Writings on baseball by Matt Barnard and Dan Stein.

Larry Beinfest's winter-to-date
 
The notable moves made by the Florida Marlins under Larry Beinfest since the end of the 2003 season. Please send any comments/omissions/questions/feedback here.

11/10/03 -
Outrighted Kevin Olsen to AAA Albuquerque.
Signed Ryan Christenson to a minor league contract.

There was a time when there were quite a few guys with names like "Christenson" floating around, but none have panned out so far. Ryan Christenson will be 30 this year and has not approached major league success of any kind since 2000, when he bordered on adequate in Oakland. So while he's not likely to get much of an opportunity, it's not as if the Marlins have a ton of outfield depth (after Juan Pierre, Jeff Conine and Miguel Cabrera, there's not much there). Probably not much here.

11/14/03 -
Signed Felipe Crespo to a minor league contract.
Signed Bryce Florie to a minor league contract.

11/24/03 -
Invited Ryan Christenson to spring training.
Invited Mike Fyhrie to spring training.
Invited Delvin James to spring training.
Invited David Manning to spring training.
Invited Aaron Small to spring training.
Signed Cedrick Bowers to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Signed Marty McLeary to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Signed Scott Sanders to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Signed Matt Treanor to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Signed Jason Wood to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

I'll be honest - I don't know a whole lot about most of these guys. Nice to see that Scott Sanders is still making a go of it - he pitched at AAA Albuquerque last year after last appearing in the major leagues with the Cubs in 1999. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that none of these guys make the team.

11/25/03 -
Acquired Hee Seop Choi from the Chicago Cubs. (with Mike Nannini for Derrek Lee)
Acquired Mike Nannini from the Chicago Cubs. (with Hee Seop Choi for Derrek Lee)
Traded Derrek Lee to the Chicago Cubs. (for Hee Seop Choi and Mike Nannini)

Lee's legitimately one of the best all-around first basemen in the game, but he was about to get expensive and is now gone. If you're going to trade a player of Lee's caliber, you'd do well to bring in a good young player like Choi, a guy with lots of promise who will be cheap for awhile. I fully expect both Lee and Choi to be successful in their new homes, with Choi and Wil Cordero (signed later in the offseason) forming a very effective platoon in Florida. Nannini's a former 1998 first rounder (selected by the Astros) who had a nice season last year at AA West Tennessee. He struck over a man per inning (158 Ks in 154 innings) and posted a 3.52 ERA at age 23, so he's not quite just a throw-in here.

12/02/03 -
Signed Mike Lowell to a four year, $32 million contract.

As you undoubtedly know, this is more than just a 4 year, $32 million contract - it's got an unprecedented (to my knowledge) clause that makes every year after the first contigent on the building of a new ballpark. It looks unlikely that a new stadium will be built in South Florida, so Lowell may well be a free agent again following the 2004 season - which wouldn't be the worst thing for the Marlins. As good as it looks like Miguel Cabrera is going to be, he'd have more value at third than he does in an outfield corner, and Lowell's getting to the point where he's likely to start declining soon. It's certainly a lot easier to find a good corner outfielder than a third baseman. Lowell should be worth the money this year.

12/04/03 -
Signed Mike Mordecai to a one year, $500,000 contract.

He can't really hit and is limited to playing a couple infield spots. He's now been a part of two World Series champs (Atlanta in 1995 and Florida last year), but has been legitimately crappy during his tenure with the Marlins (the last two years). You'd be better off filling this utility man spot with someone either younger and cheaper or someone competent...I don't see a whole lot of justification for spending half a million dollars and a roster spot on the likes of Mordecai.

12/05/03 -
Signed Lenny Harris to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

12/06/03 -
Signed Gerald Williams to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

Good to have old Lenny and Ice back in camp. It goes without saying, but if either are on the roster at any point, it's a waste.

12/07/03 -
Signed Luis Castillo to a three year, $16 million contract with a vesting option for 2007 ($6 million).
Signed Chad Fox to a one year, $1.2 million contract.

Fox has been either very effective or pretty awful for most of his career, and the Marlins got the good Fox when they picked him up in midseason. It's a bit of a gamble to bank on him being able to be as good as he was in Florida in 2003 again, but for this price it's probably worth it. As he's shown, he has the ability to be a tremendous asset out of the bullpen. The Castillo deal is a little bit problematic, perhaps driven as much by public relations as anything else. While he's still a very good player, you're starting to see his speed go as he ages, and so much of his game is predicated on that. I can understand ownership wanting to look like it wants to keep the championship core together, but retaining Castillo and Lowell might not have been the best way to go. That being said, this is only three years guaranteed, and while Castillo might look overpaid by 2006, it's a short enough deal that they're unlikely to get too badly burned.

12/13/03 -
Acquired Travis Ezi from the Los Angeles Dodgers. (for Juan Encarnacion)
Traded Juan Encarnacion to the Los Angeles Dodgers. (for Travis Ezi)

I understand that the alternative for the Marlins was to non-tender him because he was about to get paid, but the outfield is going to be weaker without him around next year. Can you expect Juan Pierre and Jeff Conine to match their 2003 seasons in 2004? I don't know that you can. Either way, the team lacks a good fourth outfielder, and while he hasn't lived up to his early promise, Encarnacion was okay in 2003 (.270/.313/.446 in 601 at bats). He's not a good starting corner outfielder - but he's not worthless. Since they were going to get rid of him, kudos to Beinfest for getting something back.

12/16/03 -
Acquired Bill Murphy from the Oakland Athletics. (with Mike Neu for Mark Redman)
Acquired Mike Neu from the Oakland Athletics. (with Bill Murphy for Mark Redman)
Traded Mark Redman to the Oakland Athletics. (for Bill Murphy and Mike Neu)

Neu will be an asset out of the bullpen for years to come and Murphy is a young pitcher out of Cal State Northridge who did a decent young in the Texas League last year. However, Redman's a damn good pitcher and held the Marlin rotation together for parts of last season with Dontrelle Willis after A.J. Burnett went down. Again, he was about to make a lot of money and probably got overpaid in Oakland, but the drop from Redman to Darren Oliver (who will start the season as the #5 starter) is not insignificant.

12/20/03 -
Declined to offer a 2004 contract to Armando Almanza.
Declined to offer a 2004 contract to Toby Borland.
Declined to offer a 2004 contract to Braden Looper.

Almanza was pretty bad last year (6.08 ERA in 50.1 innings), and the Marlins really have better options. Looper racked up a bunch of saves last season and was likely to be awarded more more in arbitration than he's really worth, so non-tendering him makes sense too. Borland pitched well (in just 9.2 innings) and was later brought back (12/22/03) on a minor league contract. He's in camp with the team.

12/21/03 -
Signed Armando Benitez to a one year, $3.5 million contract.
Signed A.J. Burnett to a one year, $2.5 million contract.
Signed Alex Gonzalez to a two year, $6.2 million contract.

Benitez will be the new closer in Florida, replacing the non-tendered Braden Looper and the still unsigned Ugueth Urbina. I've seen an awful lot of him here in New York, but I think we all know what we're getting by now. $3.5 million seems a little steep, but he'll solidify the back end of the bullpen. Burnett, as you know, is hurt, but he's supposedly on schedule to return before midseason. Alex Gonzalez will be at short again, which would concern me - he's had a couple good months his entire major league tenure, which is now over 600 games old. Obviously the team won a championship with him, but short is a position I'd want to look into upgrading.

12/22/03 -
Signed Toby Borland to a minor league contract.

01/07/04 -
Signed Damion Easley to a minor league contract.

I guess a great spring could get him a shot a backup role in the infield, but he's done nothing in the last...well...three years, to be charitable, to earn such an opportunity. He had a nice three year run in Detroit in 1997-1999, but there's plenty of evidence to show that he's finished now. He's limited to second base defensively and can't hit anymore, so he's really got no place on this or any team.

01/20/04 -
Signed Carl Pavano to a one year, $3.8 million contract. (avoided arbitration)
Signed Brad Penny to a one year, $3.725 million contract. (avoided arbitration)

Two important rotation cogs locked up for another year. After all the injury problems Pavano had after being acquired by the Expos in the Pedro Martinez deal, it was great to see him pitching effectively last year. He gave the Marlins 201 innings of solid work last year, won a World Series, pitched great in the playoffs, and according to Dan, is now dating Alyssa Milano. Hats off to you, Carl.

01/22/04 -
Invited Dennis Anderson to spring training.
Invited Trevor Hutchinson to spring training.
Invited Ryan Jorgenson to spring training.
Invited Mike Nannini to spring training.
Invited Eric Reed to spring training.
Invited Derek Wathan to spring training.
Signed Larry Sutton to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

01/29/04 -
Signed Darren Oliver to a one year, $750,000 contract.

One of the few transactions this offseason I actually covered on this site, you can check out my lengthier comments here. I would've expected little more than an NRI for Oliver, but he did pitch effectively last year in Colorado and supposedly will only be in the back of the rotation until A.J. Burnett returns (which the team hopes will be some time in May or June), at which point he'll move to the bullpen. Low risk, low reward.

02/03/04 -
Signed Wil Cordero to a one year, $600,000 contract.

There are many things Wil Cordero can't do, but the guy crushes left-handed pitching. Assuming he'll be used at first base and in the outfield pretty much exclusively against lefties, he'll be an asset. For this price, it's hard to argue.

02/05/04 -
Signed Nelson Cruz to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Signed Armando Rios to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.

The Marlins had some hard decisions to make coming off their second championship season - many reports came out following the World Series that the team's payroll would have to increase substantially in order to keep the team intact. Luis Castillo and Mike Lowell were free agents, and the team had to deal with escalating salaries of the likes of Juan Encarnacion, Derrek Lee and Mark Redman. To their credit, they didn't attempt to stand pat like the Angels did last winter, and have made moves looking towards the future, acquiring Hee Seop Choi and cutting the cord with guys who would've been clearly overpaid like Encarnacion. It'll be interesting to see how Beinfest and company go about tweaking this team through the season, as they go into the 2004 season a clear underdog in their own division (to the Phillies, with the Braves right there).

posted by VZW Watcher at 5:01 PM -