7 trade targets from the Miami Marlins for the Colorado Rockies

Miami Marlins reliever Richard Bleier could be a great reliever for the Colorado Rockies

Miami Marlins left-handed reliever Richard Bleier would be a veteran lefty in the Colorado Rockies bullpen that doesn’t have one.

Bleier, who turns 35 in April, has spent parts of six seasons in the majors and he has been a great reliever in that span as he has a career 2.96 ERA (149 ERA+).

In 2021, Bleier appeared in 68 games and he had an ERA of 2.95 (142 ERA+). He had a FIP of 3.01, a WHIP of 0.983, and he walked just 0.9 batters per nine innings while striking out 6.8 per nine innings.

His worst season was in 2019 as he had a 5.37 ERA in 53 games but in every other season, he has had a sub-3.00 ERA with a very low home run rate (0.6 homers per nine innings in his career and six of the 16 career homers he allowed were in 2019), and the aforementioned low walk rate.

Top things off, he is one of the best groundball pitchers in baseball. Since 2019, Bleier has a groundball rate of 63.4 percent. Among relievers with at least 100 innings pitched in that span, that is third-highest.

Bleier is entering the final of arbitration, though, so he would be a rental for only a season but if they don’t get him in a trade, perhaps he could be a free agent target in the near future.