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The Miami Marlins Are Interested In Francisco Rodriguez

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After missing out on James Shields, who signed with the San Diego Padres on Sunday night/Monday morning, the Miami Marlins have set their sights on veteran relief pitcher Francisco Rodriguez. With Steve Cishek firmly ensconced in the closer role, “K-Rod” would certainly be accepting a set up role if he were to sign with the Fish.

K-Rod is a 33-year-old right-handed reliever who started his career in 2002 with the Angels. He has saved 348 games since then and compiled a nice 2.73 ERA with a 3.18 FIP. He has struck out over 10 batters per nine innings in his career (10.83) and allowed 0.83 homeruns per nine innings on average. Over his career, he has put together a 42.5% groundball percentage and has amassed a total of 15.7 fWAR.

He would be a nice fit in the back of the bullpen for the Marlins, but he is certainly not a necessary piece. With Steve Cishek closing games and Carter Capps/Mike Dunn setting up behind him, the Fish bullpen is actually already in decent shape. Adding a talented arm, however, never hurts. Last season, the Marlins added guys like Carlos Marmol, Kevin Gregg, and Henry Rodriguez and just gave them critical innings on a Major League Baseball mound. While K-Rod is now and always has been better than those three clowns, hopefully the Marlins make him earn his role. He’ll obviously only sign a Major League contract and won’t be willing to pitch Minor League innings, but the Marlins should start him out in mop-up duty or middle relief if he struggles, not simply throw him into the eighth inning until he figures things out at the expense of the team.

This is all assuming that K-Rod is willing to sign with a team where he’ll have little chance at earning saves. He may very well accept a less lucrative contract from a team that would put him at the very end of their bullpen. The Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays are both rumored to also be after him, and would likely offer him a more appealing role.

Author: David Marcillo

David has been a Marlins fan since 1993. ’97 and ’03 were nice. Best of times, worst of times, mediocre times in between.

You can follow David on Twitter: @DavidMarcillo77 or you can email: [email protected]

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