Layers of Doom: What Can Sherman Learn from Loria’s Final Failed Marlins Build?

[Miller Lepree]

The Marlins might have been a decent team last year. They might have also been mostly bad and extremely lucky. Whatever your interpretation of the 2025 on field results, there are legitimate reasons for optimism heading into next season.

But fans are greedy. They want to project years in advance; to sign every breakout rookie to a long-term extension, throw in Pete Alonso and a handful of relievers, and maybe bring back the old uniforms.

 I’m not going to make any predictions about what Bruce Sherman and Peter Bendix have cooking. Rather let’s look to the past and examine where a Marlins core that never reached its potential went wrong.

It’s December 2014—and the Fish are coming off an encouragingly mediocre 77-win campaign. This relative success was owed largely to the emergence of their stellar outfield trio, led by the oft-injured but electric, still-athletic Giancarlo Stanton.

Young bloods Marcell Ozuna (power bat, cannon arm) and Christian Yelich (contact skills, outfield grace, impeccable eye) made it the best unit in the league. The three of them lit up the now defunct homerun sculpture a combined 70 times.

There was also Casey “hits” McGehee.

The team weathered the loss of their supremely gifted, impossibly young ace, the late Jose Fernandez, in May to Tommy John and found a 15-game improvement over their 100-loss campaign in 2013.

The infield was a mess. The rotation was thin. But they could hit! And they were, of course, cheap. The team had a 45-million-dollar payroll. And for the most part, nobody cared about them.

The 2012 disaster and ensuring fire-sale still lingered on the palates of the fan base. The most hated ownership group in the history of sports needed to make a statement if fans were going to buy into this promising young club. We’re talking about Marlins fans, who knew better than to get attached to young, talented players. So, Jeffrey Loria and David Samson did something that read more like an Onion headline--signed Stanton to the richest contract in North American sports history.

They acquired Michael Morse to play first, Dee Gordon to play second, and brought in Mat Latos and Dan Haren to hold down a couple of rotation spots while Jose finished his rehab.

As a bonus, they brought in Ichiro as a fourth outfielder, hoping he would hit the 3,000-hit mark in a Marlins uniform. Maybe the team would be good in 2015. But beyond that, fans started to dream that it could be sustainable. They had 300 million reasons to believe.

Of course, the rest is history. Stanton played 74 games that year. Jose came back and showed some signs of humanity in his 11 games pitched. Morse was a bust. Ichiro racked up 400 ABS and was worth -1.1 BWAR. Dan Haren and Dee Gordon were good. But it wasn’t enough.  

The next off-season the team did not do anything to improve the club. Well, they did sign Wei-Yin-Chen. We don’t need to discuss how that went.

The club went up in smoke after the horrific death of Jose Fernandez. But the real failings happened well before that. I’d argue that the critical junction was the inaction of the 2015/16 off season—where the front office stood pat and banked on positive regression and in-house development.

Stanton’s contract turned out to be heavily back loaded. Loria and Samson laughed their way to the bank knowing they would never have to foot the bill. The farm talent dried up, and the on- field product plateaued at mediocrity.

Why am I digging up old bones? Re-traumatizing myself for fun?

I think Bruce Sherman and Peter Bendix find themselves at a similar junction to those 2014 Marlins. They find themselves at the incline of the bell curve where the rebuild approaches a competitive window. Where fans will itch for deliverance on the years of promises that the club is doing everything it can to improve.

That they will spend money when it makes sense to do so.

For what it’s worth, their approach seems much more player development oriented. For all the talk of investment in those resources, it was refreshing to see some minor league players show improvement under their tutelage, rather than flame out like most of them did during the Jeter regime. In a small sample, Bendix & co. have showed competence at identifying players of value and helping them tap into what makes them valuable.

But none of that will matter if they continue to spend less on payroll than they bring in from competitive balance revenue. Some of these guys will need to get paid. Some of them will flame out. Fans might be ready to invest in this team, but I’d caution them to wait and see if ownership shares their optimism before doing so much as buying a jersey.

I’m sure I’ve still got my Miguel Cabrera number 24 in a closet somewhere. How’d that turn out?

[Ely Sussman]

On 11/18/2025 at 9:23 PM, Miller Lepree said:

Some of these guys will need to get paid. Some of them will flame out.

This particular subject has been top of mind for me since last offseason. There is so much potential surplus value the Marlins can create with early career extensions, with Yelich being a prime example.

Leaning entirely on player development to eventually replace every productive veteran is not sufficient. Bendix will need to eventually make long-term bets on certain players. If he doesn't get the resources from ownership to buy out free agent years for rising stars, they'll inevitably fall short of being consistently competitive.

[Robert Hanson]

With no position player arbitration eligible in 2026, no need to offer any contract extension. As was mentioned, let’s see who can continue to produce & let’s see who has the sophomore slump or flames out. 
   As far as pitching goes, if the price is right, IMO the Marlins should look at moving Cabrera. Was all in favor of holding onto him at the deadline. With his September elbow sprain and the fact that he’s never had T.J. surgery, just have a feeling that it’s just a matter of time. Both Snelling & Thomas White could be ready to make their MLB debut sooner, rather than later.

   IMO, if the Marlins sign a first baseman or a reliever (really need a left hander), it won’t be until mid February at the earliest, when bargain shopping season starts.
   In 2024, the Marlins signed Tim Anderson on February 24th. In 2025, the Marlins signed Cal Quantrill on February 12th.