Mike Napoli free agency: Miami Marlins could enter the fray

The Miami Marlins may prove surprise entrants in the Mike Napoli sweepstakes, according to Ken Rosenthal:

Source: #Marlins have discussed Napoli internally and could enter mix at right price. Napoli is South Florida native and good friends ...

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 26, 2013

They are not in the arena yet, based on Rosenthal's tweet, but it's a bit surprising to see them even considering him. Miami, after all, is not known for spending big outside of a single offseason leading up to their name change and stadium move. Those big splashes did not work out, and a fire sale followed close behind, with Toronto picking up the biggest contracts and Miami's payroll dropping back to $50 million for 2013.

Of course, you might view 2012 as proof of concept for the Marlins spending, but even if that's the case, Napoli seems an odd target for them to choose to dip their feet in again. There are bigger problems in Miami than what a good-not-great first baseman like Napoli can solve, and unless they're expecting their farm system to give them a huge boost in 2014, Napoli will probably do little more for them over the course of his contract than hurt their draft position by a bit.

Still, there's no telling with the Marlins.

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