Miami Marlins Might Need A New Best Player
…coming into this season, the only question about Miami Marlins’ third baseman Brian Anderson was when the team would lock him up with a long-term deal.
Fast forward forty games, and it has become fair to wonder if he should be part of Miami’s long-term plans at all.
Currently, Anderson is sporting an anemic .216/.263/.342 slash line on the year. The fact that those numbers include a three game, 3 for 12 hot streak underscores just how terrible he has been. Needless to say, it feels a lot longer ago than February when I joined a big chunk of the Marlins Twitterverse in calling for a contract extension.
This has been a real blow, as Anderson had really started sporting a baby-Lowell vibe the past couple seasons. Third base was firmly checked off the to-do list for a franchise with plenty of question marks. The one saving grace has been that the defense has stayed stellar. Alex Gonzalez really only had two seasons where he wasn’t borderline useless offensively, but we swallowed that because he kept ending the year as a Gold Glove finalist. Anderson can certainly take a similar path.
The catch is that even during that 1999 All-Star season, no one ever really expected Gonzo to become a heart of the order type guy. The same can’t be said for Anderson. Regression from him at the plate necessitates someone picking up the slack elsewhere. That probably means paying for it in the offseason, which when you consider Miami’s many holes and limited resources, is unfortunate.
Still worth starting, yes. But is Anderson the player you rebuild a franchise around? It’s been a few years since that’s been in more doubt.