5 Biggest Miami Marlins Surprise Flops
April Fool No. 4: Wei-Yin Chen
Wei-Yin Chen might not be the worst performing Marlins April Fool. But he’s definitely the most expensive.
Following the disastrous 2015 season, it was clear the Marlins needed another top quality pitcher to put behind Jose Fernandez in the rotation. At least one.
So it was that Jeffrey Loria decided to sign Chen to a 5-year/$80 million dollar deal heading into 2016.
Chen had established a reputation as an innings eater, clearing 180 IP in consecutive seasons. He’d also averaged a 3.44 ERA in the offense rich AL East, nothing to sneeze at. If that’s not enough to convince you, he actually shows up as one of the featured players every time my copy of MLB The Show ’16 starts up. So you know he’s good.
Except that he wasn’t. The 2016 season was Chen’s worst as a starter, worst of his career if you throw out 2019’s failed attempt to make him a useful reliever. The 2017 season saw him actually pitch well, right up until he blew out his elbow. It really just went downhill from there.
The fact the Marlins spent time last season trying to turn a $20 million a year starter into a relief arm tells you all you need to know about his tenure with Miami. As does the fact the Marlins will be paying him $20 million this season to play for anyone else but them.
So why doesn’t Chen top this list?
Well, he wasn’t historically bad. He just wasn’t $20 million a year good. Chen’s contract was the richest ever given to a Marlins starting pitcher. That was the kind of money Marlins fans wanted to see given to Josh Beckett, to Dontrelle Willis, to Jose Fernandez.
It was also the kind of money the Marlins didn’t have, at least not to spend on a player of Chen’s caliber. Which meant that the money being paid to Chen couldn’t be spent elsewhere on the roster. No free agent reinforcements in 2017, when the lineup was still capable of contending. And no payroll flexibility to keep things more respectable in 2018 or 2019.
Chen was offseason fool’s gold, quickly making April Fools of Marlins fans in 2016. But his biggest damage to the team was done at the bank, not the ballpark.