A golden opportunity for Miami Marlins to make it rain

For less money than the team paid Joey Wendle this season, the Miami Marlins have a golden opportunity to be big spending aggressors. Will they?

It’s not very often the Miami Marlins have been the big spender in the room.

Truth be told, it’s only happened twice.

The first time resulted in World Series trophy in 1997. The second time was when the team moved into their new stadium in 2012. One of those instances was obviously an on-the-field success. The other? Not so much. That 2012 team went from playoff contender to nationwide laughingstock before the calendar flipped to June.

However, there are similarities. Both teams were products of unsustainable spending that led to unpopular decimations of the roster. There are some other factors at work here to be sure, enough to have filled several books. But pretty much every time the Miami Marlins have broken out the checkbook, fiscal reality has come crashing down on them before they have had much of chance to reap the rewards that come from a fanbase that believes ownership is putting their money where their mouth is when they say the goal is to win- right now.

All of which brings us to the 2023 Miami Marlins, and the golden opportunity sitting before them.

Any baseball fan worth their salt, or at least any that hasn’t already thrown in the towel on the 2023 MLB season to the same extent as the owner about to be mentioned, knows what the Los Angeles Angels did earlier this week. Arte Moreno just cut every trade deadline acquisition he made, not to mention a couple offseason acquisitions, dumping an unprecedented amount of salary and talent onto the waiver wire right before the August waiver deadline.

Maybe it’s a cold but savvy business move. Or maybe Arte Moreno just has too many fantasy football leagues he needs to be focusing now. Whatever the case though, Miami Marlins owner Bruce Sherman should be on a bended knee thanking him.

Because just like that, Sherman has a chance to look like vintage George Steinbrenner just as confidence in this year’s Marlins team is at its lowest.

Why? Because the Marlins are positioned to pounce on that crop of discarded Angels first, and be gluttonous about it if they so choose. Because for less money than the team will have paid disappointing shortstop Joey Wendle this season, the Marlins can add as many as three impact players. If they want to be really greedy about it and spend less than $100,000 more than Wendle’s 2023 price tag, why not add four? Scarcely more than $6 million  spent … well over six times the WAR that Wendle provided.

Now the point here is not to pick on Wendle, even though he should have been DFA’d weeks ago and should certainly be prior to the weekend. No, the point here is that for a maximum of roughly $6 million and for possibly as little as $3 million, Sherman’s Marlins have a chance to splash the pot and be the biggest spender in the room.

Admittedly, a compelling argument can be made for that being a case of throwing good money after bad. Miami has been free falling for much of the second half, and enters play Thursday under .500 for the first time since late May. Yet here they are, still in the race. Furthermore, and this is the crucial point here, even if these additions don’t deliver a postseason berth, it doesn’t mean there isn’t value in the attempt.

If you’re reading this, you’re a Marlins fan. When was the last time you had to admit that your favorite team’s owner probably did everything he could to win? Took every opportunity to put money onto the field and give you a winner? Excessively so?

That’s what I thought. The public relations boon this could be for the Marlins heading into 2024 far outweighs what the organization will likely get out of this spending spree on the field in 2023. Of course, there’s also always the chance this does vault Miami into one of those Wild Card spots.

It’s a win for the Miami Marlins either way. The only way Miami loses is by doing nothing, and it’s never potentially cost the team so little to be perceived as doing so much.

If you wan’t to talk about something Bruce Sherman truly can’t afford, it’s letting this opportunity pass his team by.