Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Marlins have “initiated” talks toward a contract extension with second baseman Dan Uggla.
Sadly, it doesn’t mean much. Jackson says that the Fish are only willing to fork over about $30 million on a three-year pact, which is far less than what Uggla and his agent are seeking in both years and total cash.
The 30-year-old second baseman hit a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Saturday’s 5-4 extra-innings victory over the Cardinals. In fact, he’s hit at least 30 home runs in each of the last three seasons and is cruising right toward that number this year with 25 dingers through 403 at-bats.
While not great, Uggla isn’t as awful defensively as some people think and he consistently posts strong power numbers at a position where such things are scarce. He has one more year of salary arbitration, but then it sounds like he might need to head elsewhere. There will be no shortage of interest if he does reach the free agent market.
