Updated 2026 Marlins Opening Day roster projection as full squad reports

[Ely Sussman]

As of Monday, Miami Marlins spring training is fully underway in Jupiter. I treat this report date as the unofficial end of the Major League Baseball offseason.

President of baseball operations Peter Bendix is famously "always having conversations"—each of his first two seasons on the job, the Marlins have made trades on the literal eve of Opening Day. While we should once again expect to see outside acquisitions over the course of the spring, it's reasonable to assume that the vast majority of candidates to take the field for the Fish on March 27 are already in the organization.

With 39 days to go, here is how I project the Marlins to construct their active roster for the 2026 season opener.

 

Position Players

Left-handed batters: Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee, Graham Pauley, Griffin Conine, Liam Hicks

Right-handed batters: Otto Lopez, Agustín Ramírez, Heriberto Hernández, Connor Norby, Javier Sanoja, Christopher Morel, Esteury Ruiz

Switch-hitters: Xavier Edwards 

With a handful of these Marlins players capable of toggling between infield and outfield positions and few true everyday starters, I felt that categorizing them by handedness would be most appropriate. I have ordered the names based on my rough estimate of how many total plate appearances they'd receive.

Norby's projected role could fluctuate the most over these next five weeks. Maybe he beats out Pauley and reasserts himself as Miami's primary third baseman...or maybe he doesn't crack the active roster at all. Such is the quandary that the Marlins face due to his blend of offensive upside, defensive awkwardness and poor track record against lefty pitchers.

All 13 of these position players have minor league options left except for Lopez and Morel.

 

Just missed: Owen Caissie 

This would understandably be a frustrating outcome for Caissie after nearly two full seasons at the Triple-A level. Sending him down doesn't benefit the club in any meaningful way either unless they intend to keep him down for multiple months, which is what'd take to push back his free agent eligibility by a year.

The opportunity to make his Marlins debut on Opening Day largely hinges on factors outside of his control, such as injuries and Conine's transition to first base.

 

Pitchers

Starting rotation: RHP Sandy Alcantara, RHP Eury Pérez, RHP Max Meyer, LHP Braxton Garrett, RHP Chris Paddack

Bullpen: RHP Pete Fairbanks, RHP Anthony Bender, RHP Tyler Phillips, RHP Calvin Faucher, LHP Cade Gibson, LHP John King, RHP Janson Junk, RHP Michael Petersen 

Junk clearly belongs in the majors—his 3.14 FIP was the best of any Marlins pitcher last season! However, these arms are supposed to complement one another. With Meyer, Garrett and Paddack each having negligible professional experience as relievers, I'm expecting them to begin 2026 in familiar roles, with Junk being temporarily relegated to long man duties.

There is solid talent in this bullpen, but not much standout velocity. That's where Petersen comes in. It would not have been surprising if the Marlins squeezed him off their 40-man roster at some point of the offseason to make room for new acquisitions. The fact that they prioritized him over many other players in that regard and he's entering his age-32 season suggests they'll let him sink or swim in The Show.

 

Just missed: Lake Bachar, Robby Snelling

The Marlins frequently trusted Bachar with inherited baserunners in 2025, but he wasn't proficient at getting out of those jams (allowing 12 of 28 to score). Combining that with his overall slippage in performance during the final quarter of the season, he has moved down the depth chart a bit.

If any of the current projected starters get hurt this spring, I suspect Junk will slide into their spot. If an additional rotation injury occurs, that ought to open the door for Snelling.

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[Jose Herrera]

This is how I think we will begin the season:

pitching

relief

cp-Fairbanks
lrp-Junk
mrp-Gibson
mrp-King
mrp-Phillips
su-Bender
su-Faucher

starting

sp1-Alcantara
sp2-Perez
sp3-Garrett
sp4-Paddack
sp5-Snelling

position players

bench

c/1b-Hicks
dh/of-Morel
inf-Pauley
inf-Sanoja
of-Ruiz

starting

1b-De Los Santos
2b-Edwards
3b-Norby
c-Ramirez
cf-Marsee
dh-Conine
lf-Stowers
rf-Caissie
ss-Lopez

[Slacker Mills]

Conine basically went 0 - Winter League at Dominican Republic. Pitchers are nowhere near MLB quality, but that didn't stop Conine from being about the worst hitter on the entire island.

[1993 fan from start]

Just missed: Owen Caissie I disagree with. for the fact that of the rules. for the marliins to get extar draft pick off him along.  Just miss -De Los Santos if we talking opening day.

 Lake Bachar, will be their also  cause of the 71IP and pitch under 4,00 era. just miss Michael Petersen