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.

Sandy Alcantara

The only reason this guy is not number one on the list is that he just signed an extension with the Marlins so I’m not sure if they’re willing to trade him. But if the Marlins are at all willing to deal Sandy Alcantara, Ross Atkins needs to get on the phone and not hang up until a trade is completed.

Alcantara has everything you can want in a starting pitcher. He throws incredibly hard and has outstanding off-speed stuff. Most importantly, he’s shown an ability to stay healthy, strikes out a ton, doesn’t walk many, and keeps the ball in the ballpark.

This past season was Alcantara’s best by far. He went 9-15 with a 3.19 ERA. He struck out 201 batters in 205.2 innings pitched in his 33 starts.

The Blue Jays are in need of another arm and the Marlins are a team with a bunch of quality young arms to offer. This is how I’d rank them.

The 33 starts were tied for the National League lead (with Gausman) and the 205.2 innings pitched were good enough for fourth. He averaged 6.2 innings per start which is a really solid number nowadays.

Alcantara allowed just 0.9 HR/9, walked 2.2/9 and struck out 8.8/9. He’s a 26-year-old who just keeps getting better as he ages. In 2019 he made 32 starts and threw 197.1 innings.

With the addition of Alcantara, the Blue Jays would have a really solid top three in their rotation and if Manoah pitches as well as he did this season, the team becomes even scarier. That’s not even including Ryu and his experience pitching in big games.

The cost would be a ton, but to get a young arm who has five years and $52.5 million dollars guaranteed on his deal, who is already this good, would be so valuable for this young team to build around. At the peak of the guaranteed portion of his deal, Alcantara will be making $17 million a year.

Steven Matz got $11 million AAV on his deal despite being a mid-back end rotation arm. Alcantara is a front-end arm with ace potential making pretty much the same per year compared to Matz. If available, he’s absolutely a must-get.