The Miami Marlins have been active over the past few days, signing closer Heath Bell to a contract and making noises about heating up their pursuit of Jose Reyes, but when it comes to their 2012 team, the most important news story of all came out Thursday afternoon
Josh Johnson is the ace of the Marlins' pitching staff, and when he's healthy, he's one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. In 2011, he jumped out to a blistering start to the season -- 1.64 ERA, 2.64 FIP through 60 innings -- before being sidelined for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. His injury kept causing him problems every time he tried to come back, but he's been pain free for the past few months and is hoping to be completely healthy for the start of the 2012 season.
If the Marlins want to compete next season, they need Johnson to be healthy and give them 180-200 innings. So while all the free agent signings and rumors are fun, this is one of the stories Marlins fans should be most concerned about.
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