Marlins interested in Chris Carter, Mark Reynolds

The Marlins have interest in signing either Chris Carter or Mark Reynolds, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. Crasnick states that the plan would be to add a right-handed complement to Justin Bour at first base. He does bring up the caveat that the interest may only be on a minor league deal.

Carter hit a career high 41 home runs with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016. Despite this, the Brewers decided not to tender him a contract. Considering he was only due a slight raise from the $2.5 million he received in 2016, that decision was pretty staggering. While Carter has hit at least 24 home runs each of the past four seasons, he has batted no better than .227 over that period and led the league in strikeouts twice. Throw in the fact that he is a very poor defensive player and it becomes very clear; Carter is the exact definition of a one tool player.

Reynolds spent last season with the Colorado Rockies, where he hit .282 in 393 at-bats. While impressive, he did most of that damage against right-handed pitching (.297 vs righties, .250 vs lefties). Like Carter, Reynolds is a power hitter with a propensity for striking out. Unlike the former, he hasn’t hit more than 14 home runs the past two seasons.

Bour has been a fantastic surprise for the Marlins since selecting him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft in 2013. With all that said, they still don't seem comfortable playing him against left-handed pitching. Against southpaws, Bour has a .223 lifetime batting average (although in a small 103 at-bat sample size). After primarily using Chris Johnson at first base vs left-handed pitchers in 2016, you can expect the Marlins to use a similar strategy for the upcoming season; potentially with Carter or Reynolds.