Miami Marlins

The Miami Marlins have reportedly interviewed St. Louis Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker for their vacant managerial job.

According to MLB Network's Jon Morosi, Schumaker is considered one of the top candidates for the Marlins job.

Miami is looking to replace Don Mattingly, who agreed to part ways with the Marlins at the conclusion of the 2022 regular season after spending seven years as the team's manager.

Schumaker, 42, has been in coaching since 2017 when he was hired as first base coach of the San Diego Padres. The team later promoted him to associate manager before the 2020 campaign.

The Cardinals hired Schumaker as their bench coach prior to the 2022 season, and he helped lead them to a National League Central Division title and playoff berth.

Prior to becoming a coach, Schumaker spent 11 seasons as an MLB outfielder and second baseman for the Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds, hitting .278 with 28 home runs and 284 RBI. He also won the 2011 World Series with St. Louis.

The Marlins are coming off a 69-93 season, and they have reached the playoffs just once since winning the second World Series in franchise history in 2003.

That playoff appearance came during the COVID-shortened 2020 season when each league had eight playoff teams. Miami qualified with a 31-29 record and upset the Chicago Cubs in the first round before falling 3-0 to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series.

Over the course of a full 162-game season, the Marlins have not finished with a winning record since going 87-75 in 2009, meaning Schumaker or whoever secures the managerial job will have their work cut out for them.

The Marlins do have some solid players who could lead a turnaround in the near future.

Most notably, Miami boasts a starting rotation led by 2022 NL Cy Young Award candidate Sandy Alcantara, along with other promising, young arms like Pablo Lopez, Jesus Luzardo, Braxton Garrett, Edward Cabrera and Trevor Rogers.

If the Marlins can acquire or develop more offensive firepower, they have a chance to be far more competitive.

The Miami Marlins learned this season that great pitching alone is not enough to compete for a playoff spot.

Miami entered Sunday ranked 14th in the majors with a 3.89 team ERA, led by Sandy Alcantara and a deep starting rotation. Five different pitchers made at least 14 starts while posting an ERA under four.

The problem was an ineffective lineup that ranked 28th of 30 teams entering Sunday in runs scored. It's a major reason the Marlins were a distant fourth place in the National League East throughout the season and well out of wild-card contention.

There's been virtually no consistency or power from the offense throughout the year, especially once Jazz Chisholm Jr. went down with a back injury. Garrett Cooper is the only player with an OPS+ over 100 who played more than 100 games this year, per Baseball Reference.

This means nearly every single player in the everyday lineup was a below-average hitter this season.

It makes sense the Marlins could be willing to trade their pitching in order to find more hitters this offseason.

This likely won't include Alcantara, who is reportedly "as close to untouchable as you can find," according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Heyman reported Pablo Lopez is "more likely" to be traded and was nearly dealt to the New York Yankees ahead of the trade deadline.

Considering the quality alternatives in the rotation, including Jesús Luzardo and Edward Cabrera, this would be a genius move for Miami to improve the roster heading into 2023. Perhaps most importantly, the organization is beginning to understand how to use its home field to its advantage.

According to Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald, the Marlins will be "inclined to pursue contact hitters" this offseason and power hitters "won't be a priority."

LoanDepot Park isn't the worst hitters' park in the league—it's close to league-average in home runs this season, per ESPN—but the expansive dimensions create a lot of opportunities for base hits. The Marlins didn't take advantage of that with heavy strikeout rates at the plate.

If Miami can add more contact hitters and more speed, they can create long rallies and big innings without needing home runs.

A player like Minnesota Twins infielder Luis Arráez could fit that description after earning his first All-Star selection this season. The Marlins might also be smart to call the Boston Red Sox about shortstop Xander Bogaerts, a perennial MVP candidate who was wasted on a struggling team this season.

The Marlins aren't known to spend big in free agency, but they can be aggressive on the trade market if they find opportunities.

Lopez could fetch a strong return as one of the league's most consistent pitchers over the past few years. He finished 2021 with a 3.07 ERA and 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings, and he has kept it up this year despite receiving little run support throughout the year.

After his seven shutout innings on Sunday against the playoff-contending Milwaukee Brewers, the Venezuelan has a 3.75 ERA in 32 starts this season, adding 174 strikeouts.

Still just 26 years old with two more years under team control, the right-hander would be a quality building lock for any team.

With Miami, though, he's an expendable part of an exciting young rotation. With hitting becoming a much bigger need, the team shouldn't hesitate to deal Lopez or even more from their pitching staff.

Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara, the presumptive favorite for the National League Cy Young award, is unlikely to be traded this offseason.

Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, one source with the Marlins called the right-hander "as close to untouchable as you can find" in Major League Baseball.

Even though trading a superstar player in the prime of their career has been the Marlins' modus operandi for virtually their entire existence, Alcantara's contract situation does make it easier to envision them keeping him for at least the next couple of years.

Alcantara signed a five-year, $56 million extension in November 2021. The deal runs through the 2026 season and includes a $21 million team option for 2027.

Based on how the contract is structured, Alcantara's base salary won't be more than $9 million until after the 2024 season.

Sandy Alcantara
Marlins
$56M, 5 years plus option

Signing bonus $1,500,000
2022: $3,500,000
2023: $6,000,000
2024: $9,000,000
2025: $17,000,000
2026: $17,000,000
2027: club option for $21,000,000 or $2,000,000 buyout
 
$1,000,000 assignment bonus

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 30, 2021

Even though the years and total value of the deals are vastly different, the structure of Alcantara's contract bears some resemblance to how the Marlins negotiated Giancarlo Stanton's 13-year, $325 million signed in November 2014.

Stanton only earned $30 million over the first three years of the deal. He was traded to the New York Yankees in December 2017, when his salary for the upcoming season was going to jump up to $25 million.

Per Spotrac, Miami only has $47.6 million in guaranteed money on the books for 2023. The total doesn't include players under team control or eligible for arbitration.

Alcantara would seem like the type of player a franchise would want to build around. The 27-year-old leads MLB in innings pitched (220.2) and complete games (five). He ranks second in the NL in ERA (2.32).

The Marlins enter Friday with a 65-91 record, fourth in the NL East. They haven't had a winning season since 2009 and have only made the playoffs once since 2004.

The Miami Marlins are hoping to pack LoanDepot Park with New York Mets fans when they welcome the Atlanta Braves into town for their regular season series from Oct. 3-5.

With the NL East race coming down to the wire, the Marlins have called on Mets fans to help root against the Braves during their final home stand of the year 😂 pic.twitter.com/FkUTLMRoiK

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) September 27, 2022

The 97-57 Mets hold a one-game lead over the 96-58 Braves for the National League East crown with eight games to go. Both teams are headed to the playoffs, but the winner will earn the National League's No. 2 playoff seed and a bye through the NL Wild Card Round.

The 63-90 Marlins' season has long been over. The team has long struggled to draw fans, to the point where the franchise has only welcomed 2,000,000 or more patrons in a single year three times since its 1993 MLB debut.

Miami has not drawn well this year. The Marlins have the second-lowest home attendance in the league at 11,158 fans per game, according to ESPN.com. However, they draw better when the Mets roll into town, with an average attendance of 15,790 for those games, per Baseball-Reference.

Therefore, give credit for creativity with the Marlins playing out the string at this point.

Of course, South Florida residents and Mets fans can simply decide to stay at home and watch their own team play if they get out-of-market games. The Mets also host the Washington Nationals on Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The same structure holds for the Marlins-Braves series.

Then again, those same fans can also enjoy some live baseball and hope Atlanta stumbles down the stretch as the Mets try to hold off the Braves for the coveted division crown.

Don Mattingly's tenure as manager of the Miami Marlins is coming to an end.

Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Mattingly told the team he will step down at the end of this season with the blessing of Marlins owner Bruce Sherman and general manager Kim Ng.

Heyman noted the decision for Mattingly to leave is considered mutual and he believes it's time for a new voice in the locker room.

Mattingly has been manager of the Marlins since 2016, going 437-583 in seven seasons. He led Miami to the postseason just once, during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign in which the team finished second in the NL East.

The Marlins went on to defeat the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card Series before falling to the Atlanta Braves.

Since Mattingly took over, the Marlins have been floating around the bottom of the NL East while the Phillies, New York Mets and Atlanta Braves have all taken steps forward to contend for the division title.

Miami's 63-89 record this season is the fourth-worst mark in the NL. The team hasn't won more than 67 games in a 162-game season since 2017.

With a roster that includes a rising star in Jazz Chisholm and the presumptive NL Cy Young favorite Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins could benefit from a new voice in the clubhouse.

That said, Mattingly has done arguably all he can with a team that is stuck in what feels like an everlasting rebuild. The Marlins are a notoriously difficult franchise to manage because ownership tends to keep one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball every year.

Before joining the Marlins, Mattingly served as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2011-15, going 446-363 and making the postseason three times.

Miami Marlins infeilder Jazz Chisholm announced on Wednesday that he would be representing Great Britain at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Jazz Chisholm announces on @BallyMarlins that he will play shortstop for Great Britain in the 2023 World Baseball Classic! He will wear number 3 🔥 Can’t wait to watch you play @j_chisholm3

— Jessica Blaylock (@JessBlaylock) September 21, 2022

It will be his first game action since June, when the 24-year-old was sidelined with a stress fracture in his back, an injury that has ended his season.

"I thought I would've been back in like a month or a couple of weeks, honestly, probably two or three weeks," he told reporters last week regarding the injury. "I thought I was going to be back in time for the All-Star Game, until it just didn't go that way. I got the news I had a stress fracture, and that it won't heal properly, and just had to go with that."

Chisholm was voted into the Midsummer Classic as a starter by fans after hitting .254 with 14 homers, 45 RBI, 39 runs, 12 stolen bases and a .860 OPS across 60 games. He was on pace to put together a fantastic season, though it officially came to an end last week.

"We could probably push Jazz to be able to come back and DH or something," Marlins manager Don Mattingly told reporters. "I think the risk/reward on that—he has a stress fracture in his back. It's something you could say, 'Well, it's healed, but is it all the way?' It just doesn't seem to be worth it. I think Jazz would like to play, he would like to have played. I think the organization basically made that decision for him, that we were going to just let this thing go, keep strengthening all year long, so we know going into the winter that he's healthy, he's ready, he's doing everything, he feels great. So again, I think an organizational decision."

It wasn't the only injury Chisholm dealt with this season:

Jazz Chisholm Jr. said he tore his meniscus in his right knee (his sliding knee) in spring training.

So he played the whole season with the injury up until he also had the back injury at the end of June.

Damn.#Marlins

— Jordan McPherson (@J_McPherson1126) September 21, 2022

As for representing Great Britain, Chisholm was born in The Bahamas and is eligible to feature for the country since it was a former British colony. He also represented Great Britain during the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in 2017.

Great Britain qualified for the WBC for the first time ever this past week. And now they'll have a legitimate MLB superstar leading them in that maiden voyage.

There's a compelling Cy Young Award race going on in the American League, where Dylan Cease suddenly has a chance to gain an advantage over Justin Verlander and Shane McClanahan while they're dealing with injuries.

The National League Cy Young Award race, on the other hand, has for a while been firmly in the grasp of the best pitcher Major League Baseball has to offer this season: Sandy Alcántara.

One might look at that paragraph and see not one, but two hot takes. But at best, these are lukewarm takes. Alcántara got every first-place vote for the NL Cy Young Award David Adler's latest poll on MLB.com, and Baseball Reference's wins above replacement doesn't leave any doubt about the Miami Marlins ace's present superiority over his peers:

The basic breakdown of rWAR is that it quantifies pitchers' value according to their innings pitched and runs allowed. Hence why it so dramatically favors Miami's 26-year-old right-hander, as his 185.2 innings lead MLB and his 2.13 ERA is second to Verlander's 1.84 mark.

Even the one moment this season that Alcántara looked mortal proved to be fleeting. After getting touched up for a season-high six runs by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 21, he turned right around and pitched a 10-strikeout complete game against them six days later.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, your thoughts:

Dave Roberts on Sandy Alcantara: “We ran into a buzz saw.”

— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 28, 2022

A buzz saw Alcántara is indeed. And far from any regular ol' buzz saw, he's one that MLB probably wishes it could mass-produce.

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A Pitcher with the Stuff of an Ace

You'll get a different picture of Alcántara's value if you consult FanGraphs WAR. Though it puts him near the top of the heap for qualified starting pitchers with a value of 4.9 WAR, it's Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman on top at 5.1.

This version of WAR runs on Fielding Independent Pitching, which generally rewards high-strikeout pitchers. Not guys like Alcántara, in other words. Setting aside his rookie cameo with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017, he's yet to log more strikeouts than innings in a season.

But of all the explanations for why this is, "Alcántara doesn't have the stuff" is not one of them.

His average fastball is 97.8 mph, tying him with New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole for tops among qualified starters. And he can and will go higher, with a top speed of nearly 101 mph.

Alcántara's heat isn't always simply fast moving. He throws the four-seamer when he wants something relatively straight, but his better fastball is a sinker that's been known to have physics-bending movement to his arm side:

Sandy Alcántara, 100.4 MPH Sinker with 18 inches of run. 🥴

100 mph ✔️
Insane Run ✔️
Enlarged Strike Zone ✔️ pic.twitter.com/W99fjO1YMq

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 3, 2022

The four-seamer and sinker are but two of four pitches that Alcántara is throwing more than 20 percent of the time in 2022. This alone makes him something of a unicorn among modern starters, most of whom are three- or even two-pitch guys.

Against right-handed batters, Alcántara's primary out pitch is a slider that's holding them to a .190 average. He can push its velocity into the mid-90s, though arguably its best quality is how well its movement blends with that of his fastball:

Sandy Alcántara, 101mph Fastball and 93mph Slider, Individual Pitches + Overlay pic.twitter.com/mmiMFcJSBq

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 28, 2022

Left-handed batters, meanwhile, mainly get the changeup when Alcántara sniffs an out. It's unhittable in the same ways his slider is, in that it moves very fast yet also tends to wear a fastball-like disguise:

Sandy Alcántara, 98mph Fastball and 91mph Changeup, Overlay.

7Ks thru 4 pic.twitter.com/qsURgTsguZ

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 24, 2022

Though Alcántara has primarily used his changeup to hold left-handed batters to a .144 average, righty batters haven't done much better to the tune of a .158 average.

It's not just that Alcántara's change gets whiffs on 34.9 percent of the swings against it. Even when batters put it in play, 70.2 percent of their results are ground balls. Kudos to Brandon Nimmo for coming close, but nobody has actually hit Alcántara's change over the fence yet.

Ultimately, it's not luck that's kept Alcántara's ERA down even as he's struck out only 167 batters across 185.2 innings. Take it from his .282 expected batting average on balls in play, which is currently the second-lowest mark ever recorded for a pitcher with at least 500 balls in play.

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A Pitcher with the Durability of an Ace

Succeeding primarily with a pitch-to-contact approach isn't the only way that Alcántara is defying the usual conventions of modern aces.

He's also not quick to burn out when he takes the ball. His 185.2 innings perhaps make this clear enough on their own, but let's not gloss over the fact that he has more complete games on his own than every other team:

Sandy Alcantara has 4 complete games this season.

That's more than any other TEAM in the league. pic.twitter.com/xraI2MyckY

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 28, 2022

All told, Alcántara's workload is out of a bygone era. His averages of 7.1 innings and 102 pitches per start blow away the league-wide averages of 5.2 innings and 86, and he's indeed only the third pitcher to hit those marks over at least a 20-start sample in the last six seasons. Before him, the most recent hurler to do so was Corey Kluber in 2017.

At 6'5", 200 pounds, it helps that Alcántara is built to work hard. But he also works smart, especially in the sense that he trusts his stuff. As the man himself said in July, according to Robert O'Connell of FiveThirtyEight: “When you believe in your stuff, you don’t have to worry.”

Alcántara believes in his stuff so much that he's essentially eschewing waste pitches, instead throwing a career-high 73.7 percent of his pitches in the "heart" and "shadow" of the zone. Among the results of that aggressiveness is a dearth of free passes. He's walking only 2.2 batters per nine innings, and he hasn't walked more than three batters in a start since May 1.

Alcántara also saves his best bullets for when he needs them. The deeper into a game he goes, the more he cranks up the velocity on his fastball:

• Innings 1-3: 97.6 mph
• Innings 4-6: 97.8 mph
• Innings 7-9: 98.2 mph

Alcántara's insistence on efficiency and knack for load management could explain that rather than tiring as the season nears its conclusion, he's only getting stronger.

That's another picture provided by his fastball velocity, anyway, which began at an average of 97.5 mph in April and May and subsequently rose to 97.8, 98.0 and 98.1 mph across the next three months.

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A Pitcher with the Tempo of an Ace

In addition to pitches, Alcántara apparently isn't a big fan of wasting time.

He may not be baseball's fastest-working starter—shout out to Oakland Athletics left-hander Cole Irvin—but Alcántara does like to keep a quick tempo when he pitches. He takes 15.5 seconds between pitches with the bases empty and 223 seconds with runners on, both of which put him safely ahead of the league averages of 18.1 and 23.4 seconds.

Can any of this be tied directly to performance-related benefits? Frankly, it's hard to say.

There's a line of thinking that says pitchers who work quickly keep their fielders on their toes and thus cultivate better defense. But the data there is flimsy, and that's not the lone reason not to read too much into Alcántara's below-average .257 batting average on balls in play.

Another is that he's actually slowed down this year, at least with men on base. As there's known to be a correlation between pitchers working slower and throwing harder, this could be another reason why his velocity has held up within games and throughout the season.

Yet if there's at least one obvious benefit to Alcántara's relatively brisk tempo, it's the pace of the action. Consider these splits:

• Marlins Games when Alcántara Starts: 2 hours, 59 minutes
• Marlins Games when Others Start: 3 hours, 10 minutes

There are surely other factors for why the Marlins tend to conclude business in less time when Alcántara pitches. His pace is surely a factor, however, and an admirable one amid MLB's 11th straight year of averaging north of three hours per game. After all, too much baseball is no different from too much of any other good thing.

If the league had more pitchers like him, Commissioner Rob Manfred probably wouldn't be so gung-ho about bringing a pitch clock to the major leagues. When it nonetheless inevitably does come, the Marlins will be able to rest easy knowing that it shouldn't bring the ruination of the best pitcher on theirs or anyone else's staff.

Bully for them, MLB and really anyone who gets something out of Alcántara's holistic approach to pitching, and bummer for hitters who'll have to keep trying to solve him the hard way.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.

The New York Yankees reportedly pulled out of a trade that would have sent Gleyber Torres to the Miami Marlins for Pablo Lopez before this month's MLB trade deadline.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the two sides were "somewhat close" to striking a deal before the Yankees changed their minds.

The Yankees landed starter Frankie Montas at the deadline from the Oakland Athletics. It's unclear if a trade for Lopez was going to be in addition to the Montas acquisition or if the Yankees pulled out upon reaching an agreement with the Athletics.

Lopez has posted an 8-8 record with a 3.66 ERA and 1.16 WHIP through 25 starts this season. Heyman noted Lopez has been dealing with a "dead arm" throughout August before rebounding with a six-inning gem Tuesday against the Athletics.

Torres was an All-Star his first two MLB seasons before a major regression in 2020 and 2021. He's in the midst of a bounce-back 2022 campaign, hitting .247/.298/.433 with 18 home runs and 50 RBI through 112 appearances. The 18 home runs are six more than he hit combined in the previous two seasons.

Both Lopez and Torres are under team control through the 2024 season.

While it's hard to blame the Yankees for wanting to keep Torres' pop in their middle infield, they're dealing with a hole in their rotation after Nestor Cortes went on the injured list with a groin strain. It's likely the rotation would have been fine if the Yankees hadn't made the oft-criticized Jordan Montgomery-Harrison Bader trade at the deadline—a move that instantly backfired as Montgomery has put together ace-like numbers in St. Louis.

As it stands, the Yankees roster is arguably weaker now than it was before the deadline.

The New York Yankees reportedly checked on the availability of Miami Marlins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez ahead of Tuesday's 2022 MLB trade deadline.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported the Yanks "found the price high" on Lopez, who's compiled a 3.41 ERA across 21 starts for the Marlins this season.

New York doesn't feature a major need in its rotation, which makes the call about Lopez a bit of a surprise, though Heyman described it as a "pie-in-the-sky" idea.

The Yankees already added Frankie Montas in a blockbuster deal with the Oakland Athletics. He joins Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Jordan Montgomery and Jameson Taillon as part of the starting staff. Domingo German and Luis Severino have been limited by injuries this year, but they could also be options down the stretch.

Lopez has been a reliable starter across five years in Miami. He's posted a 3.87 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 83 career appearances with 434 strikeouts in 448.2 innings.

While those are rock-solid numbers, they fall short of the ace standard the Yanks could justify paying a high price for to pair with Cole and Montas as part of an all-in World Series push.

Lopez endured one of his worst career starts Sunday, giving up 12 hits and six earned runs in just 2.2 innings against the New York Mets, but he said afterward speculation about his future wasn't a factor in the struggles.

"No, 100 percent not," he told reporters. "Obviously, rumors are just rumors. They're not a fact until something actually happens. If I told you that I haven't heard anything, I would be lying to you. But at the end of the day, my focus the last four or five days has been getting ready for today's start—preparation both mentally and physically to give my team a chance to win today."

While the Marlins have started to fade from the playoff race with a 47-56 record, the asking price for Lopez doesn't figure to fall before the deadline since he's under club control through the 2024 season via arbitration, per Spotrac.

Along with the Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers have also engaged Miami in conversations about the 26-year-old right-hander, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.

In both cases, Lopez is more of a luxury than a necessity, so it's uncertain whether either championship contender will be willing to meet the Marlins' demands.