Saga Complete: Marlins Trade Marte to Athletics

The Marlins finally agreed to a trade for their star center fielder.

The Starling Marte saga is finally complete.

The Marlins have traded the 32-year-old center fielder to the Oakland Athletics for LHP Jesús Luzardo. Craig Mish first reported the deal with the A’s.

The Marlins will pay the rest of Marte’s salary—about $4.5 million—for this season, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Taking on Marte’s salary allowed the Marlins to acquire one of the most promising young arms in all of baseball.

Luzardo struggled mightily in a short sample size in the Majors this year, posting a 6.87 ERA in 38 innings. Luzardo started six games, and appeared in seven more out of the bullpen. The Marlins—who have in a short time created a great track record of developing young pitching—are likely very excited to get their hands on the young lefty. Marlins manager Don Mattingly spoke to that sentiment.

“We know where we’ve been, an organization that’s built around pitching, and to get a guy like that back at the trade deadline with huge potential is obviously a nice deal for us,” Mattingly said.

The 23-year-old was born in Peru and moved to South Florida at a very young age. He went to high school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and was selected in the third round of the 2016 draft by the Washington Nationals. Luzardo was a consensus top-25 prospect in baseball prior to the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He now joins his hometown team and manager Don Mattingly expects him to slot into their major league rotation immediately.

The A’s will get a great player in return in Starling Marte. The 32-year-old center fielder is in the middle of a career year, posting career highs in both wRC+ (140) and OPS (.856). He currently sits second in the National League in stolen bases with 22.

The Yankees were arguably the favorite to trade for Marte earlier this week. The teams couldn’t find common ground, reports Newsday’s Erik Boland, with Miami seeking breakout shortstop prospect Anthony Volpe during the negotiations,

The Marlins made multiple attempts to extend Marte before the All-Star break, but their efforts fell short when the two sides could not agree on the length of a deal. Mattingly said Marte was a huge part of what the Marlins were able to accomplish after they acquired him.

“The acquisition and the timing of it, we felt like he was a big part of pushing forward and giving us that boost to be able to make a playoff run,” Mattingly said. “A guy that our players respect, I think he’s respected throughout the game the way he handles himself, the way he goes about his business. So he’s been a total positive for us an organization.”

The Marlins are not done at the deadline, as Ken Rosenthal is reporting the Marlins will look to use their pitching surplus to upgrade their offense.

This is a developing story and will be updated.