Young and Swarzak have, at best, outside shots to develop into major league-quality starters. Young is a corner outfielder; he’s not a horrendous contact hitter, but his power is limited, and his plate discipline is appalling. We’re talking sub-Howie Kendrick levels here. And he’s been in the majors over three seasons, so it’s not like he’s still adjusting. He’s just not good. And Swarzak… I don’t think Swarzak even has the stuff to be a major-league starter, and his 76 hits and 34 strikeouts in 59 innings this year tend to bear that notion out. He could get better; I don’t know that it’ll be enough.

Whereas if you look at the Marlins — they already have enough young starters with question marks. Nolasco, Miller, West, Vandenhurk, Sanchez, Volstad. All are between 23 and 26, and all have pitched better this year than Swarzak. So if you call Josh Johnson 1, they’re 2 through 7. Swarzak would be 8… at best.

And as for the outfielders… Marlins have Maybin as their future CF. Stanton as their future RF — though he’s a couple years off. But as few corner outfielders as they have right now, I’d take Cody Ross over Young. I’d take Jeremy Hermida over Young — and Hermida is likely on the way out. I’d even take Brett Carroll over Young, most likely. And last but not least, I’d keep Uggla at second and leave Chris Coghlan in left for another year over Young.

Not saying I want the Marlins to do that, necessarily — Coghlan is the future, and he’s obviously worth much more as a 2B than out-of-position in the outfield. But Uggla posted a .812 OPS this year in an off-year — an off-year that saw him post a career-low .271 BABIP. (His line-drive percentage wasn’t down either — 18% compared to a career 17% — and he posted his lowest strikeout total since 2006.) They’re not trading him for a couple of replacement-level scrubs — if they do deal him, I suspect they’ll demand equivalent talent and/or real prospects.