Marlins decline Brandon Kintzler’s option

The Marlins have declined their $4 million option on right-handed reliever Brandon Kintzler, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets. Kintzler will receive a $225,000 buyout, but the Marlins remain interested in bringing him back at a lesser rate than he would have gotten had they exercised his option.

After a solid season with the Cubs in 2019, Kintzler joined the Marlins on a $3.25 million guarantee last winter. Although Miami's bullpen ended up as one of the worst in the league in 2020, Kintzler was a good contributor. In 24 2/3 innings, the 36-year-old managed a stingy 2.22 ERA, a 57.3% ground-ball rate and 12 saves in 14 chances, helping the Marlins to their first playoff berth since 2003.

On the downside, Kintzler recorded one of the game’s worst K/BB ratios (1.27), posting 5.18 K/9 against 4.07 BB/9. In fairness to Kintzler, however, he hasn’t been a high-strikeout pitcher throughout his career, and his ability to keep the ball on the ground has led to a quality 3.31 ERA with several different teams over 448 2/3 major-league innings.