Will the Marlins' #25 curse ever be broken?

Nate Karzmer · February 5, 2025

You're familiar with "The Curse of the Bambino" and the infamous billy goat, but likely not the twenty-year hex on this number.

Happy 2/5/25 to all.

Out in the bay, the Giants are celebrating "Barry Bonds Day" to honor the greatest player ever to play the game as Bonds rocked the number 25 throughout his otherworldly 15-year tenure in the orange and black.

All the way across the country in Miami, though, the number has been stigmatized. That's a shame considering how well things started.

Al Leiter contributed to the Marlins' first World Series title in 1997 while donning #25. Derrek Lee wore it for most of his tenure with the team, culminating in the 2003 championship. During his lone, memorable season with the Fish, Carlos Delgado crushed 33 homers, drove in 115 and OPS'ed .981 in 2005.

Delgado was shipped to the division rival Mets the following November. Since then, between Miami Gardens and Little Havana, the Marlins have tried over and over and over again (18 different wearers) to put the #25 in capable hands. Instead, it has come to represent disappointment, plenty of failed expectations and downright bad baseball.

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Let's reflect on a few notable names from this list.

Brett Carroll, 2007-2010

Carroll had the honor of being the first to wear the number post-Delgado, and while the homegrown outfielder did manage to stick around in Miami for four years, lackluster numbers were a constant. The righty slashed .205/.284/.325 through 283 at-bats.

Carroll's calling card was in the outfield. In 2009, Carroll led the NL with 15 Total Zone Runs, a stat that tracks "the number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made."

Junichi Tazawa, 2017-2018

A key piece of the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox bullpen, Tazawa came to Miami with the assumption he would do the same for a contending Marlins squad. Tazawa left Boston with a career 3.58 ERA, a number that immediately inflated as a Marlin. Three blown saves in 2017 and a 9.00 ERA in 2018 got Tazawa chased out of town pretty quickly, as his Marlins tenure ended with a 60 ERA+ and zero saves.

Lewis Brinson, 2020-2021

The most infamous name on this list, "Sweet Lew" called an audible to #25 after his first two years in Miami with #9 went sideways. Unfortunately for the ex-top prospect and potential face of the franchise, the issues turned out to be deeper than just a number change.

Brinson did perform better, but when the standard is set at a .189/.238/.294 slash line, that's not too difficult. In 25, Brinson elevated to .226/.264/.374, still facing the same issues as before when it came to poor swing decisions and high strikeout numbers.

In 2021, Brinson gave Marlins fans one of the best hot streaks in recent history with the infamous "Brinsanity" run. From August 2-15, he put on full display what Marlins fans had been begging to see since he was the headliner in the Christian Yelich deal. The South Florida native OPS'd an astounding 1.192 with four long balls in 13 games. The peak of Brinsanity was a series finale in San Diego, where Brinson enjoyed a three-hit, two-homer day (both coming off future Marlin Ryan Weathers).

Christian Bethancourt, 2024

Finally, we arrive at Christian Bethancourt, the first of two players to wear the number a season ago. Bethancourt came to Miami with a solid track record and hopes of making an impact in a department that was in need—the bar was set so low by how much other Marlins catchers had struggled in recent years.

Notoriously, though, Bethancourt got off on the wrong foot. Through 12 games, Bethancourt did not record a single hit in 27 at-bats.

After the slump, Bethancourt was serviceable, slashing .232/.271/.393 while splitting time with Nick Fortes. On July 21, Bethancourt was DFA'd and signed by the Cubs, where, of course, he found his swing again. In 24 games on the Northside, Bethancourt OPS'd .814.

The cursed number has temporarily been taken out of circulation for Marlins players as new bench coach Carson Vitale took it for the 2025 season. It's anyone's guess how long Vitale will stick around or keep #25, but by the time another player tries it on, fans will have waited at least two full decades to see it restored to glory.

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rurrusuno · February 5, 2025

A lot of those names are familiar to me, but they have all contributed to a whole lot of nothing (with the exception of Al Leiter, Derek Lee, and Carlos Delgado of course)

Lewis Brinson has to be one of the biggest disappointments in Marlins history!

One Regend · February 6, 2025

Between 2005 and 2025, I think there are 2 other notable names I would like to mention.

Andrew Heaney, and Jordan Holloway.

I'll give it to you straight. The Marlins gave up on Andrew Heaney way too soon. Now, that isn't to say he would've changed much with us, but we definitely could've used his services in 2016-2017 when we had a fantastic hitting core but pitching left far too much to be desired. I mean, sure, we got Dee Gordon in that trade, but I still felt like we gave up way too much in that trade to justify the returns we got. As it is, his stint with us is a stark reminder of what that core could have been. Now? He seems to have hit his stride since donning the Dodgers uniform.

Jordan Holloway seemed to have found a home as a promising relief pitcher for us, before he got injured. He was a hard-throwing strikeout machine who had command issues, which is typical for a relief pitcher. Now, he seems to have developed the yips, and very likely, his stint with us will likely be his last as a major leaguer.