What's Next for the Miami Marlins?

Now that the World Series has concluded and the hot stove season has gotten warmer, it is probably a good time to take a look at what the Marlins could have planned over the next few months.

The signing of the Mesa brothers has made a statement to the rest of the league that the Marlins are serious about international prospects and how they will be important to Miami.

Although they missed out on signing 16-year-old pitcher Sandy Gaston, they were able to walk away with 22-year-old Victor Victor Mesa and his brother 17-year-old Victor Mesa Jr. These two prospects will be the start of the Marlins dipping into the international market for years to come.

Since they are both outfielders the question of where they fit right now in the Marlins plans have been brought up.

With the Marlins being the only team with no free agents they have decisions to make about non-tendering their left fielder/first basemen Derek Dietrich. He would be making more money than the Marlins think they should give so there is a possibility that he gets tendered and then traded or just non-tendered and becomes a free agent.

With that being said there are no guaranteed locks for spring training other than at Catcher with J.T. Realmuto, Second base with Starlin Castro, Dan Straily, Jose Urena, and Wei-Yen Chen as a Starting pitchers, Dietrich at First base, which I feel he is better positioned at, and some pieces of the bullpen. That is not to mention that any one of the named or all of them could be traded at some point before the season starts.

When you think about it most of the positions on the Marlins are up for grabs. Martin Prado has to prove he can be healthy to man third base and if he can Brian Anderson, the breakout rookie of the Marlins, would have to man Right Field in order to get him playing time.

Lewis Brinson was not consistent enough to be a lock at Center Field but he is progressing. J.T. Riddle was riddled with injuries and Miguel Rojas was inconsistent so the shortstop position is up for grabs.

If Dietrich is traded then they would need to fill the first base hole which has Garrett Cooper and Peter O'Brien as options.

The promising prospect Austin Dean needs more at bats in the Majors to really gauge if he would be the best option in left field not to mention getting Victor Mesa some at bats in the minors or spring training to see if he could be part of the plan in early if not late 2019.

There are a lot of moving parts here and the fact that the Marlins don't have any free agents complicates things because there are a lot of people for only 9 positions and spots in the rotation and bullpen.

Injuries do happen a lot in this game and there are 25 total roster spots but with many of the Marlins recently acquired prospects moving up in the system rather quickly it will be sooner rather than later that they will be knocking on the door to the Majors.

Stacking the farm system and building it up from the worst in the league was a smart idea by Derek Jeter and the Marlins.

At some point it would probably be a good idea to start looking at which prospects the Marlins could flip to better fill their Major League roster. Jeter himself has stated he wants players who are not only great hitters and defenders but have good speed and are athletic.

That is not to say they should ship out all the prospects they acquired over the past year but merely look at which prospects or even players in the big leagues right now that probably won't have a future with the club and get a good piece or two for them.

There are many months before spring training and then the regular season start up so that is plenty of time for speculation and wonder about what is next for the Miami Marlins.