The Miami Marlins made some news headlines on Monday, January 30th.
Jazz Chisholm Jr.
The future of the Marlins, Jazz Chisholm Jr., is set to be the future of MLB The Show, well at least the 2023 edition.
Young stud and the now-center fielder Jazz Chisholm was announced as the cover athlete for MLB The Show 23.
Jazz is now the first Bahamian-born athlete to grace the cover of any sports video game.
Jazz also joins Dontrelle Willis (MLB Slugfest 2006), Hanley Ramirez (Baseball Blast) and Wei-Yin Chen (MLB The Show 17 – Taiwan version) as the only Marlins’ to appear on a video game cover.
While many question the decision to place Jazz on the front cover over the likes of Francisco Lindor, Julio Rodriguez, and many others, marketing fun players with personalities is a must – and MLB The Show is doing just that in 2023.
Jazz on being the MLB The Show 23 cover athlete: “It was something I always dreamed of. … I never thought it would come to reality as quick as it has.”
Richard Bleier for Matt Barnes and Cash!
Miami has traded left-hander Richard Bleier to the Boston Red Sox in return for 2021 All-Star Matt Barnes and cash (reportedly around $1.0M).
Bleier has been a really solid relief pitcher for the Fish over the past few seasons. He had a 3.27 FIP last year, does not walk batters, misses barrels, and throws a sinker, cutter, and slider with the occasional change up.
Bleier was in the 94th & 99th percentile for BB% the last two years. He becomes another low walk candidate for the Boston bullpen. In addition, Bleier was a teammate with Chris Sale at FGCU (Florida Gulf Coast University) in 2008, and they will now be reuniting.
Meanwhile, Miami receives the righty Matt Barnes who is a nine year veteran, spending all of his years with Boston. Barnes has 47 career saves and over 550 strikeouts and only 200 walks in 431.2 innings.
Last season (in 2022), Barnes struggled, recording an 0-4 record with only eight saves in 39.2 IP along with a 4.31 ERA and a 3.87 FIP. However, Barnes turned it on in the second half – with a larger sample size than the first half, too. After the All-Star break Barnes recorded a 1.59 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP.
Even better than the second half of the 2022 season was the 2021 season. Miami hopes they can get back 2021 Matt Barnes. If so, the Marlins will have their high leverage backend of the bullpen guy in 2023.
In 2021, Barnes was named an All-Star thanks to his 6-5 record with 24 saves, a 3.79 ERA, and a 3.21 FIP in 54.2 IP.