Marlins VP: Trades have brought team excellent prospects.
Team feels trades brought strong prospects
Fans who grilled new CEO Derek Jeter at the first of a series of Marlins town hall meetings this week lamented the departure of the team’s best-known stars.
Gary Denbo is the man who will have much to do with fulfilling Jeter’s promise that fans will learn to love some of the unknown names acquired in the recent trades of Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna and Dee Gordon.
As vice president of player development and scouting, Denbo may be the most important name – little known to most fans – added to the organization under new ownership. He will be spearheading the effort to turn prospects into a winning product that has been missing for years.
“We feel good about the quality we got back in these deals. We feel good about what we got in the Rule 5 Draft,” Denbo said Thursday in a conference call with South Florida reporters. “We feel like we got a couple guys that are going to compete for spots in our rotation.”
Coming from a similar role with the Yankees, where he is credited with a huge hand in shaping the team’s current success, Denbo is well acquainted with the prospects returned in the Stanton trade.
He said right-hander Jorge Guzman is a rare talent as a starting pitcher with a fastball that averages 99 mph.
“He has an ability to strike out hitters, which I value. He has the ability to throw strikes and he’s a good athlete. The athleticism should allow him to make adjustments as needed,” Denbo said of the 21-year-old.
Denbo’s experience with the Yankees also made him more familiar than most talent evaluators with shortstop prospect Jose Devers, who is only 18. Like Guzman, Devers is from the Dominican Republic and has shown skill and athleticism for Denbo to
project him as an everyday shortstop in the majors.
Obviously, he is a longrange project. A couple other former Yankees prospects obtained in a minor deal last month, first baseman Garrett Cooper and right-hander Caleb Smith, could provide more immediate service.
Smith, a left-hander, will compete for a spot in the 2018 starting rotation, Denbo said. Cooper, at 6-feet-6, is an intriguing right-handed hitting complement to Justin Bour at first base. At 26, he has shown emerging power potential over the past year in the minors.
“He has long arms and long legs. From my experience as a hitting coach, those guys sometimes take longer before the power emerges in their swing. Sometimes those types are late-bloomers,” Denbo said.
It remains to be seen if Starlin Castro, the only established major-leaguer obtained in the Stanton trade, will remain with the Marlins or be dealt away (along with his $10.8 million salary) in another trade for prospects. Denbo said he expects the veteran to remain and play second base in Miami.
“Starlin Castro is a good major league player. He’s a middleof-thefield guy that we look for. We needed to fill a hole at that position,” Denbo said.
Denbo speaks in the manner of the player development maven that he is. Based on his track record, if there is one member of the new regime to put trust in for steering improvement on the field, he’d be the leading candidate.
Toward that objective, Denbo said, “It’s our intention to look for players that play in the middle of the field, for pitchers that have an opportunity to help us in the starting rotation. I feel like we’ve done that. Over the last few weeks since I’ve been with the organization we’ve added middle infielders to the equation for our rosters that are going to compete for positions. We’ve also added. … eight or nine starting pitcher candidates as well.”
He pointed to another hard-throwing righty, Sandy Alcantara (Ozuna trade with Cardinals), as another candidate for the rotation in 2018.
“I won’t tell you where I think these guys are going to begin the season,” Denbo said. “I will tell you that we feel really good about the chances of having several options for major league starters going forward here in the next couple years.”
Turner returns
One familiar name back with Miami is righthander Jacob Turner, who made 39 starts for the Marlins from 2012-14.
Turner was acquired when the sell-off of the 2012 team began in the trade that sent Anibal Sanchez and Omar Infante to Detroit. He was highly regarded at the time but didn’t pan out, going 8-19 with a 4.41 ERA.
Still only 26, Turner has since pitched without distinction for the Cubs, White Sox and Nationals, and has a 14-30 career mark with a 5.09 ERA.
Turner was signed to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, as were three other players who have appeared in the majors: right-hander Alex Wimmers, infielder Christhian Adames and outfielder Rafael Ortega.