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Miami Marlins Bullpen Tinkering Continues With John Curtiss

By Sean Millerick

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 23: John Curtiss #84 of the Tampa Bay Rays delivers the pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the sixth inning in Game Three of the 2020 MLB World Series at Globe Life Field on October 23, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 23: John Curtiss #84 of the Tampa Bay Rays delivers the pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the sixth inning in Game Three of the 2020 MLB World Series at Globe Life Field on October 23, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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The Miami Marlins continued to tinker with their bullpen Wednesday morning, acquiring John Curtiss from the Tampa Bay Rays.

If the Miami Marlins bullpen struggles again in 2021, it won’t be for lack of trying on the part of the front office.

Wednesday morning saw another move made to strengthen the club’s biggest weakness in 2020, with the acquisition of John Curtiss from the Tampa Bay Rays. Miami is sending Tampa first baseman Evan Edwards in return.

Rather than spend big on a singular proven closer, the Marlins have decided to focus on the sum of whole heading into the 2021 season. Last year’s bullpen collectively ranked as fifth worst in the bigs, so any improvement could pay significant dividends for a team that broke .500 despite that kind of hamstringing from their relievers.

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As for what Curtiss brings to the table, it could be significant. His 2020 season was electric, dramatically better than any Marlins reliever who pitched an equal or greater number of innings. Curtiss posted career bests across the board, with a 1.80 ERA and 0.96 WHIP. MLBTradeRumors rightly notes that the combination of an 87% strand rate and 92% average exit velocity strongly suggests regression is coming for Curtiss in a big way.

Most projection services have him producing an ERA on the wrong side of 4.00 this season.

But Curtiss’ minor league numbers more than back up the possibility of being a highly effective MLB reliever. Curtiss has enjoyed significant success at every level, with the only real rough spot coming in 2019 at AAA…which gives him something to talk about with almost every pitcher that threw a pitch in AAA or MLB that season. If we’re not supposed to overreact to 2020 sample sizes, I’m not going to overreact to a rough year with the “happy fun ball” either.

When you throw in the fact that the price- Edwards- wasn’t even a Top 30 prospect, this feels like a potential steal for Miami. First base is logjammed as it is on the MLB roster, and that’s before even getting to organizational Top 10 first baseman Lewin Diaz. The Marlins shouldn’t miss Edwards, with the only cause for concern being that modern-model franchise Tampa obviously saw something worthwhile in him if they agreed to the deal.

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Across six minor league seasons, Curtiss put up a 3.51 ERA. Clearly, the Miami Marlins are bullish on that kind of success being replicable at the MLB level. Maybe that elite 1.80 ERA in 2020 was a mirage, but even only being half as effective as that in 2021 would make him an extremely valuable asset for Miami.

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