Miami Marlins make late night splash with David Robertson trade

The Miami Marlins continued their bullpen makeover in a big way in the wee hours, adding Mets closer David Robertson for the playoff push.

Whether or not the Miami Marlins are a serious threat to make the playoffs in 2023 remains to be seen.

But whether or not those same Marlins are serious about being true “buyers” as the trade deadline approaches?

That is no longer in doubt, in the wake of the late Thursday/extremely early Friday trade Miami just pulled off. New York Mets star closer David Robertson is officially adding former to that title, heading to Miami in exchange for prospects Marco Vargas and Ronald Hernandez. It’s Miami’s second bullpen related trade in as many days. Yet unlike the likely nominal, lateral at best swap of Dylan Floro for Jorge Lopez, this trade featured one of the best available bullpen arms to be had as contenders load up for the stretch run.

Lopez was about depth with upside and more contract control. Robertson is a pure summer rental, but also, literally overnight, now the best reliever on the Miami Marlins roster.

This kind of deal means big things for Marlins fans.

For starters, the obvious. Robertson has been electric this year, with a 2.05 ERA and 14 saves. He has more strikeouts (48) than innings pitched (44), and boasts a 1.00 WHIP to boot. He’s great, something that as of late, Miami’s incumbent closer A.J. Puk has not been. There was a clear need, and the Marlins front office just filled it.

However, as great as Robertson has been, I would argue that the terms of this deal are just as important to the playoff chances of the 2023 Miami Marlins as the player they just acquired.

For one, in terms of what prospect capital the team has, the Marlins gave up very little. Make no mistake, prospect hounds do like Vargas and Hernandez. Still, these were low level names. Only one of them, Hernandez,  cracked Keith Law’s preseason Top 20 … and he came in at No. 18 on that list. These are not the coveted young pitchers or former first round hitters that have been kicked around the rumor mill the past few weeks.

Which means that Miami still has plenty of prospect chips to splash the pot with between now and next week’s trade deadline.

For another, the Marlins did not trade the Mets better players in order to get them to eat more of Robertson’s contract. That was a major and oft-repeated sin of past Marlins seasons. This time, all reports indicate that Miami is taking on the rest of the salary.

Which is awesome … probably. Teams that trade for a David Robertson typically tend to not just add a David Robertson. Some other piece is coming to Little Havana for the playoff chase, if not two. Yet by Marlins salary standards, the payroll did just go up significantly. Until the dust settles, it’s fair to wonder just how much owner Bruce Sherman really can afford to add to the payroll.

More than likely, the willingness to add Robertson money represents an aggressive willingness to go for it. But it’s also possible that this may have been the rare case where that prospect overpay would have been desirable, if those millions are needed elsewhere.

At the end of the day though? Miami Marlins fans just woke up to a much better team, and it probably won’t be the last morning they say that between now and the deadline.