Possible Marlins position changes and making the case to sign Emilio Pagán

[Ely Sussman]

All Fish On First podcasts are brought to you by Jet Ski Rentals of South Florida—offering Miami’s best jet ski and boat adventures. With six jet ski locations and over 120 boats, there’s something for every style and every budget. With Christmas and New Year’s around the corner, boats fill up fast—everyone wants that view of the fireworks from the water.

They’re reservation-based only. To inquire, call 305-990-2192, or check them out online at SFJetskiRentals.com.

In his first solo podcast of the 2025-26 Miami Marlins offseason, Ely Sussman begins by analyzing Clayton McCullough's comments about Connor Norby preparing to play the outfield and Griffin Conine learning first base. Then, he reacts to Ryan Helsley and Devin Williams signing free agent contracts, and makes the case that Emilio Pagán may be the best option left on the reliever market for the Marlins.

You can find The Offishial Show on the Fish On First YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your pods. Our audio programming also includes Fish On First LIVE, Fish Unfiltered, Swimming Upstream and more.

 

Pagán served as primary closer for the Cincinnati Reds in 2025. He struck out 30.0% of all batters faced across 68 ⅔ innings pitched and finished the season on a particularly high note with 10 consecutive scoreless appearances. About to enter his age-35 season, Pagán has had only one extended injured list stint during his professional career—a right lat strain in 2024.

Thanks to a splitter that has progressively spun less and added vertical break, Pagán dominated left-handed batters last season. The pitch accrued plus-six run value, per Baseball Savant, generating an ideal mix of whiffs and soft contact.

 

Swim Around the Diamond

At the end of every episode of The Offishial Show, I will be highlighting and recommending Marlins-related content that was posted recently outside of FOF. Here's what I picked this time:

• Aram Leighton's top 15 Marlins prospects (Just Baseball) 
• 2026 ZiPS Projections: Miami Marlins (FanGraphs)
• WBC-style rosters comprised of current/former Marlins players (Son Los Marlins)
• Inside Major League Baseball's fan council featuring SuperSub Ryan Schlesinger (The Athletic)

Follow Ely (@RealEly) and Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) on Twitter. Join the Marlins Discord server! Complete Miami Marlins coverage here at FishOnFirst.com.

View full article

[Hippyboi]

Pagan doesn't move the needle for me

[Hans Herrera]

All these positional changes send one clear message: The ownership will not spend any money in Free Agency. 
 

Shocking.

[1993 fan from start]

I know all long Marlins are going need one or two underrated Relivers. 

[Guest]

There's no need for them to spend money just for the sake of looking like they're really trying to spend that Luxury Tax money. Instead of spending a lot on a "big name" proven closer the Fish should spend a little less on a couple of middle relief types and keep closing with Ronny Henriquez and Bender if he's healthy. No more Heath Bell type moves, please.

[Guest]

As for moving Griffin Conine to 1st base and Norby to the OF, I think that's a STUPID idea, in other words definitely a Clayton McMoron idea. First of all, we had a very good left hitting 1st baseman in Troy Johnston but these buttholes decided to keep WAGABUM instead. Now they want to screw up the defense even more by asking TWO GUYS to learn new positions which will mean a lot of ERRORS until they figure it out, if they figure it out at all. Marlins love doing this crap, though, making guys play positions they never played before; they have done it FOR YEARS and it's NOT GOOD. Remember Logan Morrison in the OF? How about Garret Jones in the OF? I could go on...

[One Regend]

I get moving someone to 1B, that's normal. But moving someone to the OF? Come on... even an inexperienced LF is going to be exploited by the opposing team's baserunners. Not a great look for a team dependent on its pitching.

I say this as someone who suggested moving Jorge Alfaro to the OF. I regretted uttering those words back then, and I learned my lesson. Don't make the same mistake twice.

[JustMarlins]

Pagan just re-upped with the Reds.

[Hans Herrera]

4 hours ago, JustMarlins said:

Pagan just re-upped with the Reds.

When FOF writes an article about a potential free agent target for the Marlins, doubles possibility of signing with other team within the same week 😂😅

Helsley, Williams, and now Pagán.

[One Regend]

Maybe FOF should just... like, don't bother posting articles about Free Agents the Marlins might actually want.

[Guest]

22 hours ago, One Regend said:

I get moving someone to 1B, that's normal. But moving someone to the OF? Come on... even an inexperienced LF is going to be exploited by the opposing team's baserunners. Not a great look for a team dependent on its pitching.

I say this as someone who suggested moving Jorge Alfaro to the OF. I regretted uttering those words back then, and I learned my lesson. Don't make the same mistake twice.

For some reason, (probably because they're too cheap to try to fill needs through free agency) the Marlins have done this for many years (see my post above). But making two such changes is really asking for trouble as it will weaken the defense considerably to have two positions where guys are learning on the fly. Teams like the Fish that are not going to OUT-SLUG opponents cannot afford to do two things: make errors and walk people. With two positions being filled by guys who are just learning, errors are DEFINITELY going to happen. But let's not forget that BentDix and Manager McMoron are not expecting to compete anytime soon. As soon as they got to .500 last year McMoron pulled the plug on the team and started giving them a large dose of Josh Simpson and Zuber, and soon they were 10 games under again. Therefore they might be willing to put up with a lot of errors this year as guys learn new positions. McMoron and BentDix are under no pressure to win here in Miami and they know it. They can have fire sales and rebuilds every 4 or 5 years and nobody will REALLY care. Fish Stripes and butt kissing clowns like Craig Mish won't complain as long as they continue to get press passes and are considered "insiders" and the sports media in Miami doesn't give a damn about baseball. This is a Dolphins town, followed by the Hurricanes, then by The Heat, Panthers, and maybe that soccer team. Baseball is dead last.

[Robert Hanson]

This didn’t age well. Looks like Pagan back to the Reds.

[Ely Sussman]

On 12/3/2025 at 2:38 PM, One Regend said:

I get moving someone to 1B, that's normal. But moving someone to the OF? Come on... even an inexperienced LF is going to be exploited by the opposing team's baserunners. Not a great look for a team dependent on its pitching.

I'm guilty of overlooking it myself, but Norby did play a decent amount of OF before getting traded over. As I wrote in a separate article today, he honestly wasn't bad at it in the past and the shortcomings he did have seem more fixable than the ones he has as a third baseman.

[One Regend]

On 12/5/2025 at 9:32 AM, Ely Sussman said:

I'm guilty of overlooking it myself, but Norby did play a decent amount of OF before getting traded over. As I wrote in a separate article today, he honestly wasn't bad at it in the past and the shortcomings he did have seem more fixable than the ones he has as a third baseman.

What that tells me is, he doesn't have a defensive home. Players like these need their bat to step it up, and Norby's bat... has not done that thus far.