Marlins To Welcome In Buehrle Friday
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – The Miami Marlins returned home Friday from baseball's winter meetings with a brand new pitcher to show off to South Florida.
Friday morning, the Marlins will welcome left-handed starting pitcher Mark Buehrle into the franchise. Buehrle signed a 4-year, $58 million contract with the team this week in Dallas.
Buehrle was one of the first free agent players the Marlins brought in during the off-season.
He's a southpaw who will be able to go deeper in games in the National League than he was in the American League.
The former Chicago White Sox ace has played under current Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen for the last several years, which could have helped sell him on joining the Fish in their new stadium.
Buehrle will be 33-years-old next season and has started at least 30 games in every season since 2001.
For his career, Buehrle has 161 wins, 119 losses, and averages 126 strikeouts per season, while pitching 223 innings per season.
Buehrle's addition to the rotation will only strengthen the Marlins pitching in the tough NL East, but that depends heavily on the status of ace Josh Johnson, who hasn't pitched since last spring.
