Angels shopping Mark Trumbo, could he be a fit for Marlins?

As the LA Angels hope to rebound in 2014 after an extremely disappointing 2013 season, ESPN's baseball savant Buster Olney has announced that the team is willing to part ways with Peter Bourjos and/or Mark Trumbo to get the necessary pitching depth to help a staff that finished towards the bottom of the league in terms of overall pitching WAR. When it comes to the Marlins, our focus should be transfixed on the power-hitting Mark Trumbo who could fill in the gap at 1st base after the team was defeated in the Jose Abreu sweepstakes.

The potential addition of Mark Trumbo would be an interesting acquisition because while he was able to maintain that same power that he's had since his rookie season (34 HR's and .453% SLG) his overall inefficiency at the plate helped lead him to a career high 27.1% strikeout percentage. The overall balance between good (his power) and bad ( plate discipline) is an interesting problem that the Marlins would have to take if they decided to acquire Trumbo.

Before you have to worry about how he'd perform offensively with Miami, you're going have to acquire him via trade. Per Olney's tweet, the Angels are looking to acquire some much need arms in the starting rotation. Thankfully, the Marlins are kind of loaded in terms of depth in the starting rotation. Out of the current members of Miami's starting rotation, no-hit king Henderson Alvarez and Nathan Eovaldi are probably the more likely options as Jose Fernandez is basically untouchable while Jacob Turner's value continues to drop.

While both Eovaldi and Alvarez could be enough to pull in Trumbo, I really don't believe that new GM Dan Jennings would be able to part ways with either Eovaldi or Alvarez because of their overall progression as pitchers during this past season. With that said, Miami does have a nice crop of mid-tier pitching prospects (i.e Brian Flynn, Adam Conley, Justin Nicolino) who could have some value to the Angels even though LA is probably looking for some immediate options who could be placed into their starting rotation. With that said, both Conley and Nicolino were very impressive during the 2013 season with their respective affiliates so it wouldn't be out of the question if either of those two made their MLB debuts next season.

To wrap things up, the power-hitting Mark Trumbo would add an instant boost to either the first base position or the entire offense in general. While his career high 36 HR's would appear to be extremely solid, Trumbo's overall .234/.294/.453 split is a slight decline from his performance in the previous year. It may be an extremely obvious statement but Trumbo would really boost his overall value and production if he sliced into that 27.1 K% which is almost in Mark Reynolds territory. I think when it all comes down to it, the Marlins would be able to ignore his elevated strikeout percentage because of the power-hitting potential he could have if he's combined with Giancarlo Stanton.

Would it be right to ship off some of your solid pitching prospects (Conley or Nicolino) to acquire a solid fit for the 1st base position? Potentially because of how much of a necessity it actually is but it may not be enough to depart yourself from two solid pitchers who could be preparing themselves for a promotion to the MLB.