Marlins trade rumors: Marlins have a few desired starters

Miami wants some back-up Fish to supplement Jose Fernandez in their rotation, and FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi revealed three names from their list:

Jeremy Hellickson: Hellboy is on for a Wednesday night start in Philadelphia against the... Marlins. Miami will get a point blank look at one of their potential new teammates as Hellickson toes the rubber against Wei-Yin Chen. Chen is a great example of why acquiring a guy like Hellickson (4.03 ERA, 1.200 WHIP, 3.63 SO/W, 7.9 SO/9 in 111.2 IP) is important for the Marlins, who consider themselves contenders: Chen’s had some bad luck and is in need of some fly balls landing in fielders’ gloves instead of on the other side of the fence. While he figures that out, or doesn’t, the Marlins want more support in the back-end - and also the middle, really - of their rotation. Hellickson could provide that, though both he and Chen are rapidly approaching their home run totals for last season (Hellickson allowed 18 HR so far this season with 22 in 2015; Chen sits at 19 HR now with 28 last year) and their HR/9 are very similar (Hellickson: 1.5; Chen: 1.6).

Andrew Cashner: Once again, the Marlins could turn to the Padres (after already acquiring closer Fernando Rodney from them), and continue stripping the San Diego roster of its pitching as the team bottoms out. Cashner has only thrown 67.2 innings this season, and racked up a 5.05 ERA and 3.6 BB/9, which might tell you how desperate for pitching some teams (Marlins included) really are - though the Rangers are also supposed to be taking a look at the 29-year-old right-hander. Cashner left a game in the first inning on June 10 with back and neck tightness, but has returned, spinning a pair of six inning starts in July, allowing in both of which only one earned run. Of course, in between them, he got lit up by the Dodgers for 8 ER in 2.2 IP. But some people are very desperate for pitching, remember.

Michael Pineda: As Morosi says, Pineda might not even be an option, no matter how hard teams are looking at him. It’ll be a year and a half until Pineda is no longer under team control, and his inconsistencies since the beginning of 2015 have driven people wild. The Yankees must still think they can save him, even though his current numbers (5.56 ERA, -0.2 WAR in 100.1 IP) seem to provide them with a challenge. Pinstripe Alley had some thoughts on this:

There just doesn’t seem to be much to gain at all from pushing back discussions about moving Pineda. Hopefully this is just a ploy because the Yankees should really just excise what little value they can from him at this point. Maybe it comes back to bite them, but Pineda hasn’t looked like a reliable starter since Mother’s Day 2015.

The Marlins are after at least three hurlers who don’t offer much in the way of stimulation, but they could be solid enough to keep runs off the board; at least, few enough runs that Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, and even Ichiro could outpace the offense surrendered by their pitching. There’s not much in the way of minor league assets to move here, either, with the Marlins farm system ranked 29th out of 30 franchises.