After trading some significant pieces to acquire lefty Dan Straily, how does the Miami Marlins top 10 list fare?
An Introduction
Our minor league top 10 series is coordinated by Benjamin Chase, one of our contributors at Call To The Pen.
He has poured over thousands of minor league games over the course of the year via milb.tv along with speaking with a number of team and independent scouts. These lists are based out of those conversations.
Each system will have prospects from 10 to 1, and then finish with one newcomer to the system that is worth keeping an eye on that is not in the top 10 at this time.
Conversations are certainly encouraged in the comments section on each system as we go along!
Marlins System Review
The Miami Marlins should be sure to send the Angels a fruit basket this holiday season. Without the Angels system, right now, the Marlins would have a very strong argument for the worst overall system in the entire game. Instead, they’re in a group of 3-4 teams that are in the first tier up from the Angels, which isn’t exactly much to brag about.
The Marlins really can’t point to one reason for their system being in dire straits. In their effort to get pieces needed for their 2016 Wild Card run, they traded away a large chunk of prospects that would rank at the top half of this list, including Chris Paddack, Josh Naylor, and Michael Mader in separate trades.
Then there was the incredibly untimely passing of Jose Fernandez, which left the organization shocked and in a spot of suddenly having a deficit at the top of their rotation where they once had one of the three to five best starters in the game.
Rather than attempt to enter sweepstakes for Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, or Chris Archer this offseason, none of which they would really have the pieces to obtain, instead, the Marlins have decided to go the route that the Kansas City Royals made popular.
They have traded for and signed multiple starters who should give 5-6 innings every night of league average, if not elite, starting performance. They’ve backed that with a very deep and very talented bullpen, headed by free agent signees Brad Ziegler and Junichi Tazawa along with returning fireballers A.J. Ramos, Kyle Barraclough, and David Phelps.
The Marlins may have left their farm dry, but there’s still guys there to pay attention to!
Let’s take a look at the top 10!!
Next: #10