Marlins may be first of the Jeremy Hellickson suitors

As we all know, the Marlins have come to town for four nights of Giancarlo Stanton sending souvenirs to fans at 120 m.p.h. But what was not known initially was that Miami may have some extra motives on this Philadelphia road trip; motives that have them particularly interested in Wednesday night’s contest.

My god, people kept saying Hellickson still had some trade value, and it seems ‘ol Hellboy is still tantalizing outsiders. I don’t know what they like about him more; that 4.03 ERA in 19 starts, his one-year, $7 million deal, his seven consecutive starts of six innings or more (one was for seven!), or the fact that he’s only given up seven home runs in that span - that’s only one per game!

Pound out those facetious paragraphs all you want, Hellickson is just adequate enough to be of use to somebody looking to inject some new blood into their rotation after looking at their roster, and then the standings, and then shrugging and saying, “Well, I guess we’re contending, apparently.” He’s not the ace that puts you over the edge, but he’s the part of the machine that keeps the lights on. Don’t make me use a Joe Blanton comparison or something.

A look at where Hellickson would slot into the Miami rotation if things really get out of control will be available to us for most of this week, starting tonight with Jose Fernandez, who is terrific. The rest of the starts will be made by Wei-Yin Chen (Who Fish Stripes said was contending for Worst Starting Pitching Performer of the First Half, Tom Koehler (Who also contended for the same honor), and then just an open slot for god knows who, because the Marlins probably forgot it was a four-game set.

So, yeah; the Marlins could use some starting pitching help. Who could the Phillies get in return? Well, get excited folks, because the Marlins’ minor league teams “aren’t totally hopeless,” according to one expert who ranked them 29th out of 30. MiLB.com tried to be even more charitable.

The boastful part of the Marlins farm comes on the pitching side, and even that ranked 27th in our pitching system rankings.

Hey, it’s cool. The Phillies are under no pressure to trade anyone unless an incredibly erotic trade offer is made to them. Matt Klentak made it clear last year that he wasn’t going to trade Ken Giles just because of the way Twitter was trending, and then when he did, he did it because the offer was too solid to turn down. Just think what he can do with a starting pitcher!