to Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter's group. Why bring him back for more money when he's two years older? (MLB Network's Jon Heyman speculated that Ozuna could be an outfield option.)

One final excuse: Abreu and Ozuna received $17.8 million qualifying offers from their now-former teams. The Marlins would need to surrender a draft pick if they signed either one. Giving up draft capital runs counter to the organization's philosophy of building the farm system from the ground up, especially while the building is still going on. 

The Marlins can silence the doubters by signing one of the above players, perhaps with the hope that they'll land a rich new local TV deal after the 2020 season. That probably is too much to hope for, though. Yasiel Puig, anyone?

The last time the franchise tried to spend big, in 2011-12 under then-owner Jeffrey Loria, Marlins Park was just opening and South Florida was seeing dollar signs. Loria made big investments in Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell — and then sold all of them off within a year. He sold the club to Sherman and Jeter five years after that.

Sherman and Jeter have not done enough yet to be considered the anti-Loria. Just appearing to pursue longshot free agents won't change that view.

This article has been updated to remove references to J.D. Martinez. He is not a free agent.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.