Should the Marlins embrace Jon Berti’s momentum and trade him?

Fortunately for the Marlins, Jon Berti had a wonderful performance in June, rebounding from April and May struggles to bring his season numbers in line with preseason expectations. While the Marlins were stumbling in the past month, the versatile speedster stood up offensively for the team.

With Brian Anderson on the injured list, Berti appeared in 25 games (24 starts) in June. The 31-year-old collected 25 hits with four doubles and two home runs, plus eight runs batted in, 15 runs scored, 11 walks, and even three steals. In those 25 contests, he posted a .321/.400/.449 slash line, along with a .849 OPS.

This creates an interesting question for the Marlins, who enter play on Saturday 8.5 games of the National League East division lead and 13 games back of the second NL Wild Card spot. With less than four weeks until the trade deadline, they could be on the verge of calling themselves sellers. Berti’s not getting any younger but he has shown he can contribute to winning right now. Is the perfect time for the Fish to deal him?

Berti possesses good on-base skills, lightning speed, versatility with his glove, and comes with many more years under team control. Berti won’t be able to test free agency until after the 2025 season. His current salary is very affordable, not much more than the MLB minimum ($607,500). He’ll be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2022.

Based on those points above, I think that Berti could bring back more in return than most of the other veterans that the Marlins could attempt to trade this season. Baseball Trade Values estimates that he provides $7.1 million of surplus value, which tops Jesús Aguilar ($4.5M), Adam Duvall ($4.8M) and Garrett Cooper ($6.7M). Not too shabby for somebody who originally joined the organization on a minor league deal.

The Marlins already dealt outfielder Corey Dickerson and reliever Adam Cimber to the Blue Jays a few days ago, so don’t rule out the possibility of there being more transactions right around the corner. However, they have until July 30 to evaluate every possible scenario with a focus on improving for 2022 and beyond.