Reese Kaplan -- New Ho-Hum Name Surfaces for July Mets Trade

Sometimes trade rumors evolve that introduce players who weren’t on your radar at all, but then again we mere baseball media folks are not front office professionals.  We go by career numbers and scouting reports.  We are not always right.  Then again, neither are the big honchos for each ballclub.  Remember when the pitching savant added midyear a few seasons back was named Paul Blackburn? 

So now multiple places are talking about a hot season player likely to be on the trading block.  Yes, it makes sense for a team out of contention to restock their development rosters with the best the acquiring teams have to offer when one of their players is having the best year of his career.  That method gets future payments in player assets while pushing off the now overpriced free-agent-to-be ballplayer to a team desperate for what they projected he could do in their quest of October baseball.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the team in question with the player now allegedly on the block is the garage sale conducting Miami Marlins.  It’s become standard operating procedure for them to gut their roster every July around the trading deadline period.  Many times they get folks who turn out to be highly worthwhile.  Other times they gambled on minor leaguers and lost.

In 2025 the player in question theoretically being auctioned off to the highest bidder is starting pitcher Edward Cabrera.  If you’re not familiar with him, then you don’t watch too many NL east contests.  Cabrera has been a part of the Marlins rotation off and on since his major league debut in 2021. 

If you peruse his stats the most telling thing that stands out is his suspect number of games played each year.  His career high as a starting pitcher is just 20 games.  This year looks better for him.  He’s already made 15 starts so he is on pace for nearly a normal number of starts for a major league pitcher. 

The next thing that jumps off the page is his historic control problem.  Even with a great step forward in 2025 he has average 4.8 walks per 9 innings pitched.  That inability to keep free base runners stranded his WHIP numbers are not pretty either.  He’s doing better now — a 1.226 number — and his strikeout numbers are always commendable.  His career ERA is 4.11 but this year improved to 3.33.

Right now he’s earning a very modest $1.95 million salary and will be new team property for 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028.  That price tag may make many teams look past some of the performance issues as they look to strengthen a shortened normal pitching staff.  Still, it would seem that the price for mediocrity at any price shouldn’t be prohibitively large. 

Would you want someone like Cabrera to be the big midyear acquisition engineered by David Stearns?  I don’t think so, but his career numbers are better than injured Tylor Megill, injured Griffin Canning and others.  Help is needed but is he the best choice?

Alternatively it is possible to instead acquire fundamentally more effective pitchers available who might only be 2025 rentals before free agency.  Is the longer term acquisition and modest quality a better move than someone who might actually help you make the playoffs?