Once again, first base could be Marlins' biggest weakness

[Ely Sussman]

JUPITER — Something needed to change. Even with a strong finish from platoon partners Troy Johnston and Eric Wagaman, the Miami Marlins did not get enough production from their first basemen in 2025. Relative to the rest of Major League Baseball, that position provided below-average plate discipline, below-average defense, solid contact but minimal power, culminating in sub-replacement-level production overall.

By the end of the calendar year, Johnston was a Colorado Rockie and Wagaman was a Minnesota Twin. Matt Mervis, who opened the season as Miami's primary first baseman, is now a member of the Washington Nationals.

Addition by subtraction, right?

Maybe not. The Marlins placed dead last among all MLB teams at first base in the 2026 FanGraphs positional power rankings. Based on a blend of ZiPS and Steamer projections and playing time estimates for individual players at the position, no club has a worse outlook than the Fish.

That tracks with what transpired during spring training.

The only hitter to sign a major league free agent contract with the Marlins this past offseason, Christopher Morel is familiar with many different positions. He has played 97 MLB regular season games at third base, 88 in left field, 74 at second base, 69 in center field, 15 at shortstop, 10 in right field...and none at first base. After struggling to various extents at each of those spots, he's moving even further down the defensive spectrum.

Morel's Grapefruit League performance was uninspiring, to put it gently. In 13 games at first base, he was charged with three errors, and that does not fully convey how much of a liability his glove is. He isn't showing much of a knack for adjusting to off-target throws, and at 6'0", his overall "catch radius" is smaller than the average first baseman.

 

During Friday's game at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, there was a lapse in communication that resulted in a preventable run scoring. With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Washington Nationals catcher Drew Millas ripped a single to right field. Brady House attempted to score from second on the play. Owen Caissie made a strong, accurate throw home that, barring a missed tag or extraordinary slide, would've nabbed House for the final out of the inning. Unfortunately, Morel cut the ball off.

"It's actually a good thing that it happened because you can just use it," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said postgame. "For the next time, be thinking through these things to aid in your decision-making."

The following animation of the play was generated by MLB using player tracking data:

These sort of miscues are tolerable if Morel reverts to being the impactful hitter he used to be. In 2023, through the end of July, the former Chicago Cub owned a Kyle Stowers-esque .281/.344/.541 slash line. However, in 301 games since then, he is slashing .197/.284/.371—that's even worse than his Marlins first base predecessors. He recorded only one extra-base hit in 46 spring training plate appearances. His strong exit velocities suggest that those will come more often moving forward, but he continues to be impaired by a career-long whiffing problem.

Sometimes when the Marlins oppose right-handed starting pitchers, we will see Liam Hicks at first. If only and Morel could be melded into a single body, they'd be a remarkably well-rounded player, but for the time being, MLB won't improve of such an innovation. Hicks' main deficiency is a lack of power, having ranked in the fifth percentile in hard-hit rate in 2025, per Baseball Savant. Despite concentrating on addressing that over the offseason, he went XBH-less this spring.

Very much like Morel, Connor Norby is a newbie at the position and an awkward fit elsewhere on the diamond. His spring training was a mixed bag—he drew only one walk while striking out 34.9% of the time, but he did damage against lefties, which was a notable hole in his profile last year.

Griffin Conine is an intriguing wild card. He had the hardest-hit ball of the 2025 Marlins season and topped that same leaderboard in spring games. In an admittedly microscopic sample, he looks like a superior first base defender than the aforementioned options. However, in the aftermath of Stowers' injury, his services will be needed in the outfield initially.

At least in part, the Marlins' first-base-by-committee approach is about maintaining the flexibility to hand the car keys to Deyvison De Los Santos later this season. Still just 22 years old, the Dominican prospect has 205 games of Triple-A experience. Despite coming with tantalizing power upside of his own, there shouldn't be any expectations placed upon his 2026 MLB production given his sky-high chase rate in the minors.

The Marlins had ample opportunities to bring in a short-term floor-raiser at first base, whether via free agency or trade, and they opted not to. There needs to be accountability if that decision results in them finishing a few games outside of the National League postseason field.

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[2qbn]

D-los needs to get called up. Stop the rotating door at 1B. 

[Hippyboi]

Never should have given Troy away

[1993 fan from start]

keeping 1B warm for Agustín Ramírez lol .

liam and conines to hold down till.    

[Jose Herrera]

Please get a veteran first baseman. There is still time to trade for Ryan Mountcastle!

[Robert Hanson]

The biggest disappointment of the offseason was the Marlins not signing a legit 1st baseman. 
     I understand they didn’t want to potentially block Deyvison’s path like they did when they signed T.A. and he blocked X’s path for half a season.
 The Marlins could’ve easily signed Rhys Hoskins, who signed a minor league deal with Cleveland that pays 1.5m if he makes the O.D. roster. Even if he can no longer produce offensively, he can field his position. 
   1st base shouldn’t be treated like a dumping ground for players who don’t have a position, which is exactly what it is right now. 
    The Marlins will suffer not only offensively, but they’ll suffer defensively too. 

[One Regend]

gee its almost like having a serious problem and doing nothing to address it still leads to a serious problem

[Jose Herrera]

@Robert Hanson Crazy thing is that Deyvison is not even a bona fide first baseman. There used to be a time when the least skilled defensive player was the leftfielder.