Miami Marlins non-tender Brian Anderson, making him a free agent
The Miami Marlins are moving on from Brian Anderson.
The team on Friday opted to non-tender the third baseman/outfielder, making him a free agent. Anderson was heading into his final year of arbitration, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting his salary for the 2023 season to be $5.2 million.
That, relatively speaking, is a steep price for the Marlins to pay for a player who at this point would not have had a defined role heading into 2023 and has had trouble staying on the field lately.
And the move signals just how far things fell off for Anderson the past couple seasons after at one point being considered a candidate for a contract extension.
The Marlins selected Anderson in the third round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He made his big-league debut on Sept. 1, 2017, and was on Miami’s Opening Day roster each of the past five seasons. He started as a utility player splitting time between third base and right field, played almost exclusively at third base in 2020 and 2021 and then reverted back to a third base/outfield hybrid role in 2022.
He is a career .256 hitter with 57 home runs, 233 RBI, 106 doubles and 249 runs scored in 531 games and was a Gold Glove Award finalist at third base in 2020.
Anderson played 165 games over the past two seasons while dealing with an assortment of injuries. He went on the injured list six times in that span — three times with a left shoulder injury, once with a left oblique strain, once with lower back spasms and once after testing positive for COVID-19.
He only hit .222 with a .311 on-base percentage and .346 slugging mark — all career lows — in 2022.
The way the Marlins’ 40-man roster is currently constructed made him expendable. Miami has Joey Wendle, Jordan Groshans, Jon Berti and Charles Leblanc as internal options to start at third base. They also have seven true outfielders on their 40-man roster — JJ Bleday, Peyton Burdick, Bryan De La Cruz, Jerar Encarnacion, Avisail Garcia, Jesus Sanchez and Jorge Soler — vying for what will essentially be five roster spots.
Soler will likely get the bulk of his playing time at designated hitter next season. Garcia is primarily a right fielder.
Everyone else tendered
Outside of Anderson, the Marlins tendered contracts to the rest of their arbitration-eligible players, a group that includes pitchers Pablo Lopez, Dylan Floro, JT Chargois, Jesus Luzardo and Tanner Scott; infielders Wendle and Berti; catcher Jacob Stallings; and first baseman/designated hitter Garrett Cooper.
Floro has already agreed to terms on a $3.9 million deal for the 2023 season to avoid arbitration.
The projected salaries for the rest of the group:
▪ Wendle (third year of arbitration): $5.4 million
▪ Cooper (third year of arbitration): $4.1 million
▪ Stallings (second year of arbitration): $3.3 million
▪ Lopez (second year of arbitration): $5.6 million
▪ Scott (second year of arbitration): $2.7 million
▪ Berti (second year of arbitration): $2.4 million
▪ Luzardo (first year of arbitration): $2 million
▪ Chargois (first year of arbitration): $1 million
Salary figures for these players are not yet finalized. Teams and arbitration-eligible players have until Jan. 13 to submit salary figures for the 2023 season if a deal had not already been agreed upon. Arbitration hearings are scheduled to take place Jan. 30-Feb. 17.
Next steps
The Marlins still have improvements to make. They need to add offense, with the most likely positions to address that coming in the outfield or the corner infield positions (first and third base). Miami also plans to continue to improve its bullpen, the first step of which took place when it acquired Chargois from the Rays.
Action will likely begin to pick up during the Winter Meetings, which take place Dec. 4-7 in San Diego.
