Paltry Payroll Hardly the Whole Story With Marlins

JUPITER, Fla. -- The Marlins took a lot of grief over the winter for their payroll -- or the lack of same -- with the Players' Association forcing the issue after Florida had the lowest payroll in the major leagues for three of the past four seasons.

The payroll has gone up. For starters, Opening Day pitcher Josh Johnson got a four-year, $39-million deal.

But to focus on how much money the Marlins haven't spent is really to miss the point. Look at what they've gotten for the money they are spending. Nobody in baseball gets more wins per dollar spent than Florida.

There's no way that figures to change this year. The Marlins, thanks to a relentlessly productive minor league system, are built to compete in the National League East, because in the end, you don't win with your wallet, you win with your talent.

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"There's no reason why we can't be competitive given what we've got here," Marlins' manager Fredi Gonzalez told FanHouse. "You could drop $100 million on this team and not wind up being five games better."

That's because the Marlins have a solid rotation built around Johnson, 26, and a formidable lineup anchored by defending NL batting champ Hanley Ramirez, also 26, at shortstop.

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Johnson went 15-5 with a 3.23 ERA last year, which was a breakthrough for him after consecutive years in which his impact was minimized by Tommy John-style ligament replacement surgery. Once healthy, he was able to throw 209 innings and combine with last year's Opening Day starter, 27-year-old Ricky Nolasco, to give the club the kind of one-two punch clubs dream about.

Nolasco was a 13-game winner last year, but he had a 5.06 ERA that was way worse than it looked. He was sent down to Triple-A in May. After he returned, he kept himself together and went 11-4 with a 3.82 ERA, winning seven of his final nine decisions.

Nolasco is the next likely candidate to get some of that revenue-sharing money that the Marlins say they are committed to spending on the roster; a big season this year could do it for him.

"With Josh and Ricky out there, that's a pretty good way to start the season and a series," Marlins president Larry Beinfest said. "They give you the feeling that every time they go out there, we feel like we're going to win today."

Starters Chris Volstad and Anibal Sanchez both are young (24 and 26 respectively), and their progression may define the Marlins this season. Volstad won nine games in his second big league season last year and Sanchez had 10 wins as a rookie in 2006 but only has eight wins combined the last three seasons thanks to an assortment of shoulder problems that the Marlins hope he can get past.

Of that, Sanchez is quite confident.

"When I first came to spring training, everybody asked me about my arm," he said. "I said, 'I just want to be healthy.' Now, I just want to be ready every five days -- no matter what. I just want to keep working. I want to do the right things, and be ready every five days.''

The Marlins need that. For them to get to 90-plus wins this year, the third and fourth starters have to produce.

"We've been patient. It's time for them as a group to step up," Beinfest said of the starters behind Johnson and Nolasco. "The league has made some adjustments to them, so now they're going to have to readjust.

"For us to be legitimate playoff contenders, we need to be in the top half (in the NL in cumulative starting pitchers' ERA). They have the ability, they've all been relatively heralded, but talk is cheap. They have to do it. We don't want to see one good start and two bad."

The bullpen is 15 saves lighter with Matt Lindstrom gone, and that's a problem. Leo Nunez had 26 saves last season, but they were paired with a 4.06 ERA that's much too high for a closer on a winning team. Clay Hensley spent the spring fighting to grab a spot at the end of the rotation, but if that doesn't happen he could give the team needed depth behind Nunez and setup men Dan Meyer and Renyel Pinto.

Defensively, the Marlins don't give the pitchers as much help as they can. Dan Uggla doesn't have great range at second base. Jorge Cantu spent last year as a first baseman playing third base, with predictable results.

Cantu is still at third base now, but the club is looking for ways to move him back to first. Among those might be the return of Mike Lowell from the Red Sox to play third, something the club is considering, if mildly.

When Rule 5 draftee Jorge Jimenez, a third baseman, was offered back to the Boston Red Sox Sunday, it all but solidified another season at third for Cantu unless a deal for Lowell comes down. In turn, the move was the Marlins' way of saying they have confidence in at least one of their options at first base, Gaby Sanchez or Logan Morrison.

Sanchez seems to have taken the lead with a .387 batting average through Saturday with one homer and four RBI in nine games. Morrison's average over the same stretch is .194, although he does have a pair of solo homers.

The key to the infield defense is Ramirez. The runner-up in the MVP voting to St. Louis' Albert Pujols in 2009, he committed to improving his defense and made just 10 errors last season after having made 22 the year before. It's going to take that kind of improvement across the board for a team that made 106 errors, third-worst in the league, a year ago.

"There's more defensive talent here than we showed," Gonzalez said, adding that the first base/third base situation would sort itself out, and that when it does, the Marlin pitchers would be the beneficiaries.

There are no such problems with the offense. Three players – Ramirez, Cody Ross and Uggla -- hit 24 or more homers last year. Chris Coghlan became the latest big thing out of the Marlins' farm system last season by hitting .321 and winning Rookie of the Year honors. Ramirez and Cantu both reached triple digits in RBI and Uggla and Ross both knocked in 90.

"What Larry Beinfest and [general manager] Mike Hill have built here is a farm system that keeps feeding good young talent," Gonzalez said. "You see it here every year. We teams come to us looking to trade, they want as many as they can get of our best young guys. We're not afraid to keep them and having them learn on the job.

"So we have guys like Morris and Sanchez at first base and [Cameron] Maybin in the outfield who are ready to step up and chip in this year. We seem to get one or two players a year -- last year it was Coghlan and Volstad -- to come up and contribute.''

Every team should be so lucky -- if they were, every team could keep costs down in the Marlin manner.