NEWSLETTER
The Marlins have been talking about adding an outfielder all offseason, and while their sights were set a little higher early on (they made an offer to Starling Marte, who eventually signed with the Mets), they still landed a useful bat in Avisaíl García.
But I bet they’re hoping the universal DH is on its way, because this $53 million deal will last four years, starting with García’s age-31 season.
Outfielder Avisail Garcia and the Miami Marlins are in agreement on a four-year, $53 million, a source tells ESPN. @CraigMish was on top of it.
Marlins are another team with some money to spend, and they shore up an outfield that has been a big deficit in recent seasons.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2021
García slashed .262/.330/.490 (115 wRC+) for the Brewers last season, with a career-high 29 home runs, effectively becoming their best full-season hitter in 2021. He’s not much of a glove, but I think his bat will play fine for Miami. Which reminds me, Milwaukee was already a painfully bad offense last season and had been considered a reasonable bet to try to retain García this winter, even after he declined his end of a mutual option and then did not receieve a qualifying offer from the Brewers. Now, they’ll have to turn their limited financial flexibility elsewhere to rebuild an offense that just barely scraped by last season (seriously, they were technically worse than Cubs by wRC+).
Oh, and bonus fun: The Brewers decided NOT to give García the $18.4 million qualifying offer this winter, fearing he’d accept it, which means they do NOT get draft pick compensation now that he’s signed a much bigger deal elsewhere. Oops! (He probably wouldn’t have gotten this big of a deal connected to draft pick compensation, but don’t ruin my fun).
As for the Marlins, they’ve been seeking an outfield bat all winter, and after whiffing on Marte, pivoted quickly to the next best option in their price range. But stay tuned, because they’re reportedly not done this winter, with another bat and a catcher still on the docket (plus maybe a pitcher trade?):
The $53 million dollar contract to Garcia is now the biggest contract given out by Miami under the Ownership group of Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter. Once Sandy Alcantara’s deal is done they will have committed over $100 million dollars in payroll this offseason. Far from done.
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) November 28, 2021
Marlins were in on Buxton had he been available but the sense was, he wasn’t. I can assure you Miami is in on other impact players and I would be stunned if they don’t get something else big done. No further questions at this time. 😎
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) November 28, 2021
Looking at the broader market implications, you can say this generally makes things tougher for the Brewers, who’d be shopping for bats *at best* in this middle tier of free agency, and that the outfield market is clearly humming right along ahead of the impending December 1st lockout (García and Marte have signed free agent deals and Byron Buxton is off the board).
In a broader positional free agent sense, this deal follows Marcus Semien’s massive agreement with the Rangers and is a sign of even more activity to come. Stay *very* tuned, my friends.
The madness is just beginning. This is gonna be a whale of a 24 hours.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 28, 2021
