Miami Marlins

Starling Marte may be on the move prior to the July 30 MLB trade deadline.

According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Houston Astros are interested in the Miami Marlins outfielder "who seems likely to be traded." Heyman noted that Miami is willing to offer Marte more than the three-year, $30 million contract numbers that have circulated, but added there is still a "sizable gap" in contract discussions.

Craig Mish of the Miami Herald reported Marte and the Marlins are no longer engaged in contract talks.

Marte, 32, is a free agent following this season, and moving him would help the Marlins get something in return before he could sign elsewhere.

Still, he is a productive piece in the team's lineup who brings the ability to hit for average and power, as well as speed and an impressive glove. He is slashing .285/.387/.444 with seven home runs, 22 RBI and 19 stolen bases for a Marlins squad that is in last place in the National League East.

Marte, who played the first eight years of his career on the Pittsburgh Pirates before splitting the 2020 campaign with the Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks, was a 2016 All-Star and has two Gold Gloves on his resume.

At his best, he launched 23 home runs in 2019 and stole 47 bases in 2016. He has five seasons of 30 or more steals and may add a sixth this year if he continues at his current pace.

New York is trying to remain afloat in the American League East at 47-44 and eight games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox. Adding someone like Marte would help it do just that, although the Astros (first place in the AL West) and Phillies (two games back of the New York Mets in the National League East) are in better position.

A potential bidding war is the best the Marlins can hope for if they aren't going to re-sign Marte, with multiple contenders potentially driving the cost up as the deadline approaches.

The Miami Marlins and Don Mattingly are each exercising the manager's mutual contract option for the 2022 season, general manager Kim Ng told reporters on Thursday. 

"We've exercised our portion [of the contract], and Donnie has said that he wants to be back for 2022," she said. "So we're pretty excited about that one."

The 60-year-old Mattingly is in his sixth season as the team's manager, going 345-446 in that time. He led the young Marlins to a 31-29 record last season and a playoff berth, where they were swept in three games by the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS. 

The team's breakthrough year earned Mattingly the Manager of the Year award. It was Miami's only winning season under the manager's tutelage, though the team has been in a state of perpetual rebuilding for much of its existence, outside of World Series titles in 1997 and 2003. 

"Donnie has been steady at the helm, and I think that's one of his greatest attributes," Ng told reporters. "He's incredibly patient. I think he's got a great way with the young players. He's very positive with them."

Miami hasn't matched last year's surprising level of play in 2021, going 38-47 (last in the crowded NL East), though injuries to players like Starling Marte, Sixto Sanchez and Brian Anderson haven't helped. 

And young starting pitchers like Sanchez, Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez and rookies Trevor Rogers and Zach Thompson and have developed nicely under Mattingly, giving the Marlins one of the best and most promising rotations in baseball. 

The Miami Marlins have tabled a multiyear extension to center fielder Starling Marte, according to Jordan McPherson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald.

McPherson and Mish wrote the Marlins are "hopeful" of getting a deal worked out by the July 30 trade deadline. Should the negotiations reach a stalemate, Miami might move Marte, who's in the final year of his six-year, $31 million contract.

The report said Marte is looking to sign for three or four years "in the $50 million range." Under either scenario, that's a fairly reasonable total for a player with his age or profile. The four-year pact would provide a lower average salary but mean the Marlins or another team would be paying for his age-36 season, so a three-year deal has some benefits.

The 2016 All-Star has been one of Miami's best players in 2021, putting up six home runs, 18 RBI and a .296/.403/.456 slash line through 46 appearances.

His .859 OPS is up noticeably from his career average (.794), but that's attributable mostly to the fact he's drawing more walks than ever.

Marte's walk percentage (13.4) is a career high and more than double his career average (5.3 percent), per FanGraphs. His improved eye at the plate is presumably something he can carry over into 2022 and beyond.

If the Marlins can't work something out with Marte by the end of the month, trading him would make sense. Miami could probably get more value than the compensation pick it would receive by extending him the qualifying offer and having him turn it down in the offseason.

But losing Marte wouldn't exactly send a great message for an ownership group that's mostly associated with keeping payroll well below league average.  

According to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the Marlins had the 23rd-highest Opening Day payroll in MLB for 2018, the first season in which Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter were in charge. They subsequently ranked 29th, 27th and 28th over the next three years.

Failing to re-sign Marte might have some fans asking when the organization is planning to turn the money it has saved into tangible investments.

Miami Marlins starting pitcher Sixto Sanchez will undergo season-ending surgery after an MRI revealed a small tear in the posterior capsule of his right shoulder, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald, who also noted that the team hopes the 22-year-old will be good to go for spring training next year.

Sanchez went 3-2 with a 3.46 ERA in seven starts during his rookie season last year. He struck out 33 batters in 39 innings.

The right-hander did not pitch this year, with Christina De Nicola of MLB.com explaining some reasons:

But a couple of delays—a visa issue, then a COVID-19 false positive—pushed back his arrival to camp. Sanchez played catchup during Spring Training, and it was during a simulated game on March 31 to build up his pitch count in preparation of joining the ballclub that he experienced right shoulder inflammation.

Per De Nicola, the Marlins shut Sanchez down down in early June due to "slight discomfort during his throwing program in between bullpen sessions." 

Good news appeared to emerge on June 29 when Craig Mish of SportsGrid reported that Sanchez was throwing at 120 feet, but MLB Pipeline's No. 11 overall prospect will now be out until 2022.

The Philadelphia Phillies initially signed the 6'0", 234-pound Sanchez as a free agent in 2015. He stayed in the organization's minor league system until Feb. 2019, when Philadelphia traded him to Miami in a package for catcher J.T. Realmuto.

New York Yankees legend and Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter has sold his massive Tampa mansion for a record sum.

According to TMZ Sports, Jeter and his wife, Hannah Jeter, sold the 22,000-square-foot home for $22.5 million after initially listing it for $29 million in September. Real estate company Smith & Associates said the $22.5 million purchase price was the highest ever for a home in Tampa.

Jeter rented the home to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and his wife, Gisele Bundchen, after Brady left the New England Patriots to sign with the Bucs last year.

It is not publicly known who purchased Jeter's home, but it wasn't Brady and Bundchen, as they are having a home built in Miami.

Jeter, who lives in Miami, purchased the Tampa home in 2005.

Per TMZ Sports, the mansion features eight bathrooms, eight half-baths and seven bedrooms as well as an 80-foot pool, a gym, a wine cellar, a movie theater and a private dock.

The 46-year-old Jeter is one of the greatest players in MLB history, as he was a 14-time All-Star, five-time World Series champion and one-time World Series MVP during his 20-year career with the Yankees from 1995 to 2014.

Mr. November finished his career with a .310 batting average, 3,465 hits, 1,923 runs, 260 home runs, 1,311 RBI and 358 stolen bases. He was also a near-unanimous inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020.

Per Spotrac, Jeter earned over $266 million in salary during his MLB career.

Former Miami Marlins president David Samson called Barry Bonds' one-year tenure as the club's hitting coach in 2016 a "complete disaster."

Samson explained Thursday during an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (via Audacy's Jesse Pantuosco) that Bonds was pushed on the front office by former owner Jeffrey Loria and proceeded to put no effort into the role.

"He had fun as a hitting coach because he would hang out with [Giancarlo] Stanton and give Stanton some pointers. But he was ineffective, completely," Samson said. "He would sleep in the clubhouse. He would not pay attention during games. He did not work hard. It was a complete disaster."

The former Marlins president, who also worked under Loria with the Montreal Expos, noted the problems with Bonds started during the initial interview, with MLB's all-time home run leader making a steadfast demand for a $1.5 million per year contract.

"It was the worst interview I've ever been a part of," Samson said. "Bonds was an absolute pain in the ass about pay because he knew he had the job."

He added the moment that stands out most is when Bonds stormed out of the clubhouse while second baseman Dee Strange-Gordon was apologizing to the team after receiving an 80-game suspension following a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs.

"Barry Bonds, in the middle of the clubhouse, he's standing toward the backdoor, he screams, 'This is crap!' and he walks out," Samson said on Le Batard's show. "I look at [general manager] Mike Hill and I say, 'Are you kidding me?' Like Barry Bonds just stormed out as though he can't believe one of the players did steroids? Is that really possible?"

Bonds hasn't been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite his worthy numbers in large part because of suspicion he used PEDs, though he never tested positive in an official MLB test.

Samson concluded "no one got better" during the 14-time All-Star's year as hitting coach.

The seven-time NL MVP retired as a player in 2007 after 22 seasons, seven with the Pittsburgh Pirates and 15 with the San Francisco Giants. He broke Hank Aaron's home run record in August 2007 and finished his career with 762 homers.

The future is now for the Miami Marlins. 

According to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), highly touted prospect Jazz Chisholm won the starting second base job for the National League East team and will start in Thursday's Opening Day game against the Tampa Bay Rays. 

The AP noted Chisholm hit .268 with three home runs and four stolen bases during spring training and separated himself from Isan Diaz, who went just 2-for-34 and will look to work his way back in Triple-A.

"It feels great when everybody believes in you," Chisholm said after learning he made the team from manager Don Mattingly and general manager Kim Ng. "I know I already have a lot of confidence, but it gives you confidence to where it's almost cockiness."

The 23-year-old made his major league debut in September 2020 and slashed .161/.242/.321 with two home runs, six RBI and two steals in 21 games. While his numbers didn't stand out, it was important experience for the young building block that figures to aid him in a bigger role this year.

Chisholm is the No. 66 prospect in MLB.com's rankings for the 2021 campaign.

It is a testament to the Marlins' cultivation of homegrown talent that he is one of five prospects in the top 100 alongside Sixto Sanchez (No. 15), JJ Bleday (No. 20), Max Meyer (No. 28) and Edward Cabrera (No. 68).

The future is bright for an organization that made a surprising playoff run at 31-29 during the shortened 2020 campaign.

If Chisholm and the rest of the young talent live up to expectations, the Marlins will be in position to challenge in the National League East for the foreseeable future.

Jeffrey Loria, the former owner of the Miami Marlins, has agreed to pay $4.2 million in a lawsuit settlement, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). 

Per that report, the payment of $3.637 million to Miami-Dade County and $563,000 to the city of Miami "stems from the $1.2 billion sale of the team in 2017 by Loria to Derek Jeter and his ownership group. In 2009, local government agreed to help pay for the ballpark in exchange for Loria's pledge to share profits if he later sold the team."

Per that agreement, Loria owed 5 percent of his net profits from the sale of the team, though he argued he had actually lost money because of taxes. Miami-Dade County called described that argument as "fuzzy math."

The 80-year-old Loria was not a popular figure with Marlins fans during his time as owner (2002-17). The team did win the World Series in 2003, but ahead of the 2006 season, it underwent a major cost-cutting fire sale, trading away key players from that title-winning team, including Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, Luis Castillo, Mike Lowell, Juan Pierre and Josh Beckett.

The Marlins had another huge sell-off in the 2012 season and the following offseason, trading away players like Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Hanley Ramirez. Loria's Marlins had gone on a free-agent spending spree ahead of the 2012 campaign, hoping to generate buzz for their new ballpark that opened in 2012, only to blow it all up a year later. 

That didn't just enrage the fans. Then-Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton tweeted he was "pissed" after Reyes, Johnson and Buehrle were traded.

The 2003 season was the only season the Marlins reached the postseason under Loria.

The product on the field wasn't the only issue Marlins fans had with Loria. The former owner also required season-ticket holders to make three- or four-year written commitments, but when fans discovered many of the promises in the packages they purchased weren't being honored, they backed out of the agreements. 

So Loria sued them. Suffice to say, it's hard to imagine many Marlins fans are crying tears on behalf of Loria after he settled with Miami-Dade County and the city of Miami. 

The Miami Marlins apparently are not interested in free-agent outfielder Yasiel Puig.

According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the National League East team that "offered him an incentive-heavy contract a year ago" will look elsewhere to fill its corner outfield need. Puig did not play during the 2020 season after a reported contract with the Atlanta Braves never materialized and he announced he tested positive for COVID-19.

There has been reported interest in Puig this offseason.

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported Jan. 4 that the Marlins, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles had "varying levels of interest."

It wasn't that long ago Puig was one of the more reliable power hitters in baseball.

He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2013-18 and the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland in 2019 and has never failed to hit double-digit home runs in a season. He drilled 23 or more long balls in three consecutive years from 2017-19 while providing speed on the basepaths and a strong arm in right field.

Puig was an All-Star in 2014 with a .296/.382/.480 slash line, 16 home runs, 69 RBI and 11 stolen bases and has 58 playoff games on his resume from his time with the Dodgers.

Still, it is fair to wonder if his numbers would translate after a year away from the game. The Marlins will apparently look in a different direction as they hope to build on last year's playoff appearance, which was their first since 2003.

Kim Ng was amazed by the support she has received after being named general manager of the Miami Marlins, becoming the first female GM in MLB history. 

The 51-year-old discussed the impact during Monday's introductory press conference:

"The idea that it has affected this many people is just extraordinary," she said. "I thought it would be a big deal, but this is beyond my expectations and I think beyond many people's expectations."

Ng has worked in baseball for 30 years, notably working as an assistant general manager with the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. Most recently, she had been the senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB since 2011.

She will now be the first female and first Asian American general manager in baseball as she takes over a team that went 31-29 and reached the NLDS last season.