Marlins Acquire Veteran Slugging First Baseman Carlos Lee From Astros!
Looking for a spark and a much needed impact bat for the second half of the season the Miami Marlins have acquired first baseman Carlos Lee and cash considerations via trade from the Houston Astros for prospects Matt Dominguez and Rob Rasmussen.
Current Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen knows Lee from the one year he played under him with the Chicago White Sox and hopes that he can bring his typical brand of slugging on the field for the Marlins, as well as leadership off of it. Guillen even liked the move having this to say.
“It’s a huge move. I think the front office is showing people how much we want to win. They show how much we care about winning this year. They showed the players they are willing to do anything to help this ball club.”
The 36-year-old Lee spent the last five-plus seasons with the Astros and is hitting .287 with five home runs and 29 RBIs this year. For his career he has 354 homers. The move is one the Marlins really needed with current first baseman Gaby Sanchez hitting only .202 with three homers and 17 RBIs after being the only Marlins player to make the All-Star team last year. The Marlins themselves are near the bottom three or four in most major offensive categories as well which is why they needed to make this move.
Marlins general manager Michael Hill said he thinks Lee “will fit nicely in the middle of their lineup. He’s still a dangerous hitter. A proven run producer. We’re expecting him to come in and do what he’s done throughout his career.”
Even after a game where he had a couple of big hits the day before it wasn’t enough for Sanchez and manager Ozzie Guillen gave a harsh assessment of Sanchez’s play having this to say.
“How do you explain it? It’s not easy. We win the game like that, and all of a sudden somebody goes down. It’s not easy, but that’s our job. I don’t think he should be blaming anybody. He should blame himself. We gave Gaby a lot of opportunities. The reason they made this move is obvious. We were not having that much production from him.”
Lee’s arrival is also perfect timing with All-Star right fielder Giancarlo Stanton currently injured and possibly out for a little bit of time. Though his numbers are down, Lee should be a good addition to the Marlins too and told MLB.com that he was excited to step into a lineup where he will get a lot more opportunities to hit well.
Guillen said despite his struggles so far this year he believes Lee will be able to hit great if players like Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez get on base in front of him.
“He’s a great RBI man,” Guillen said. “That’s what we need. We need a pretty solid guy in the middle of the lineup to take the heat away from the guys. That’s the biggest reason we got him. If Reyes and those guys get on base, he will bring those guys in. He knows how to hit in RBI situations.”
When Stanton gets healthy and if you have him and Lee in the middle of the lineup that should make for one dangerous lineup for a Marlins team that is looking to get back into the NL East race. So if Lee hits and the rest of the lineup gets going this could be a really good move that the Marlins look back on whether it helped or didn’t help them get in the playoffs later on.
Some info from The Associated Press was used in this article.
