Offishial news, 11/3/20: Election Day; MiLB free agents; 2020 award announcements

MiLB departures

The following Marlins players just became minor league free agents: Santiago Chávez, Stone Garrett, Preston Guilmet, Gosuke Katoh, Tyler Kolek, Brandon Leibrandt, Julian León and Aaron Northcraft.

The left-hander Leibrandt got his career back on track this summer with a successful independent league stint. That’s where the Marlins found him in the midst of their COVID-19 outbreak. He made his MLB debut on Aug. 23, but suffered a season-ending elbow injury two weeks later. Northcraft was poised to make his own debut in 2020 had he not been infected with the virus himself. Katoh, a former Yankees farmhand who provides defensive versatility, spent much of the season on Miami’s taxi squad.

Kolek and Garrett were both members of the Marlins’ 2014 MLB Draft class, which aside from Brian Anderson, hasn’t contributed much of anything at the highest level. Once a flame-throwing right-hander, Kolek has an overall 5.66 ERA and 1.73 WHIP in 163.2 IP in the minors. That’s misleading, however—he has barely pitched at all over the last five years, laboring to throw strikes when available.

For those who haven’t seen the former first-round pick in action, I recorded one of his strikeouts with the Clinton LumberKings:

Expect the Marlins to attempt to re-sign several of these guys, particularly Katoh and Northcraft.

Fans wanted for research project

I was contacted by a pair of New York University grad students who require the Marlins fan’s perspective. If you can give them a 30-40 minute window to participate in a Zoom call on either Nov. 11, Nov. 12 or Nov. 13, they’ll compensate you with a Starbucks gift card.

Make arrangements with Kevin and Mirco via their social media accounts—@gauds6 and @MircoG95 on Twitter or @kevingaudio and @therealmircog on Instagram.

Walk-off links

• It’s Election Day across the United States. Please take the opportunity to cast your vote for the most qualified federal, state and local candidates.
• On a lighter note, you can vote once every 24 hours for Brian Anderson to make the 2020 All-MLB Team.
• BA is also an NL Gold Glove finalist at third base (and so is Miguel Rojas at shortstop). Those award winners are being revealed at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.
• As expected, Don Mattingly is a finalist for the BBWAA’s NL Manager of the Year award. He joined MLB Network to reflect on the unique journey that was his 2020 season.
• “Fish Bites” is no more—our flagship program on the Fish Stripes podcast has rebranded as The Offishial Show. Intern Daniel Rodriguez joined me to analyze all of the key 2020-21 MLB free agents.

• The 2020 SB Nation off-season simulation is wrapping up shortly. Fish Stripes’ own Alex Krutchik is serving as the Marlins general manager. You can follow his transactions in the comments section.
• Disappointing news from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal on Monday night—the Marlins parted ways with longtime director of team travel Manny Colón. His work was especially important during this chaotic season, altering and making new accommodations for road games on short notice due to COVID concerns. We wish Manny the best of luck in his future endeavors.