Did the Marlins Make a Mistake With Alex Vesia?

As one of the finishing touches of their 2020-21 MLB offseason, the Miami Marlins made a trade to acquire reliever Dylan Floro in exchange for reliever Alex Vesia and 2020 draft pick Kyle Hurt. At the time, the trade made all the sense in the world for the Marlins—they got an established, affordable reliever to fill a hole they had in middle relief. In the process, they gave up a low-level prospect in Hurt and an elite minor league performer in Vesia who didn’t take advantage of his MLB debut the previous year.

In the present day, Alex Vesia has turned into a key player in the Dodgers rotation (2-1, 2.40 ERA, 30.0 IP, 39 SO, 0.83 WHIP) and has many years of control left through the 2026 season. His .094 batting average against is the best in the majors. On the other end, Dylan Floro is going into arbitration in 2022 and 2023. He has been solid overall, at times being extremely trustworthy but also failing in a few critical situations (5-4, 2.90 ERA, 5 SV, 49.2 IP, 46 SO, 1.25 WHIP).

Looking back, it is a bit regretful from Miami’s perspective. The extra years of club control remaining on Vesia would have been key for the Marlins.

Vesia has made the necessary adjustments to translate his minor league stats to MLB and could have maybe done the same with the Marlins. They have a no clear closer of the future. If he hadn’t been dealt, Vesia would be auditioning for that role right now.

It has been a win-win trade regardless, but the Marlins will no doubt have a hard time watching Vesia from afar if he contributes to a deep Dodgers playoff run and turns out to be a top reliever in the game.