Marlins left-hander Alex Vesia—a former 17th-round draft pick who turned into a dominant minor league reliever and made his MLB debut last season—has been traded to the Dodgers along with right-hander Kyle Hurt for veteran right-hander Dylan Floro. ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report the deal which has now been confirmed by the Miami Herald.
The Marlins announced the deal Friday afternoon.
Vesia posted a 1.62 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 100 innings during his meteoric rise through the Marlins farm system. That doesn’t even include a near-perfect performance in the 2019 Arizona Fall League and 2020 Grapefruit League (spring training). But his rookie campaign, which was interrupted by a positive COVID-19 test, fell far short of expectations (18.69 ERA, 3.23 WHIP in 4.1 IP). The southpaw turns 25 in April.
Hurt was the Marlins’ fifth-round selection in the 2020 MLB Draft. He had an inconsistent career at the University of Southern California and hasn’t gained any formal professional experience yet due to last year’s canceled Minor League Baseball season.
Floro, 30, did well for the eventual World Series champs in ‘20 (2.59 ERA, 2.66 FIP, 1.11 WHIP, 0.6 fWAR in 24.1 IP). He also made six appearances for the Dodgers in the postseason.
Floro has made 144 career major league appearances (all in relief) with four different teams, but none of those came at Marlins Park.
Although Floro has one minor league option remaining, he will very likely be a part of the 2021 Marlins Opening Day bullpen. He is due to earn a $975,000 salary this season in his first year of arbitration eligibility. The California native is under club control through 2023.
Watch some Dylan Floro changeup strikeouts. Works vs. both LHB and RHB. pic.twitter.com/cscGcr73kH
— Fish Stripes (@fishstripes) February 12, 2021
Health permitting, the other Opening Day ‘pen locks are Anthony Bass, Yimi García, Richard Bleier, James Hoyt and Ross Detwiler. Adam Cimber’s unique delivery would complement them nicely and he should make the cut, though Cimber can be optioned to Triple-A if necessary. With Floro now here, that’s seven of eight spots accounted for.
To me, acquiring Floro is a strong indication that the Marlins will choose only one of Paul Campbell and Zach Pop to make the roster out of camp (perhaps putting Pop on the 60-day injured list to complete his recovery from Tommy John surgery).
In the estimation of Baseball Trade Values, Vesia had $0.8M of surplus value and Floro had $2.1M. There is no estimate for Hurt, but we can assume it was less than $1.1M (the values for fellow college pitchers Zach McCambley and Jake Eder who were drafted by the Marlins ahead of Hurt). So BTV sees the Marlins as slight winners in this exchange.
Miami’s free agent signing of outfielder Adam Duvall (reported earlier this week) is still unofficial. The Marlins 40-man roster remains full so there must be a corresponding move coming soon to squeeze him on.