As we reach the midpoint of the season, the Florida Marlins have put themselves in an awkward position.
They are currently 38-43, fourth in the NL East division, and 9.5 games out of first place.
The record they have leaves them in a selling position, or does it?
Before we declare the Marlins sellers at this point in the season, we must ask ourselves these two questions:
Is the offense producing?
Yes.
Are the starting pitchers going deep into games?
Yes.
Based on these points alone, I can tell you that the Marlins should not be sellers.
The two main things that make a good team are pitching and scoring runs. The Marlins have proved able to do both.
That means the things that make the Marlins lose is the sloppy defense and terrible bullpen.
Now how can the Marlins improve on this?
Well for starters, it is rather difficult to improve a defense without meddling with the offense, and I seriously doubt that’s the priority for the Marlins.
The current priority in Florida is the bullpen.
The bullpen right now is made of Leo Nunez—a closer who has not proved to be consistent after blowing way too many saves—and a very consistent set-up man in Clay Hensley, and the rest…
The rest of the bullpen is just flat out terrible.
The Marlins keep on trying to use AAA relief pitchers hoping that they will do well, and, unfortunately, they don’t.
So the Marlins will want to be buyers in this trade deadline, in order to improve their bullpen.
A selection of players who should be inquired about and pursued are the following:
Octavio Dotel, Matt Capps, Scott Downs, Kerry Wood, and Joakim Soria.
All of the relief pitchers mentioned should be heavily pursued, only if the Marlins can get themselves to a winning record by the end of the All-Star break.
To conclude, the Marlins are neither sellers nor buyers, but they should be buyers, and they should try their best to get the bullpen help they desperately need.
If they do get the bullpen help, I can almost guarantee that the Marlins will be back in playoff contention.
If the Marlins management wants to win, it’s going to be this season.
The Marlins have the stuff, and to sell it away would be pointless, since they only need to add three more decent relievers to the bullpen.
The last thing that I want to say is that the Marlins are in it to win it. Don’t count them out, because they have proved to be resilient in the past.
It’s just a matter of getting the starting pitching, offense, and bullpen in sync.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com