MVN: Most Valuable Network

Per MLBlogs.com:

According to league sources, for a little more than a week the Marlins have been shopping catcher Matt Treanor. The team initiated talks with several clubs they felt were in the market for catchers.

Treanor, who underwent surgery on his left hip area after the season, is expected to be ready for Spring Training. Reports have already linked Treanor possibly heading to the Pirates or Tigers.

Entering his second season of arbitration, Treanor could make about $900,000 or $1 million, a price the Marlins don't seem to want to pay. John Baker has the edge to be the starting catcher. However, there is speculation from a league source that the Marlins are positioning themselves to pursue Ivan Rodriguez in free agency. Pudge, of course, was Florida's catcher on the 2003 World Series title team.

-- Joe Frisaro

In 2008, Pudge, 37, hit 7 homers, drove in 35 runs and scored 44 runs in 398 ABs. John Baker, 27, nearly matched those totals, homering five times, driving in 32 runs and scoring 32 times. He had 198 ABs, nearly 200 less than Rodriguez. The only thing Rodriguez does better than Baker is hit lefties which would make him a great platoon partner candidate. But, according to RotoWorld, Pudge is expected to make around at least $6 million next year. That would make him the highest paid Marlin and obviously the every day starter behind the plate. There are plenty of other veteran free agent lefty mashing catchers sitting on free agency that would come at a much lighter price. Hopefully the Marlins choose to stay committed to Baker's future, bring in one of those Toby Hall types instead and spend that $6 million elsewhere.

The Marlins made another trade on Wednesday. Don't worry, this one makes sense. According to Joe Frisaro, Florida has dealt Kevin Gregg to the Chicago Cubs for right handed pitcher Jose Ceda.Ceda is a 21-year-old reliever who spent the whole year in AA last year where he compiled a 2.08 ERA. At 6'4", 275, this kid looks like Ryan Howard on the mound. He features a fastball that occasionally hits triple digits but usually comes over the plate anywhere between 94-97 and mixes in a nice moving slider mid 80's slider. Coming in to this year, Baseball Prospectus ranked him as the number three pitching prospect in the Cubs' system. The only downside I see to this kid is that he's still another 2-3 years away from the show. While it would have been nice to have gotten something a little more big league ready, for Gregg, who was less... Read more

Right about now, I was supposed to be describing how Scott Olsen was traded to the Texas Rangers for one of their young catching cornerstones, Max Ramirez, Taylor Teagarden or Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Instead, I'm going to have to describe how Olsen and Josh Willingham were traded to the Washington Nationals for Emilio Bonifacio, P.J. Bean and Jake Smolinski. And I don't know how I'm going to do it.2008 was Olsen's best year talent wise. With a good bullpen behind him, he could have won 8-10 games. After having trouble staying in control of his life let alone his fastball in 2007, the improvement he showed in less than a year was incredible. Realistically, the 25-year-old himself could have garnered this package.Instead, the Nationals get the Marlins to throw in Willingham, who, despite his nagging back injury, continued to be a poor man's Adam Dunn in terms of OBP and a... Read more

The Marlins didn't wait long to put their offseason plan in motion. Not even twenty-four hours after the Phillies won the world series, Florida traded first baseman Mike Jacobs to the Kansas City Royals for relief pitcher Leo Nunez.With a surplus of power and corner infielders, with his salary expected to triple and with over a dozen more arbitration eligible players to weed out in the coming months, Jacobs' dealing was imminent. In Kansas City, he'll re-join Miguel Olivo. In 2006, the two of them combined to strike out 208 times.I like the look of this Nunez kid. He's a very solid reliever who has an excellent track record. In the past two seasons, he had a 3.42 ERA, a 63/25 K/BB and a WHIP near 1.2. He mixes a developing changeup with nasty high 90s heat. Oh, did I mention he's 24 years old? Although he won't take it... Read more

Last season, the Marlins went to arbitration with eight different players and reached agreements with all of them. This year, seventeen players are up for arbitration. Early projections show that most of them are expected to make seven digits. Needless to say, some tough decisions will need to be made. The Marlins have already announced that Ricky Nolasco, Josh Johnson and Jorge Cantu will be back next season and that Kevin Gregg will not be. But what about the rest? Do they stay or do they go? 2B Dan Uggla - $4,400,000 - STAY Lost in all the 120+ home run hitting infield record that Uggla contributed to in 2008 was the fact that he struck out an epic 171 times, a career high. Still, he got on base at a .360 clip, third best in all of baseball. But one thing Uggla couldn't put out of doubt was the... Read more

Stephen King couldn't have written a better beginning to the Brewers' postseason or a better ending to the Mets' regular season. After former long time Beermaker Wes Helms hit an 8th inning pinch hit solo homer in his only AB of the game to put the Marlins ahead, former Mets farmhand Matt Lindstrom turned New York away in the 9th. With the 4-2 win, Florida closed the gates of Shea Stadium, this time for good. Even when he was at his best this year, Scott Olsen found wins hard to come by. That continued to be the theme on Sunday. The 24-year-old lefty went six innings, giving up just three hits and striking out four. However, one of those hits was a game tying two run homer in the 6th. The Carlos Beltran shot which came on one of Olsen's few mistakes on the afternoon took him out of line... Read more

The Marlins were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday as they lost their first game in the new Nationals Park but on Wednesday, with a 9-4 win, they locked up their first winning season since 2005. In his final outing of the season, Josh Johnson bounced back nicely from a 5 inning, 5 run outing against the Phillies by putting up a line nearly identical to the one he had the last time he faced the Nationals. The righty got through 6 innings on less than 100 pitches, allowing just two runs. Johnson had his lowest strikeout total of the year as he struck out just one but on the season, he K'd nearly a batter per inning. His 77 strikeouts are fifth most amongst Marlins pitchers. He tossed just 87 innings. Priority number one this offseason stumbled behind Johnson, giving up runs for a fourth consecutive game. However,... Read more

With a win on Monday afternoon, the Marlins could have gotten to within three games of the wild card lead heading in to Nationals Park, a place where they have won six games in a row for a three game series while the Mets, riding a three game losing streak welcome the NL Central champion Cubs to Shea Stadium. With a sweep in Washington, the Marlins could have been in position to make the postseason before they headed to Flushing Meadows themselves. They lost to the Reds, 7-5 and stayed at five games back. Three guesses who's fault it was. Ricky Nolasco had nothing to do with it. He left in the 7th, in line for what would have and probably should have been his third straight win. The offense did it's part as well, providing him with a four run lead by plating runs in each of the first... Read more

Hanley Ramirez was out of the lineup with a strained shoulder on Thursday night (he's fine and should be back on Friday) but if you had your TV muted, you probably didn't know. Getting his first start as a Marlin and hitting lead off in place of the injured shortstop, Cameron Maybin banged out four hits, walked once and scored two runs, leading the Fish to their eighth straight win, a 6-1 decision over Houston. Maybin began his night by taking the third pitch he saw into center field. After that, it just kept getting better. After getting ahead in the count early and earning a walk in his second AB in the 2nd inning, Maybin went from first to third on a sharply hit John Baker single. The 21-year-old teamed up with Baker, who is beginning to establish himself nicely in the two hole, again in the 4th, this... Read more

Ricky Nolasco tossed his tenth straight quality start and Hanley Ramirez homered twice on Wednesday night at Dolphin Stadium as the Marlins blasted the Astros, 14-3 to collect their seventh straight victory, matching a season high. I had to do a double take to make sure that was really Nolasco, who coming in to this game, threw an average of 18.5 pitches per 1st inning walking off the mound after only having to throw 5 in the opening frame. All of them were strikes. He backed it up with a thirteen pitch 2nd. His longest inning lasted twenty-three pitches. He threw seven of them, collected his fifteenth win. At this point, Nolasco not winning the Comeback Player of the Year Award would be criminal. For his efforts in the opening frame, Nolasco was rewarded immediately with four runs of support. Ramirez led the game off with his thirty-first homer, bringing his... Read more

Chris Volstad was rolling along in his last start but his day came to a screeching halt when he was hit in the shin by a Carlos Ruiz line drive and he was forced to leave the game. On Tuesday night, the 21-year-old took his frustration out on the Houston Astros, going 8 shutout innings on just 98 pitches, giving up just one earned run, getting his first win since August 12 and getting the Marlins back into wild card talks. The only thing that came to a screeching halt in this one was Roy Oswalt's scoreless innings streak. Coming into tonight, the Oswalt had been one of the very few good things that had happened to the city of Houston in the past three weeks as he had thrown 37 1/3 straight near perfect frames. Florida ended that streak nearly as soon as possible. After John Baker put Hanley... Read more