Philly Front Office

The NL East is an interesting place. The Phillies won the division going away last year, but that had a lot to do with the Mets running out of gas and the Braves never getting out of the starting blocks. Well, what about the other two? The Marlins were surprisingly good while the Nationals were surprisingly bad. What are their plans this winter?

Looking Around the NL East:

• New York Mets
• Atlanta Braves

Washington Nationals

Word on the street is that the Nationals are fielding offers for their two best veteran players, CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore. Abrams has 3 consecutive years of very good, but not great performance while Gore looked like a legit ace to start the season, but fizzled out big time over the second half. They don’t need to trade either, but both are about to get expensive. Abrams is just hitting arbitration and has 3 year of control left while Gore has 2. Washington may just be trying to see if they can milk what they got for Juan Soto into a nice haul of prospects that better matches their timeline.

Speaking of the timeline, what is it? Well, they just selected SS Eli Willits with the #1 pick in the draft and he’s 18 years old. Their best player is 23-year-old James Wood who strikes out a ton but looks like he is going to be a real problem. Dylan Crews is 23, Brady House is 22, and newly acquired catcher Harry Ford is also 22. AA top-100 pitching prospects Travis Sykora and Jarlin Susana are both 21. Gore (27) and Abrams (25) aren’t old, but maybe the Nationals want to turn their clock back a few years.

Because of these cheap assets, the team only has around $112m committed to next year, which includes $35m for Steven Strasburg. This is the final year of his deal and the only “bad” contract on the books. Hell, the only contract they even have on their books is Keibert Ruiz who is signed through 2030 and never gets above $10m. Considering they used to run serious payrolls, this team can really spend if it wants to. It’s early, but they should be considered a dark horse for Tarik Skubal next offseason. They have the cash, the need, and the situation to put together a great offer.

Their plan should be to take some flyers and spend some money on stop gap guys that they can trade at the deadline. You can’t buy prospects, but you can sign vets and turn them into prospects, especially with their openings in the rotation, first base, and possibly shortstop.

Let’s Trade Tarik Skubal

Miami Marlins

Did you know that the Marlins weren’t eliminated from playoff contention until the final week of the 2025 season? They finished 79-83 on the backs of good pitching and one of the youngest rosters you’ll ever see. Naturally, they are going to trade some of it away.

Currently, Edward Cabrera is the name most prominently on the block, but the sands of Sandy Alcantara’s time in Miami are slipping through the hourglass. Cabrera has 3 years of control left and is coming off a 140 inning, 3.53 ERA season. He is ripe for the Marlins to move. As for Sandy, ha he never been hurt, he would be gone already. In his first season back from surgery, his 2025 was lackluster for his standards. I’m sure they are just waiting for him to regain some value before shipping off. He has 2 years of control and will damn near definitely not be with the Marlins after this year’s trade deadline. $17m? From the Marlins? Impossible.

One of the oddities of the Marlins situation is that almost all of their young guys aren’t very young. Their entire starting lineup is not yet arbitration eligible, but they are all 24 and older. Unlike the Nationals, there are no young possible superstars on this roster. One of last year’s most surprising Marlins was Kyle Stowers and he’s 28 despite only 1 real MLB season under his belt.

Phillies vs Marlins: Where Did These Fish Come From?

The payroll is an embarrassingly low $66m. Only $41m of that is actual player salary too. Despite being a fairly new owner, Bruce Sherman does not have the cash or the desire to spend any more than this on the team. Expect plenty more lean years ahead in Miami. Why the hell did MLB approve the sale to him in the first place?

This is a problem though. The White Sox have the second lowest payroll at $80m, 20% higher than the Marlins. They are risking a grievance with the Player’s Union, something that has seemingly caused even the Pirates and Athletics to want to spend more. The Union can file a grievance against a team if their payroll spending does not reach 1.5x the amount a team receives from revenue sharing. That number last year was $70m. We’ll find out the final numbers for 2025 soon. Basically, the Marlins need to get to $100m+ but aren’t even trying. Who cares, right? Well, the Marlins currently have 2 grievances from previous years open with more likely coming. Until something happens, Miami will likely keep pinching their pennies. They could be fined a significant amount, likely the difference in what they haven’t paid. They are probably hoping that the grievances will be settled as part of the next round of collective bargaining. It’s a whole mess.

The Marlins had a shock run to end the season that almost ended with a playoff birth. Instead of supplementing the roster, they will trade players and possibly bring in an aging vet as a possible mid-season trade chip. How about Nick Castellanos???