Marlins make one trade at deadline and keep Pablo Lopez. What’s next for Miami?

Don Mattingly said multiple times over the past month that he was hopeful the Miami Marlins would be buyers at the trade deadline. His team was hovering on the periphery of the National League playoff race. They stayed within striking distance — “hanging in there,” as the manager put it.

And then came the final push that never came.

The Marlins lost eight of their first 12 games following the All-Star Break, a combination of injuries and underperformance playing a factor in their slide. This included going 4-3 on a road trip against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds, two teams below Miami in the standings, before the getting swept by the New York Mets in a three-game series over the weekend.

They fell to a season-worst nine games below .500 and eight-and-a-half games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League’s third and final wild card spot.

After being on “semi-soft ground,” in Mattingly’s words, before the losing run, any slim hope of playoff chances essentially became obsolete. Any chance of being buyers became obsolete.

“You see where you’re stacking up at that moment with the team that you have,” Mattingly said. “That’s kind of a reality shot.”

But the Marlins didn’t necessarily sell, either. In fact, they made relatively minimal movement.

Miami only completed one trade before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline, sending a pair of relief pitchers in Anthony Bass and Zach Pop along with a player to be named later to the Toronto Blue Jays for shortstop prospect Jordan Groshans.

It wasn’t an earth-shattering move by the Marlins especially on a day that saw its share of big trades, highlighted by the Nationals sending Juan Soto and Josh Bell to the San Diego Padres.

But from Marlins general manager Kim Ng’s perspective, the team didn’t necessarily have to make an earth-shattering move on Tuesday. Outside of first baseman Jesus Aguilar, who has a mutual option for the 2023 season, all of the top trade candidates on the Marlins’ roster were under team control.

“We had to be flexible,” Ng said after the deadline. “I think the one thing that I do feel decent about is that if something didn’t make sense, we didn’t make trades just because we felt we had to make trades or just because they presented themselves. If it made sense, we did.”

Acquiring Jordan Groshans

The one trade that did take place resulted in the Marlins acquiring a prospect in Groshans who MLB Pipeline ranks as the No. 82 overall prospect in baseball.

Ng said the Marlins have had their eye on Groshans for “a while now” and described him as a “gap-to-gap hitter.”

Groshans, 22, is a career .283 hitter in the minor-leagues since being drafted with the 12th overall pick in 2018 but is hitting just .250, slugging just .296 and has just a .644 on-base-plus-slugging mark in 67 games in Triple A this season.

“He’s a little bit young for the [Triple A] level,” Ng said, “so I think we have to rely on our scouts and their opinions and what they project for the future.”

That came at the cost of two relievers in Bass and Pop.

Bass, who has a $3 million club option for the 2023 season, has put together his best big-league season this year. He has a 1.41 ERA with 45 strikeouts against 10 walks over 44 2/3 innings in 45 relief appearances. The majority of those have been in the seventh or eighth inning this season.

Overall, Bass has a 2.80 ERA over 106 innings with 35 holds in two seasons with the Marlins after signing with the club ahead of the 2021 season.

“It’s bittersweet,” Bass said. “I’ve really grown to develop some close relationships here in Miami. I’m gonna miss a lot of the guys and the coaching staff a lot. They helped me through the lows last season and trusted me and kept putting me in good situations to have success.”

Pop, 25 and a Brampton, Ontario native, has posted a career 3.98 ERA in 68 relief appearances since joining the Marlins ahead of the 2021 season.

With Rule 5 restrictions, Pop was on the big-league roster all of 2021 outside of one injured list stint. His MLB debut came after undergoing Tommy John surgery nearly two years earlier and jumping straight from Double A to the big leagues.

“When I came off Tommy John, I wasn’t really confident,” Pop said. “’Was I ready? Was I not ready?’ And then as we went through the year and into this year, the confidence grows. You start doing a lot better against other hitters and having success in the big leagues and constant success.”

Pablo Lopez stays

That’s not to say the Marlins didn’t have other potential deals in the work. Several teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, pursued starting pitcher Pablo Lopez until the final minutes of the deadline.

Now, as a reminder, the Marlins were not in a position where they had to trade Lopez. He is under team control through the 2024 season. Ng had previously said the Marlins were “not out there looking to move Pablo,” but could have been swayed if they were given the right offer.

That offer never came.

“Had to be the right deal,” Ng said.

After the deadline passed, Ng spoke with Lopez in the dugout prior to the Marlins’ game against the Cincinnati Reds.

Her message to him?

“I imagine this must have been hard for you, the past week, 10 days,” Ng said. “I’m sorry that was the case, but you’re here and we’re happy to have you.”

What’s next?

So where do the Marlins go from here? They’ll use the final two months to evaluate who they have on their roster and what moves need to be made this offseason.

That hasn’t been the easiest this season considering the slew of injuries the team has dealt with.

A couple players have returned recently — starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo pitched Monday for the first time since mid-May and Anthony Bender returned to the active roster Tuesday after more than two months on the IL and Garrett Cooper could return as early as Wednesday — but several big names remain out.

Second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. (stress fracture in lower back) is out until early September at the earliest. Starting pitcher Max Meyer is undergoing Tommy John surgery and will most likely be out until the 2024 season. Outfielder Jorge Soler (low back spasms) is on the IL for a second time, with Mattingly saying Tuesday this stint is going to be “long-term.” Third baseman Brian Anderson (left shoulder), starting pitcher Edward Cabrera (right elbow tendonitis) and high-leverage relief pitcher Cole Sulser (right lat strain) remain out, too.

“We’ve got some players coming back,” Ng said. “We want to finish the year strong.”