Ranking three Miami Marlins starting pitchers who fit the Blue Jays

Elieser Hernandez

The Marlins are so loaded with young arms to the point where Elieser Hernandez might not even be in their Opening Day rotation. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that he won’t be. This means the Blue Jays have an opportunity to get a solid young arm at a good value.

Hernandez isn’t a pitcher that’ll blow anyone away. The 26-year-old has had chances at the back end of the Marlins rotation for a couple of years now but hasn’t been able to stay on the field. This past season he made just 11 appearances (all starts) for Miami.

In those starts he pitched pretty well, going 1-3 with a 4.18 ERA. He struck out 53 batters in 51.2 innings pitched and posted a really solid 2.4 BB/9.

Where Hernandez struggled was keeping the ball in the yard. He allowed 2.3 HR/9 and has allowed 2.0 HR/9 over his career. Not great, but since Hernandez doesn’t walk many batters, he doesn’t allow too much damage with the long ball.

In the shortened 2020 season, he made six starts and posted a 1.80 ERA. In those starts, he struck out 11.9/9 and walked just 1.8/9. When he’s able to keep the ball in the yard and stay on the field, he’s an effective pitcher.

Hernandez is projected to make $1.5 million this season according to Spotrac and has two more years of arbitration to go. TheBlue  Jays can pull off a low-risk move by acquiring an arm who’s being squeezed out of his teams’ rotation with three years of control on him.

If a trade for Hernandez is made, it’s good that the Jays do have Ross Stripling as insurance, and I’d even suggest signing another arm who can be in the ‘pen but fill in for some starts eventually since Hernandez’s career-high is 15 starts and 82.1 innings pitched back in 2019.