Marlins Trade for Dylan Floro

Coming off a solid signing of Adam Duvall, the Marlins continue their recent activity by trading for RHP Dylan Floro from the defending champion LA Dodgers. They pitched LHP Alex Vesia and a prospect for Floro in an attempt to cement a floundering bullpen. With one of the few consistencies in the 2020 bullpen, Brandon Kintzler, signing with the Phillies, the Marlins hope Floro can fill a similar role. 

Floro had a 2.59 ERA last year over 24.1 innings with the Dodgers and also brings even more Postseason experience to a young roster. Statistically, Floro is an above average pitcher with a career FIP of 3.23. He most likely will not be the closer of this team, but Floro adds even more depth to a bullpen trending upwards.

Here’s a few things to like and dislike about this trade:

Floro is an elite groundball pitcher

Floro’s main success is rooted in his ability to get hitters to put the ball on the ground. He boasts a strong 52.7% groundball rate over his career and as baseball trends towards the fly ball, this style becomes more and more important. Groundball pitchers are often overlooked due to their low K/9 rate (in Floro’s case: 7.8 K/9); however, they provide under the radar stability to bullpens and starting rotations across the league due to their consistent nature: think Charlie Morton. If Floro’s style isn’t disrupted in favor of pushing up his K’s, he will provide value to this bullpen in a similar way that he did in Los Angeles.

Marlins can use Floro/Bass/Garcia in the 7th,8th, and 9th

The Marlins won a lot of close games in their 60 game run. Regardless of how poor the early bullpen was, they had consistency in the 8th and 9th with Yimi Garcia and Brandon Kintzler. This signing, along with Anthony Bass, will provide them with an electric 7th-9th. If the starters can average 6 innings per game, the pitching may be able to carry the Fish on most nights. Because we know the hitting won’t.

Marlins Front Office making confusing decisions

Throughout the start of this offseason, Kim Ng and Derek Jeter continually pointed to staying true to a longer plan. This means developing their top prospects to a point of contention. Trading Alex Vesia, who has low MLB experience but lots of success in the minors, seems premature, especially if the Marlins don’t believe they can win now. Floro is most likely going to be a Marlins for a few years at the minimum, but I don’t believe the younger guys will be ready in time.

Overall

The Marlins are acting like they are also in the middle of rebuilding and playoff chase at the same time. I understand making positive trades for the present moment, but if this team is to see long term success, they need to prioritize one plan. Maybe I am an extremist, but I’d prefer to see one or the other. The Floro trade, although positive for the present, leaves questions of the future to be answered.