Offishial news, 1/24/23: Jazz “unlikely” to compete in WBC; Hall of Famer Bleier

Jan 24, 2023 - 5:00 PM

Marlins Podcast Episodes

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• From Craig Mish and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald: the Marlins are likely to prevent Jazz Chisholm Jr. from competing in the World Baseball Classic to “prioritize his preparation for the regular season by staying in Jupiter to work on playing center.” He was originally supposed to represent Great Britain in the tournament and play shortstop for them. They also report that Miami’s pursuit of Luis Arraez dated back to the Winter Meetings, with the Twins insisting from the beginning that José Salas be included in the return package.
• More from the Herald: “As of Monday afternoon, the Marlins had stopped any aggressive pursuit of Astros free agent first baseman Yuli Gurriel.” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale recently reported that they were expected to sign Gurriel despite the Arraez acquisition. Oh, Bob.
• Arraez will wear uniform No. 3 for the Marlins (h/t Fish On The Farm). He wore No. 2 in Minnesota, but that’s obviously taken by Chisholm.
• With hours until the results are revealed on MLB Network, Gary Sheffield has received 62.5% of the vote from known Baseball Hall of Fame voters. He’ll fall short of the threshold for election in 2023, but will receive more BBWAA support than ever before. Sheffield has one more year of HOF eligibility remaining.
• Straying from the Marlins, Louis Addeo-Weiss makes the case that Luis Tiant should be in Cooperstown.
• For the fourth straight offseason, Sandy Alcantara is training at Pinecrest Strength & Conditioning. Christina De Nicola of MLB.com shadowed the NL Cy Young winner during his four-hour, total-body workout routine.
• MLB Pipeline continues to regard Jacob Berry more highly than other prospect outlets, ranking him sixth on their list of Top 10 third base prospects.
• Michael Hill is “happy” to spend another year as MLB’s senior vice president of on-field operations, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Hill was a candidate in the ongoing Astros general manager job search, but pulled his name out of consideration.
• Jesús Aguilar inked a one-year, $3 million contract with the Athletics and Jordan Holloway has signed a minor league deal with the Cubs. Holloway is expected to be fully healthy coming off surgery to repair a fractured bone spur in his elbow. These moves leave A.J. Ladwig and Luke Williams as the only 2022 Marlins players still available in free agency.
• Stark Raving Sports revisits how the Marlins blew an opportunity to contend in the late 2000s.
• Daniel Castano remains in DFA limbo. By Thursday, we’ll find out whether he was claimed by another team or outrighted to the minors (I expect the latter).
• Congrats to Richard Bleier on his induction into the Florida Gulf Coast University Athletics Hall of Fame.