Marlins to acquire Andrew Cashner, Colin Rea from Padres

Andrew Cashner is headed to Miami and will reunite with Fernando Rodney. (AP)

 

On Friday morning, a month after acquiring back-end reliever Fernando Rodney from the San Diego Padres, the Miami Marlins returned to the San Diego Padres to add two starting pitchers — Andrew Cashner and Colin Rea — at a cost of two more prospects, along with right-handers Jarred Cosart and Carter Capps. Capps is recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Marlins also received right-handed reliever Tayron Guerrero.

The Marlins are in a scrap against the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets in the NL East, against the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers for the wild card, and against themselves in their city.

Second in the division, tied for second in the wild card, and last in the league in attendance, the Marlins endeavor to make something of these next 60 games, for the sake of their first postseason appearance since 2003, perhaps for the sake of their standing in their own community.

At a time when the Marlins required pitching reinforcements and the Padres sought to gather momentum for future seasons, the two have become fast friends.

The Padres, in just under two months, have jumped a pitching-starved market by trading James Shields to the Chicago White Sox, Drew Pomeranz to the Boston Red Sox, and Cashner and Rea to the Marlins. All four were in their starting rotation when the season began. While Padres general manager A.J. Preller’s first impression in San Diego was a momentary — and offseason — hit, the regular seasons have seen more of the same for the downtrodden franchise, and so the strategy becomes a longer-term project.

Meanwhile, the Marlins have today to consider, a unique experience for a franchise whose whims have led to frequent managerial changes, personnel changes and new ways to alienate a fan base that could hardly keep up, and evidently had little interest in trying.

Friday’s trade layered their starting rotation with the mercurial Cashner, who was 4-7 with a 4.76 ERA for the Padres, and 10-23 with a 4.47 ERA in 47 starts since the start of 2015, along with Rea, the 25-year-old right-hander whose first full season has netted a 5-5 record and 4.98 ERA. They would join Jose Fernandez (12-5, 2.79 ERA), Adam Conley (7-5, 3.38) and Tom Koehler (8-8, 4.18) on the five-man staff.

The Marlins clearly hope the new-look rotation, and Dee Gordon’s return from a PED suspension, and a second-half surge from Giancarlo Stanton, will continue their relevancy and perhaps become a challenge for the Nationals. The short-term schedule is a challenge. The Cardinals are in Miami for three more games and then the Marlins go to Wrigley Field for three against the Chicago Cubs. The season concludes with nine games of 13 against the Nationals and Mets. Perhaps, by then, their own wary city will have taken notice.