Brutal strength of schedule could mean another slow start for the Marlins in 2025

[Kevin Barral]

Last season, a long losing streak in March/April knocked the Marlins out of the playoff race immediately. They could be in danger of going through something similar again.

The Miami Marlins lost their first nine games of the 2024 season, the longest losing streak they've ever had to begin a season in franchise history. They didn't improve much after that, ultimately posting a 62-100 record, which led to turnover across all departments of the organization.

Expectations for the Marlins are lower entering 2025, but they don't want to get embarrassed like that again. Unfortunately, the early portion of their schedule is even tougher on the paper than it was last year.

The Marlins will begin this season by taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates in a four-game set, followed by matchups against each of their National League East division rivals. During the second half of April, they will face the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers. These opponents combined for a .527 winning percentage in 2024.

The Marlins suffered a four-game sweep against the Pirates to open up last season, and that was before the team called up pitching phenom Paul Skenes. He is expected to match up with Sandy Alcantara on Opening Day. Although Pittsburgh finished in last place in the NL Central, but they floated around the .500 mark for much of the season before collapsing after the trade deadline.

The key question for the Pirates is whether their offense will improve after ranking 28th among MLB teams with a 86 wRC+ in 2024. Their lineup looks similar at the moment, featuring Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds, Ke'Bryan Hayes and the legendary Andrew McCutchen. The biggest offseason addition so far has been Spencer Horwitz from the Blue Jays.

Looking around the NL East, the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals have all made efforts to improve. The Marlins posted an 18-34 record within the division last season and things could get even uglier moving forward.

The Phillies swung a trade with the Marlins last month to acquire Jesús Luzardo and Paul McIntosh to build the best rotation in the division and boost their catching depth. The signing of Max Kepler will give Philadelphia another outfielder and just have a deeper bench. Last season, the Marlins went 6-7 against the Phillies.

The Mets won the Juan Soto sweepstakes by giving him a 15-year deal worth $765M. He is a Marlins killer through and through, slashing .304/.438/.541/.979 with 14 home runs and 60 RBI in 89 career games played. Along with Soto, the Mets brought in Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes and Frankie Montas to help the starting rotation. A.J. Minter is better than any of the left-handers they had in their 2024 bullpen. They could be even more dangerous by reuniting with Pete Alonso, who remains available in free agency. Last season, the Marlins went 6-7 against the Mets.

Held back by serious injuries to stars Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider and Austin Riley, the Atlanta Braves fell short of their expectations last season, but still won nine of their 13 games over Miami. This had been a very quiet offseason for them until Thursday's signing of Jurickson Profar to a three-year deal. He will help fill Acuña's shoes early in 2025 while Acuña completes his rehab from a torn ACL.

The Washington Nationals are going to be a fun team to watch. They have made a handful of veteran additions to complement their young core, trading for Nathaniel Lowe and bringing in free agents Michael Soroka, Josh Bell and Jorge López. After years of beating up on the Nationals, it was the other way around for the Marlins in 2024, going 2-11 against them.

The Diamondbacks signed arguably the top free agent pitcher on the market, Corbin Burnes, joining a starting rotation that already had a proven ace in Zac Gallen. The bullpen, led by former Marlins reliever A.J. Puk, will be one of the best in the National League.

Offensively, Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte are an incredible duo atop the lineup. The Diamondbacks lost Christian Walker to the Houston Astros, but brought in former Marlins prospect Josh Naylor via trade to fill the void at first base.

The biggest upgrade for the Reds entering a new season is having Terry Francona as their manager. The future Hall of Famer will look to compete in 2025 with a strong rotation and offense led by Elly De La Cruz, who destroyed Marlins pitchers last year (16-34, 4 HR, 8 RBI, 3 SB in 7 G).

The Seattle Mariners will hope that Julio Rodriguez bounces back from what was a down year by his standards. The Mariners rotation is still a strong suit and their offensive production can't get any worse than it was last season.

The biggest winners of the MLB offseason have been the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Marlins managed to win one game this past season against them and may not be so lucky in 2025. Injuries depleted the Dodgers starting rotation last year, but they have ridiculous depth moving forward after adding Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to the mix. Shohei Ohtani should also spend the majority of the season in their rotation once he completes his Tommy John surgery rehab. The bullpen is in good shape as well with the signing of former Marlin Tanner Scott and a deal reportedly in the works with Kirby Yates.

There are no soft spots in the Dodgers lineup, starting off with the superstar trio of Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. They brought back Teoscar Hernández via free agency and extended Tommy Edman. Newcomers Michael Conforto and Hyeseong Kim could be nice complementary players.

In all likelihood, we won't see another 0-9 start for the Marlins, but it'd be a surprise if they find themselves even close to .500 through the first 31 games. The team's roster and coaching staff are very inexperienced. The National League should be just as deep as it was in 2024 with only Miami and the Colorado Rockies not trying to win. Even during the first month of the season, opponents will recognize that every game matters and play the Marlins with a sense of urgency.

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[Hans Herrera]

And which would have been an "easy" schedule anyway? The only team that, on paper, is not better than Miami is the White Sox—even the Rockies and the A's look much better than the Marlins' lineup.

It's just sad the offseason the Marlins have had so far. Plain sad.

[Hippyboi]

I was thinking exactly the same.

 

[Slacker Mills]

I'm seeing about a 7-24 start for the Marlins.

[MRDHU75]

Im already getting my mind right for another effortless Marlins run. I'm hoping we can see the development of Lopez, Norby, Edwards and Mervis and hope that our rotation somewhat stays afloat.

But yeah it's going to be a LOOOOOOOOOONG year getting hyped for Fish games.

[One Regend]

We're poised for a 110 loss season, strength of the schedule or not. Boy, I can't wait to have the best odds of getting the #1 overall draft pick only to drop 6 spots and pick 7th overall again because MLB hates us.

[BMK3]

8 hours ago, Slacker Mills said:

I'm seeing about a 7-24 start for the Marlins.

 

[BMK3]

After 70 years of watching my game this is possibly the least hopeful of having an enjoyable year as I have ever had.  Even 1963 when the Mets were terrible, I went in hopeful of maybe beating the Houston Colt-45s or if we had a great year even the Cubs and finishing eighth. You need a goal.  I have no goals this year.  Peter Bendix DOES NOT understand this and Jeffery Sherman hired this clown because he also does not get it.  I'll continue to watch because it still is baseball but these guys must go.  A good start is the least of their problems.

[rurrusuno]

Winning 55-60 games this season should be seen as a success for this ballclub. When they spend $0 on free agency, they shouldn't be surprised with the results they see on the field. It's unfortunate that this is the way management has decided to proceed. 

[One Regend]

10 hours ago, rurrusuno said:

Winning 55-60 games this season should be seen as a success for this ballclub. When they spend $0 on free agency, they shouldn't be surprised with the results they see on the field. It's unfortunate that this is the way management has decided to proceed. 

When it comes to spending $0 on Free Agency, I saw this coming long ago. I expected them to sign a couple of inconsequential players that do nothing but clog up roster spots. I wasn't expecting literally $0.

 

[rurrusuno]

4 hours ago, One Regend said:

When it comes to spending $0 on Free Agency, I saw this coming long ago. I expected them to sign a couple of inconsequential players that do nothing but clog up roster spots. I wasn't expecting literally $0.

 

I expected them to sign nobodies as well. It’s going to be the same sequence as last season. We’ll probably sign some cheap outfielder at the last minute just how we signed Tim Anderson right before Spring Training.