The story behind the most puzzling Marlins trade this summer. And Marlins nuggets

Of the eight trades the Marlins made in the final six days of July, the most puzzling one was the decision to jettison the team’s best outfielder (Bryan De La Cruz) for a perpetually-injured pitching prospect who has thrown only eight innings in two seasons (Jun-Seok Shim) and infielder Garret Forrester, the Pirates’ No. 18 prospect.

Here’s the background on Shim and the Marlins’ thinking behind that trade:

As the July 30 trade deadline approached, Marlins president/baseball operations Peter Bendix had a decision to make. He had already dealt former All-Star outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr., former All-Star pitcher Trevor Rogers, first baseman Josh Bell and coveted closer Tanner Scott.

But what to do with De La Cruz was more complicated and there were differing opinions internally.

De La Cruz had proven to be a decent starting outfielder, serviceable at worst and pretty good at best.

The Marlins acquired him from Houston for relief pitcher Yimi Garcia in 2021 and he became a mainstay in the Marlins lineup — playing 115 games in 2022, 153 games in 2023 and 105 games in 2024 before being dealt.

At the time of the trade, De La Cruz led the Marlins with 51 RBI, to go with 18 homers, and he has performed well enough to be a starter on many teams. His salary next season will be quite reasonable, and he is under club control through 2027. He’s making only $706,000 this season.

So what was the rush to move him?

The short answer: an internal fascination with the 20-year-old Shim and a belief that De La Cruz wasn’t going to be a starter here when the team is ready to contend.

Per MLB.com, Fu Chan Chiang, the Pirates’ Pacific Rim scout, stumbled upon Shim through YouTube videos and the Pirates started scouting him.

Pirates brass immediately concluded that he was special, a source told The Miami Herald. The source said Shim was the best Korean player that the organization had ever scouted, and that the organization was infatuated by the spin on his fastball, which seems to rise up on hitters.

The source said the Pirates were among several teams vying for him out of Korea but there was some thought he would opt to pitch at home in the KBO, where he likely would have been the No. 1 pick.

After members of the Pirates organization went to dinner with him, they became convinced that Shim - who idolized 2023 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole - wanted to be the best, and that meant facing the best. The Pirates signed him in January 2023, giving him $750,000. MLB.com ranked him as MLB’s No. 10 international prospect at the time.

Scouts view Shim as possessing three quality pitches, but the data left the Pirates (and eventually, the Marlins) even more intrigued. Shim’s spin rate was elite, in the range of 3,000 RPM (revolutions per minute). Considering he was already 6-4 and 215 pounds at 19, perhaps this was a unicorn in Korea.

His fastball hit triple digits and usually sits between 94 and 96 mph.

What’s more, Shim “has a really good feel for spinning a breaking ball, with a curve that has true 12-to-6 characteristics, and also is developing a harder slider,” MLB.com said. “He has an emerging changeup that could give him a fourth viable option. He a good feel for the strike zone and scouts liked his clean arm action and athleticism on the mound.”

Durability always has been a concern. He missed time as a high school pitcher in 2021 because of an elbow injury and in 2022 because of a toe injury.

Since signing with Pittsburgh, no one has seen much of him; he has thrown just eight innings over four games, all last season. He allowed three hits (including a home run) and three runs and walked three and struck out 13 during those appearances for Pittsburgh’s rookie league team.

He hasn’t pitched this season because of what the Pirates called a minor shoulder injury resulting from a previous pectoral injury.

But a Marlins source said there is no structural problem with the right (throwing) shoulder, and the Marlins medical testing did not reveal any red flags.

Bendix and the data-driven Marlins front office rely on many points of statistical analysis, some of which are available to the public, including WAR. De La Cruz did not not score favorably in those metrics, and the team concluded he would not be a part of the long-term plan.

De La Cruz has a .302 career on-base percentage and just .282 this season. Based on the Marlins’ evaluation of De La Cruz, they felt he was expendable.

But there was disagreement and discussion internally about whether the Marlins should make this trade. Ultimately, Bendix decided the Marlins should do it.

The Pirates, for their part, wanted to add a power bat at the trade deadline.

Shim is still not healthy and he’s far from a slam dunk to make it to the big leagues.

The list of successful pitchers who left Korea to play in the United States is short.

Hyun-Jin Ryu was a 2019 All-Star and pitched for a decade in the big leagues.

Chan Ho Park pitched 17 seasons in the majors and had the most success of any Korean hurler who played in U.S.

Several relief pitchers have had moderate success, including Byung-hyun Kim and Seung-hwan Oh. Miami also acquired Korean pitcher Woo Suk-Go from the Padres in the Luis Arraez deal but he does not project to be a big leaguer.

San Diego thought he had a chance to be an integral part of their bullpen after leading the KBO in saves in 2022. It has not worked out that way.

Another source said Shim may have more of a back end of the bullpen profile, especially if he can’t stay healthy.

For now, Shim will be stationed at Marlins complex in Jupiter, and the Marlins are hopeful he can have a healthy offseason and pitch in their system in 2025.

As for Forrester, the 2023 third-round pick out of Oregon State has appeared in two games at Class A Jupiter and is hitting .244 (.392) with 12 RBI for three teams this year (Class A or lower).

The Pirates are hoping De La Cruz can help them get back into the postseason for the first time since 2015. But he opened his Pirates career in a 3 for 22 slump.

THIS AND THAT

▪ Marlins president/baseball operations Peter Bendix, after making eight trades in six days, said “a lot of teams were trying to make their team better for this year, and it led to opportunities for us to add maybe more talent than I might have predicted beforehand. I hope in the future that we’re on the other side of that, buying ourselves. We got a lot of really high-quality impact position players.”

▪ Bendix said Agustin Ramirez, acquired from the Yankees in the Jazz Chisholm trade, “in particular is somebody that we really liked. We think he is an impact catcher. Those are very hard to find.”

Ramirez is off to a .273 start (6 for 22) with a homer and four RBI and three walks at Triple A Jacksonville. In 29 Triple A games overall this season, he’s hitting .224 (.328 on base) with four homers and 20 RBI.

The 23-year-old Ramirez, who was ranked by Baseball America as the Yankees’ No. 3 prospect, “might be like a generational player,” Yankees Double-A hitting coach Kevin Martir told The New York Daily News earlier this year. “Not many guys at his age can make contact as much as he does and also hit the ball as hard as he does with that elite bat speed. He’s an outlier for sure.”

▪ Infielder Jared Serna, one of the other two players along with Ramirez who was acquired in the Chisholm trade, has been among the most productive prospects acquired in the flurry of deals. He’s hitting .467 (14 for 30) with a .543 on base average and eight RBI at Double A Pensacola.

The 22-year-old Serna, who was ranked 11th in the Yankees system by Baseball America, “has been playing with 36-year-old, salty guys in the Mexican Pacific Winter League for five years now, and he fits right in with that group,” Yankees Triple-A hitting coach Trevor Amicone told The New York Daily News during spring training.

“Really great at-bats all the time, no matter what level, when he comes across the street [to Himes]. He’s different. I think he’s pretty good [defensively]. Not my area of expertise, but he’s really smooth.”

▪ ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel raised the Marlins to only 19th in his post trade deadline farm system rankings.

“While they’ve moved only 10 slots in these rankings, the Marlins have more than doubled their farm system value with a flurry of trades,” he wrote. “Agustin Ramirez, Dillon Head, Deyvison De Los Santos, Robby Snelling, Jakob Marsee, Adam Mazur, Jared Serna, Connor Norby, Nathan Martorella and Graham Pauley are all among Miami’s top 20 prospects after being acquired via trades during the season.

“Their top two picks in this year’s draft -- PJ Morlando and Carter Johnson -- also join that group. Thomas White has been a notable arrow-up from last year’s draft crop while Dax Fulton should return next spring from elbow surgery with a shot to get back to the mid-rotation look he was giving scouts before going down with the injury.”