Ranking three Miami Marlins starting pitchers who fit the Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays have a really solid foundation for their starting rotation. After inking free agent Kevin Gausman to a five-year $110 million-dollar contract, they have two guys who I’d consider to be front-end starters joining Jose Berrios.

In the middle of the rotation, the Jays have a promising young arm in Alek Manoah and veteran Hyun Jin Ryu. The fifth spot is where things get dicey. In a perfect world, Nate Pearson lives up to his potential and remains healthy and the Blue Jays have a dominant rotation to complement one of the best lineups in baseball.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. The fifth starter as of now is Ross Stripling. If the Blue Jays have any plans on making a run for the postseason and even potentially beyond, Stripling cannot be the fifth starter.

With the Jays already spending upwards of $100 million on an arm this offseason, I don’t think it’s likely they splurge on another starter, nor is there really a big arm available. They can take a gamble on someone like Yusei Kikuchi, but I’d suggest a trade.

The Miami Marlins are the perfect trade partner for the Blue Jays. They have an abundance of young arms and could really use some bats as they struggle to score runs.

If the Jays trade for one of the Marlins promising young arms they can run out a rotation with  Ryu as the fifth starter. I’d say that means they have a pretty solid rotation, definitely one of the best in baseball.

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.

Pablo Lopez

In my opinion, Pablo Lopez is the most underrated pitcher in baseball. He’s not flashy and doesn’t throw particularly hard. However, Pablo Lopez has cemented himself as one of baseball’s best young arms.

The 26-year-old went 5-5 with a 3.07 ERA in his 20 starts this season. He struck out 10.1/9, walked 2.3/9, and allowed 1.0 HR/9. Like Alcantara, he strikes out a ton of batters, doesn’t walk too many, and keeps the ball in the yard. There’s not much more you can ask for.

However, Alcantara gets the job done with 100 mph fastballs and wicked sliders. Lopez gets the job done with a 93 mph fastball and a wicked changeup. When I say wicked, I mean one of the better changeups in the game.

This season, Lopez threw his changeup 32.5% of the time, more than any other pitch in his five-pitch repertoire. The fact that Lopez ranked in the 94th percentile in chase rate according to Baseball Savant without throwing particularly hard shows me that his breaking pitches are extremely effective.

Lopez is projected to make $2.5 million this season and has two more years of arbitration left. I believe he’s more likely to be traded than Alcantara because the Marlins just paid Alcantara and they haven’t shown a willingness to pay many guys at once.

Lopez would not be cheap but he’s a guy who I believe would thrive in the AL East. 47% of his batted balls put in play in 2021 were on the ground. Only 20.7% of his batted balls were in the air. This shows that Lopez can pitch well in the smaller parks in the division as he likely won’t allow many long balls.

I believe he’d slot in very nicely in the middle of the Jays rotation and makes them even more formidable than they already are.