Which offseason moves Marlins already wish they could undo

[Ely Sussman]

The Miami Marlins didn't exactly attack the 2025-26 offseason with an urgency to turn themselves into contenders. Should the team take a step forward and qualify for the playoffs, it will be largely because their youngest players improved organically. Meanwhile, the acquisitions from outside the organization lacked both imagination and quality. You could argue that the Marlins would've been better off retaining an even higher percentage of last year's squad.

It begins with the starting rotation. Anticipating the 2026 debuts of top pitching prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling, the Marlins traded away Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers to the Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees, respectively.

Infuriatingly, Cabrera would seemingly open every season with some kind of injury. This has been an exception. Through five starts with the Cubs, he's been available and consistent. Cabrera has posted a 2.73 ERA and 3.63 FIP while averaging six innings per outing. The Cubs have won all but one of his starts. The 28-year-old right-hander is also uncharacteristically controlling the running game to an extent. Two would-be base-stealers have been thrown out on six attempts, compared to only four on 39 attempts last season.

The Marlins did their best to spoil Weathers' home debut as a Yankee on April 4 (3.2 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 K). However, the left-hander wriggled off the hook thanks to offensive support from his teammates.

Weathers has turned the page on that to help propel the Yanks to the American League's best record. He owns a 3.21 ERA and 3.39 FIP in six starts with 33 ⅔ innings pitched. He's on pace for career-bests in both strikeout rate (29.2%) and walk rate (5.8 %).

It's easy to project how the Marlins would be better off had they kept either Cabrera or Weathers. They'd be occupying the rotation spot that currently belongs to free agent signing Chris Paddack (6.38 ERA and 4.63 FIP with losses in all four of his starts).

Those trades brought back a total of seven prospects to Miami. Only one of them, Owen Caissie, is expected to have a significant major league impact this season. Thus far, that impact has been negative—Caissie has been MLB's most strikeout-prone hitter, with overall contributions that are slightly below replacement level.

Caissie is five years younger than Troy Johnston with significantly more raw power. His long-term ceiling is higher, but that does not guarantee he'll ever reach it, and there's no comparison between them production-wise right now. Waived by the Marlins following the conclusion of the 2025 season, Johnston has settled in nicely with the Colorado Rockies. Splitting time between right field and first base, he's slashing .315/.371/.449 with a 119 wRC+ and 16 runs batted in.

The most eye-popping rate stats among former Fish belong to Joey Wiemer. Discarded for cash considerations in November, he's slashing .320/.414/.580 through 22 games with the Washington Nationals, generating 0.9 fWAR to practically match his career total from the 2023-25 seasons. Wiemer is running circles around the right-handed-hitting outfielders that the Marlins have used instead, Heriberto Hernández and Austin Slater.

Here are quick hits on each of the other players who finished the 2025 regular season on the Marlins 40-man roster and wound up with different organizations:

- Dane Myers (Cincinnati Reds) is on the small side of a center field platoon. Facing predominantly lefties, he has slashed .263/.404/.341 (118 wRC+). An encouraging sign moving forward: he is chasing pitches outside of the strike zone at approximately half of his career rate.

- Working as a middle reliever, George Soriano (St. Louis Cardinals) has a 4.76 ERA and 4.54 FIP through 12 appearances (11.1 IP). He's done well in terms of limiting hard contact, surrendering only one home run for his new club.

- Freddy Tarnok asked out of his contract to pursue a rotation job with Japan's Hiroshima Carp. He has logged 28 innings pitched in five starts with a 3.86 ERA and 23.3 K%.

- Valente Bellozo (Colorado Rockies), Victor Mesa Jr. (Tampa Bay Rays), Christian Roa (Minnesota Twins), Josh Simpson (Seattle Mariners), Eric Wagaman (Twins) and Jack Winkler (Houston Astros) are playing at the Triple-A level. The best performer of the bunch has been Mesa (.323/.417/.565, 2 HR and 157 wRC+ in 16 G), though he is currently injured, as was the case all too often in recent seasons.

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[Hans Herrera]

A friendly reminder that the Marlins were better off with Troy and Wiemer than the Christopher Morel signing. No need for Ruiz either.

I’m not sure to judge the Eddy and Weathers moves since they are more long-term, but I would have never gotten rid of Cabrera in any case (I guess that’s just me).

[Robert Hanson]

  I was okay with the Marlins moving on from Cabrera. The tipping point was the elbow strain in September. IMO, that was the final straw on his long list of injuries.      The Weathers trade was disappointing, but understandable. The Marlins have multiple LH starters in AAA who are currently blocked.

    Heriberto and Slater have been a downgrade, no question. Slater signed only because Morel & Esteury were injured. Both Dane & Weimer are both good defensive outfielders. Dane was a good pinch runner with base stealing skills & Weimer has tools, though both have a lot of swing & miss. Letting go of Johnston was a numbers game. Not sure how many LH bats you can have on a 26 man roster. Currently, there’s Caissie, Hicks, Marsee, Pauley, & Stowers, not to mention Conine. 

   As far as Esteury & Morel, I would give them an incomplete, but so far not good. The Marlins have faced just 8 LH starters this year, going 3-5 and have lost their last 4 after starting 3-1 vs said starters. 

   Last year, at the trade deadline, the Marlins held on to nearly everyone except for Jesus (made room for Marsee) & Fortes (too many catchers). They thought they had a shot at the playoffs, especially after sweeping the Yankees Aug. 1-3. Had they not traded Luzardo (replaced by Cal Quantrill), they would have made the playoffs. 
    Last year, after going 1-5 on their west coast trip to Seattle & L.A., the Marlins were 12-18 at the end of April & finished the season 79-83. We’ll see what happens this year. 

[Hippyboi]

Should I be the GM? I was against all the off season moves

Trading Weathers for another 5 tool kid who strikes out a lot- NO

Tradinging Cabrera for a left handed bat - NO

Dumping Troy Johnston - NO

Signing Morel for more money to replace Johnston - Ridiculous

With no trades we'd have the best 5 deep pitching staff in baseball

[Fish in the Grove]

37 minutes ago, Robert Hanson said:

  I was okay with the Marlins moving on from Cabrera. The tipping point was the elbow strain in September. IMO, that was the final straw on his long list of injuries.      The Weathers trade was disappointing, but understandable. The Marlins have multiple LH starters in AAA who are currently blocked.

    Heriberto and Slater have been a downgrade, no question. Slater signed only because Morel & Esteury were injured. Both Dane & Weimer are both good defensive outfielders. Dane was a good pinch runner with base stealing skills & Weimer has tools, though both have a lot of swing & miss. Letting go of Johnston was a numbers game. Not sure how many LH bats you can have on a 26 man roster. Currently, there’s Caissie, Hicks, Marsee, Pauley, & Stowers, not to mention Conine. 

   As far as Esteury & Morel, I would give them an incomplete, but so far not good. The Marlins have faced just 8 LH starters this year, going 3-5 and have lost their last 4 after starting 3-1 vs said starters. 

   Last year, at the trade deadline, the Marlins held on to nearly everyone except for Jesus (made room for Marsee) & Fortes (too many catchers). They thought they had a shot at the playoffs, especially after sweeping the Yankees Aug. 1-3. Had they not traded Luzardo (replaced by Cal Quantrill), they would have made the playoffs. 
    Last year, after going 1-5 on their west coast trip to Seattle & L.A., the Marlins were 12-18 at the end of April & finished the season 79-83. We’ll see what happens this year. 

The Weathers trade was really bad and I give Bendix no props there. He sold low on an asset he had every reason to hold on to and see if it could increase its value in the first half of this season... which looks very likely. A completely unforced error. I'll be a little more patient on Cassie, but the bag of balls (hey there is one 5 tool unrated prospect) we got for Weathers is likely to turn into nothing.