Marlins Roster News: Four players outrighted off of 40-man roster

The first official roster-related moves of the Derek Jeter era have occurred, and they are not entirely unexpected.

The soon-to-be 32 year old Javy Guerra appeared in 16 games for the Marlins, pitching 21 largely forgettable innings. Well, almost forgettable:

Tyler Moore picked up 203 plate appearances largely serving as the primary first base back-up/right-handed bat off the bench. He slashed an uninspiring .230/.267/.401 with six home runs and 31 runs driven in. The highlight of his season was being, briefly, the top searched ballplayer on Amazon Alexa.

Destin Hood did not appear with the major league club in 2017 though he did have a cup of coffee with the team late last season. Oft-mentioned as a fourth outfielder candidate, he lacks plate discipline to stick around as a regular in the majors, and now will serve as AAAA depth somewhere else.

Of the four, I had highest hopes for Vance Worley. The Vanimal had a cool nickname, he wore cool glasses, and his brief run in the rotation actually started out pretty well (3.08 ERA/4.18 FIP over five starts where he only gave up nine runs). Of course, even then there was warning signs that things weren’t sustainable (such as the paltry 3.76 K/9 rate and the .34 HR/9 he was running through this good stretch). He was bound to get squared up eventually, and sure enough, his final two starts did him in for good. He was clobbered in particular by the Phillies last year, who mauled their old comrade to the tune of 19 runs over three appearances against them.

All of them are now free agents and are free to pursue deals with other teams. But what does this mean for the Marlins?

The Marlins 40-man now sits at 36. Hopefully, it means the organization is about to receive a desperately needed infusion of talent. Whether that comes via trade or free agency remains to be seen, but teams don’t typically clear space for the sake of clearing space.

Something’s coming.