Marquis Situation

According to Phil Mackey of ESPN1500, Jason Marquis is no longer eligible for a stay on the berevement list after rejoining the Twins today in Fort Myers. Marquis threw a 54 pitch intersquad game today and both the Twins and Marquis agree he needs one or two more starts before he is ready to rejoin the Twins. So the Twins are in a pickle because they can't DL him because he is not hurt. So the team is left with two choices:

Choice #1 Marquis has only used two option years in his career so he has a minor league option. If that is done he would have to stay a minimum of 10 days in the minors unless there was an injury on the big league team. That sounds like the answer right well this is where it gets tricky, being that Marquis has 5+ years of service time he can decline a demotion and thus choose free agency and that is something Twins won't do. So he would have to agree to go to minors or Twins wouldn't do that.

Choice #2 The Twins can play with 24 instead of 25 until he is ready. It is unclear to me if he would be able to stay in Florida and pitch a intersquad game while on the Twins roster. If anyone knows definatively the answer to that let us know. You don't want to be a man short but the Twins might not have a choice.

So my question is what do you think the Twins SHOULD do and also What do you think WILL happen.

Should: Have him pitch out of the bullpen a couple times. If necessary, go to Swarzak in a spot start.

Will happen: He'll go north and work out of the bullpen.

Another thing about the Marquis situation: With him the 25-man roster is up to 26. So, unless Marquis is optioned, our friend Alex Burnett will start the season in Rochester...

I think the twins should send him to the minors for 10 Days. He can fly in and pitch his starts, and spend the rest of the time with his family. Win-win. I'm sure the only reason Marquis would refuse to accept the option is if he was afraid the Twins wouldn't bring him back at the agreed time. And if he thinks that's likely to happen, why did he sign with the Twins? If he refused the option, would he forfeit his contract?

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Originally Posted by thrylos98

Another thing about the Marquis situation: With him the 25-man roster is up to 26. So, unless Marquis is optioned, our friend Alex Burnett will start the season in Rochester...

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Which is worse, having Burnett available or being one pitcher "short" and having "only" 11 pitchers for a week or so?

I say the former.

Best for the Twins? - send him to AAA until he is ready to start. If it is more than 10 days, that will be OK. The risk is that he will choose free agency. If that happens, let him go.

Best for Marquis? - Tough call. I don't think I would want to add free agency into the mix. Rochester must be closer to home.

Marquis was a free agent just a few months ago when we signed him. What has happended since then would allow him to sign a better deal with another team?

He will go to Rochester make a few starts, be closer to his daughter. Its a good situation for him and a good situation for the Twins. These are people that talk to one another, I'm sure they brought it up to him and I doubt that he will have a problem with it. If he does, then you look at other options.

Lets be real Jason Marquis had a 3.95 era in 20 starts for the Nationals last year. His 3 starts for Arizona were bad, but such a small sample size and if you are looking at what he did this spring all i have to remind people is Denard Span a few years ago went like 2 for spring training and then hit over .300 for the Twins. What I am saying is Jason Marquis is not great, but I will take a 3.95 era out of my 5th starter any day of the week. He is not a bum like some are making him out to be and that is why the Twins are not going to let him be a free agent. They will ask him to go down but if he would rather not which is fine as he is a 100+ win guy for his career and is a big league guy then you put him in bullpen working with Rick Anderson until he is ready and if that means Alex Burnett has to go down and Anthony Swarzak has to make a spot start than so be it.

I'd think Marquis would be willing to go to Rochester, because it is much closer to home. If they send him down by Friday, he could rejoin the team in New York and only miss one start.

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Originally Posted by spideyo

I'd think Marquis would be willing to go to Rochester, because it is much closer to home..

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Originally Posted by minn55441

He will go to Rochester make a few starts, be closer to his daughter. .

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Originally Posted by jorgenswest

Rochester must be closer to home.

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Not really. Rochester is about 6 hrs by car from his Long Island home (that's like MPLS to CHI) and there are only like 2-3 flights a day to Laguardia. There are many more direct flights form MLPS to NYC than from Rochester. So distance is not an issue...

The Twins accomodated Marquis's family situation (and rightfully so.) It's time for him to return the favor and accomodate the Twins wishes, whatever they may be. If he refuses to prepare in Rochester, or New Britian, or Timbuktoo for that matter, he can go find another contract.

^{​If Marqus thinks that on 4/3, he can give up $3M guaranteed & do better, power to him.}

If they had to, when Baker comes back, Hendriks could stay in the rotation with Marquis in the pen until he's ready to start..

Uh...between Newark, La Guardia, and JFK, there are 19 flights from Rochester between 4:15pm today and 3:08pm tomorrow. Plus his daughter isn't at home, she's still at the hospital.

Yup. Marquis can pitch a couple games from the bullpen, then slide into the rotation at the end of the second week. Meanwhile, Swarzak and Hendriks. Even Duensing can spot start. I just don't see this as a big problem. It's the start of the season, so everybody should be reasonably fresh.

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

The Twins accomodated Marquis's family situation (and rightfully so.) It's time for him to return the favor and accomodate the Twins wishes, whatever they may be. If he refuses to prepare in Rochester, or New Britian, or Timbuktoo for that matter, he can go find another contract.

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Full on agree. The world's not a one way street. And I do have empathy for what Marquis is going through...

It's tough to speculate. Common sense would indicate that he go to the Minors. As far as I can tell, I've seen all his public comments on the matter - but, you know, I don't really have any "Access" - and I've not seen anything that suggests he's thinking one way or the other. As the father of a 7 year old girl myself, I'm guessing that he's spending very little time thinking about his baseball situation as of yet. I'm sure he is increasingly so, because it sounds like she's made it through the worst part, which is awesome.

Now that he's starting to think more about it, if he's a reasonable guy he'll likely take the option. Someone up above said it right - why would he choose to leave the Twins right after he signed with them? And after the organization has treated him well through this ordeal? Sure - maybe he's greedy. Maybe he's scanning the mainmedia and the blogs, looking for a team that has a desperate need and he thinks he may get some extra $$. But as I said, I'm guessing he's doing nothing of the kind, he's probably working out to take his mind of his daughter and when he's done working out then he goes back to thinking about her. Some of you are parents. You know how it is. Unless he's an absolute jackhole of a parent, I can't believe he's spending a lot of time scheming about how he can leave the Twins.

LEN blogged that Marquis has agreed to be optioned to AA

http://www.startribune.com/sports/tw...146094665.html

Jason Marquis instantly became the . . . 4th best starter in New Britain.

I would hope he would accept the minor league assignment considering the Twins working with him during this time and quite frankly he does have other more important things on his mind. So he should take some time in less stressful enviornment, maybe allowed some considerations around travel on off days ala Roger Clemens with a much better reason. Now the question of what does Mr. Burnett add to the roster versus a extra bench player? I don't think much, but depends on the bench player. Butera vs. Burnett- I take Burnett. Burnett versus Nishi- Burnett. Burnett vs. Dinkleman- I will take Dinkleman but he looks alot like Plouffe and Hughes in positions he plays. Burnett versus who else? Benson and Dozier need to play everyday, leave them in Rochester for now.