Yankees Trade Rumors: Marlins Talks on Jesús Luzardo, Edward Cabrera Had No Traction
Jan 11, 2024
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 03: Jesus Luzardo #44 of the Miami Marlins pitches during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the Wild Card Series at Citizens Bank Park on October 03, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
As the New York Yankees continue to pursue starting pitchers, their talks with the Miami Marlins about pitchers Jesús Luzardo and Edward Cabrera had no traction, per the New York Post's Jon Heyman.
According to Heyman, while the Yankees sought after a potential deal involving the Marlins' starting pitchers, those trade talks were never able to gain any ground.
"There was said to be 'no traction' in talks with the Marlins, who are discussing Luzardo, Edward Cabrera and other starters," Heyman wrote.
Luzardo, who started 32 games for Miami last season, had a 10-10 record, recording a 3.63 ERA and 208 strikeouts in 178.2 innings pitched. Cabrera, who started 20 games for the Marlins, recorded a 7-7 record, notching a 4.24 ERA and 118 strikeouts in 99.2 innings pitched.
The news comes as the Yankees made an opening offer to free-agent starter Blake Snell, Heyman reported. Snell started 32 games for the San Diego Padres last season, recording a 14-9 record with a career-best 2.25 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 180 innings pitched.
According to Heyman, the Yankees have yet to make any progress in landing Snell, still far apart from Snell's asking price. Heyman also noted that the Yankees have made little progress in landing free agent Jordan Montgomery or trade target Dylan Cease.
With those three options still seemingly out of reach, Heyman said the Yankees could be pursuing other options, like Marcus Stroman, Corbin Burnes or Shane Bieber, though there is no evidence of progress with any of those options.
With spring training just around the corner, the Yankees are nearing desperation mode when it comes to finding starting arms.
CLEVELAND, OH - SEPTEMBER 27: Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber (57) delivers a pitch to the plate during the second inning of the Major League Baseball Interleague game between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians on September 27, 2023, at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH. (Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
It appears the New York Yankees are interested in adding to the starting rotation.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the Yankees are currently concerned about the price of White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease and have explored some of the other top options on the trade market.
"The Yankees also have had discussions for Jesus Luzardo of the Marlins and Shane Bieber of the Guardians," Nightengale wrote.
Cease looks like the top arm available in the trade market, as he has two years of control left and has shown promise in the past. He would likely command a significant prospect package, which would further impact a Yankees team that has already given up significant pieces in the Soto deal.
Luzardo and Bieber would likely cost less than Cease and could present similar high-end potential. Luzardo has dealt with injury issues thus far in his career but put together a solid 2023 that saw him go 10-10 with a 3.58 ERA for the Miami Marlins. He has three seasons of control left, meaning he could be a fixture in the rotation for several years.
Bieber is the more established player, with three All-Star nods and a Cy Young award in his past, but he will hit free agency following the 2024 season and will likely just be a rental. He also had an off 2023 by his standards, going 6-6 with a 3.83 ERA in 21 starts. He missed more than two months with an elbow injury.
Still, these options may be more feasible for a Yankees team that needs to make a run next season and could add strong depth behind ace Gerrit Cole in the rotation.
Miami Marlins left-handed starting pitcher Jesús Luzardo is reportedly drawing trade interest and has three years of team control remaining before he hits…
While we continue to wait on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Cody Bellinger, Josh Hader and Jordan Montgomery to sign what figure to be nine-figure contracts…
MLB Trade Rumors: Marlins' Jesús Luzardo, Edward Cabrera 'Continue to Draw Interest'
Dec 15, 2023
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - OCTOBER 03: Jesus Luzardo #44 of the Miami Marlins pitches during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the Wild Card Series at Citizens Bank Park on October 03, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
The pitching success that earned the Miami Marlins a shot at a wild-card bid to the 2023 postseason could continue paying off this offseason.
Left-handed pitcher Jesús Luzardo and right-hander Edward Cabrera "continue to draw interest" in the trade market, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.
Luzardo is under arbitration through 2026, while Cabrera's arbitration eligibility extends through 2028.
Peter Bendix, who was hired as the Marlins' president of baseball operations in November, "is said to be perhaps more open to moving a starter than his predecessor, Kim Ng," according to Rosenthal.
The Marlins will already be without starting pitcher Sandy Alcántara, who underwent 2024 season-ending Tommy John surgery in October.
The Marlins are also without starter Pablo Lopez, who was dealt in January as part of the trade for Luis Arraez, and former top-100 pitching prospect Jake Elder, who was traded in August for Jake Burger.
Despite that relative thinning of Miami's pitching depth, the New York Post's Jon Heyman said on December 6 that the Marlins are "at least listening to trade talk" regarding the team's young starting pitchers.
Both pitchers raised their trade value with successful campaigns in 2023. In his second full season with the Marlins, Luzardo led all Miami pitchers with a career-high 32 starts. He recorded a 10-10 record, 3.58 ERA and 1.215 WHIP through 178.2 innings pitched.
The 26-year-old finished up his breakout season as a finalist for the Gold Glove award.
Cabrera put up a 7-7 record through 20 starts (22 games) and finished the season with a 4.24 ERA and 1.445 WHIP through 99.2 innings. The 25-year-old missed significant parts of the season due to a right shoulder issue and a stint with Triple A.
Rosenthal previously named Texas Rangers infielder Ezequiel Duran as "the kind of player the Marlins likely would want for Cabrera," although Rangers general manager Chris Young has said the club has "a super high bar" as to what Duran would cost in a trade.
Because these pitchers are under club control for the near future, the Marlins have the advantage of time. Miami can wait for a favorable offer before making a move on players currently set to be a core part of the starting rotation in 2024.
Checking in with MLB's most underappreciated players before the start of the 2023 season.
The Filthiest Pitches of the 2022 MLB Season So Far
Zachary D. Rymer
May 9, 2022
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 30: Brusdar Graterol #48 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches during the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers at Dodger Stadium on April 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
These are hard times to be a hitter in Major League Baseball. The ball is dead, defensive shifts spare nobody and, oh yeah, pitchers are still throwing absolute filth.
To illustrate, we've rounded up some @PitchingNinja GIFs and numbers for what we think are baseball's nastiest pitches so far in 2022.
More accurately, these are the nastiest pitches that haven't quite gained mainstream recognition yet. To be frank, there's nothing left to write about Aroldis Chapman's four-seam fastball, Corbin Burnes' cutter, Kevin Gausman's or Shohei Ohtani's splitters, Edwin Diaz's slider, Devin Williams' changeup or Kenley Jansen's cutter.
In addition to being lesser known, pitches had to be both aesthetically pleasing and actually effective to make the cut for this list. If a pitch rates very well in one of those categories but not so much in the other, we opted to leave it out.
Now that everyone knows the ground rules, here are the pitches that have our attention early in the 2022 season. We've separated them into three divisions (fastballs, breaking balls and off-speed pitches) and broken them down one at a time.
Fastball Division
ST. LOUIS, MO - APRIL 07: Ryan Helsley #56 of the St. Louis Cardinals delivers a pitch during the ninth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day at Busch Stadium on April 7, 2022 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Scott Kane/Getty Images)
Ryan Helsley's Four-Seam Fastball
Lest anyone miss anything, we'll advise everyone not to blink while watching St. Louis Cardinals right-hander chuck this one at 103 mph:
Even Helsley was surprised that he hit 103 mph on that pitch to Ketel Marte, as he told Katie Woo of The Athletic: "I did look up when I struck him out. It just felt harder. Like that one came out a little better, and I looked up and was like, 'Wow.' It kind of caught me by surprise."
This kind of gas has been typical of Helsley in his eight outings this season. He's averaging 99.2 mph, which is in the 100th percentile for fastball velocity. He's also in the 98th percentile for spin rate, with more vertical movement on his four-seamer than most pitchers.
No wonder hitters can't hit his fastball. As in, literally can't hit it. The 72 fastballs he's thrown have yielded zero hits in 16 at-bats, with 11 strikeouts to boot.
Brusdar Graterol's Sinker
If you've watched much of the Los Angeles Dodgers over the last three seasons, this won't be the first time you've seen Brusdar Graterol throw a sinker like this one:
In fact, we're arguably breaking our "No Establishment Types" rule by including Graterol and his sinker on this list. But in our defense, this is the first time since he joined the Dodgers that his signature pitch is living up to its lofty potential as a silencer of bats:
2020: .263 AVG
2021: .289 AVG
2022: .111 AVG
Opposing batters are just 2-for-18 against Graterol's sinker, and neither hit is much to brag about. One was a jam-shot blooper into the outfield. The other was a shattered-bat infield single.
Of note is that Graterol has been putting more arm-side run on his sinker in 2022, meaning that batters now have so much more to contend with than just his triple-digit velocity.
Jose Alvarado's Cutter
Psst. If you want to catch a glimpse of what's arguably the single best pitch in baseball right now, keep a close eye on the second pitch in this sequence:
That is Jose Alvarado's cutter. Its run value per 100 pitches is currently minus-9.8. That's second best behind Sean Doolittle's four-seam fastball, though that pitch is responsible for a fraction of as many whiffs and strikeouts.
The cutter had always been in Alvarado's back pocket, but it's migrated to his front pocket in his second season with the Philadelphia Phillies. He's throwing it 33.6 percent of the time, or about twice his previous career-high.
Why do that? Well, why not? Just look at the darn thing. It's arguably as much a slider as a cutter. Either way, hitters have been powerless to avoid laying off it when it travels outside the strike zone. The chase rate against it is up nearly 20 percent from 2021.
The results: zero hits in 10 at-bats and nine strikeouts.
Miami Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo works against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 24, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Jordan Hicks' Slider
If you're a Colorado Rockies fan wondering why Chad Kuhl's slider isn't under the spotlight here, it's not because we're unaware that hitters are just 2-for-40 with 19 strikeouts against hslider. Sadly, we just could find a good GIF of it.
So instead, here's another one for Cardinals fans:
Of course, it's not the slider that Jordan Hicks is widely known for. He's legendary for bringing the heat on his fastball and often with absurd movement to boot. To wit, he once threw a 105 mph fastball that broke like a vintage Derek Lowe sinker.
Yet Hicks has been going to the slider more frequently this season, throwing it about three times as often as he did in his return from Tommy John surgery in 2021. It comes in about 15 mph slower than his fastball but with well-above-average movement both vertically and horizontally.
Bully for Christian Walker, who actually managed to a hanging slider from Hicks over the fence on May 1. That's the only hit against it in 15 at-bats, not to mention one of only four balls in play out of the 80 total sliders he's thrown.
Jesus Luzardo's Curveball
We see you, Shane McClanahan. Specifically, your McCurveball, against which batters are 6-for-42 with 22 strikeouts. It's a dandy, alright.
And yet, we can't help but lean ever so slightly toward Jesus Luzardo and his chameleon curve:
The curveball is a huge reason why Luzardo is finally on his way (3.08 ERA in five starts) to the breakout that never came with the Oakland Athletics before they gave up and traded him to the Miami Marlins last year. It's indeed his primary pitch, accounting for just north of 40 percent of his offerings.
The southpaw's hook isn't actually exceptional for its spin or its movement. Its velocity, though, is a different story. At 84.2 mph, he's tied with Atlanta's Kyle Wright for the top velocity on a curve that's been thrown at least 100 times.
Ultimately, batters are 6-for-44 with 22 strikeouts against Luzardo's hook. That's a .007 advantage in batting average over McClanahan's curve, which is good enough for us.
BALTIMORE, MD - MAY 05: Felix Bautista #74 of the Baltimore Orioles pitches during the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Thursday, May 5, 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Pablo Lopez's Changeup
Why does Pablo Lopez lead all of MLB with a 1.00 ERA? Basically because of his changeup:
We're obviously exaggerating in pinpointing Lopez's changeup as the sole explanation for his big break, but not by much. He's already thrown the pitch 200 times, and hitters aren't giving him much cause to change course. They're 8-for-50 with no home runs and 17 strikeouts against it.
The conventional wisdom holds that a pitcher should have a sizable velocity gap between his fastball and changeup. Nonsense, says Lopez. At 87.4 mph, his comes in less than six mph slower than his 93.0 mph average fastball.
Not many major leaguers throw the split-finger fastball, but the ones who do tend to thrive on it. You can ask Gausman. Or Ohtani, who's had exactly one of his splitters hit over the fence in five years with the Los Angeles Angels.
But if it's an emerging splitter you're looking for, consider Felix Bautista's:
Granted, the Baltimore Orioles rookie has only thrown 33 splits on the young season. But on those, he's collected nine whiffs on 17 swings. Of the five that were hit into play, none was above the hard-hit threshold of 95 mph. The one and only hit was a bloop single that landed just out of the reach of center fielder Cedric Mullins.
If a splitter is only as good as the fastball that sets it up, well, then Bautista isn't too shabby there either. He sits at 97.5 mph and can touch 100 mph.
In other words, the Orioles have a future closer on their hands.
Starling Marte Reportedly Traded from Marlins to Athletics for Jesus Luzardo
Jul 28, 2021
Miami Marlins' Starling Marte acknowledges an ovation from fans during a baseball game against his former team the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Saturday, June 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Less than a year after Marte was traded to Miami by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Marlins shipped the 32-year-old to the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, per Craig Mish of SportsGrid.
According to MLB Network's Jon Heyman, the A's will send Jesus Luzardo to Miami.
Marte didn't light Miami on fire last year, hitting .245 with four homers, 13 RBI and 13 runs in 28 games. He also appeared in just one postseason game after suffering a fractured hand when he was hit by a pitch.
Injuries have affected him this season as well, as he missed five weeks in April and May with a fractured left rib. He's hitting .306/.407/.453 with seven homers and 22 stolen bases.
The two-time Gold Glover and 2016 All-Star has not hit the heights of his Pittsburgh Pirates days. But the A's will hope he can replicate the numbers he posted in his prime as they make a postseason push.
The disappointing Marlins (44-57), meanwhile, may be primed for another fire sale in a long history of them.
Luzardo is an intriguing buy-low candidate for the Marlins. MLB.com ranked the 23-year-old as the No. 12 prospect in baseball entering the 2020 season. He's disappointed over the past two seasons with a 5.20 ERA and 104 hits allowed (20 homers) in 97 innings.
If the Marlins can unlock the potential that made Luzardo such a well-regarded prospect, this trade will be a steal.
