Hot Stove Update: Marlins Try to Compete Now While Rebuilding

Hey team!  Time to check in on the ol' Hot Stove which has cooled down considerably after literally $Billions were spent at the Winter Meetings and subsequent two weeks.  We'll start off by checking in  on the Marlins.  Yes, the Marlins!  And I must say if the Marlins are creating more Hot Stove fuel than your team, you are in a sorry state of fandom!  Said Marlins signed OF Corey Dickerson to a 2 year/$17.5 M contract.  Dickerson is a ferocious lefty hitter when healthy with passable D in LF.  He divided his time between the Pirates and Phillies last year while missing significant time with several relatively minor injuries.  The injuries are probably what held his price down for the Marlins.

Now, here's what MLBTR had to say about what the Marlins are up to this winter(Farhan, are you reading this?):  "Targeting the likes of Aguilar, Villar, Cervelli and Dickerson on short-term contracts does no harm to the Marlins long-term financial outlook and figures to  only help the team remain competitive in 2020.  At the very least, acquisitions like this represent potential trade chips for a club that might still be a couple of years away; still, these moves shouldn't simply be dismissed as such."  I'll let readers apply or not apply this to the Giants situation as they wish.

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The Blue Jays signed RHP Shun Yamaguchi to a 2 year/$6.35 M deal.  Yamaguchi is on the older side at age 32 but pitched 170 innings for the Yomiuri Giants last year with a 2.91 ERA and a 10.00/3.2 K9/BB/9.  Now, the Giants have not had much success with Asian players, but I kind of thought Farhan was more into them than Sabes.  Not sure why I thought that, but Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu might have something to do with it.

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The Reds signed OF Shogo Akiyama to a 3 year contract possibly worth more than $20 M.  The 32 year old OF has hit 20+ HR's in Japan over the past 3 seasons and stolen more than 15 bags in each of the past 5 seasons.  The Reds add him to a crowded OF mix already consisting of Nick Senzel, Jesse Winker, Aristides Aquino and more.

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Lastly, the Twins signed two pitchers:  LHP Rich Hill and RHP Homer Bailey.  The oft injured Hill is 40 years old and likely won't be available until midseason at the earliest.  He is guaranteed $3 M with $9.5 M in available incentives which he can reach in 15 starts and/or 75 IP.  Bailey gets a guarantee of $7 M also with incentives that do not kick in until he gets up to 180 IP, which is a lot for a guy who last cleared that mark in 2013.  His ERA for 2019 was well over 4, but he ground out 13 QS, an underrated stat IMO, which was tied with Jeff Samardzija and Rick Porcello for #51 in MLB.

The Twins are in win now mode, or at least they should be.  They probably should have been more agressive for starting pitching early in the free agent market. On the other hand, these are the types of deals that could help the Giants compete now and give them trade chips for the future, although I am still holding out hope for Alex Wood and even more so, Taijuan Walker!