Cupboard is bare for Miami Marlins when it comes to lefty relief help

[Sean Millerick]

There is no shortage of reasons why the Miami Marlins lost to the Philadelphia Phillies Monday night. Poor hitting with runners in scoring position. An umpiring decision so inexplicable that it still boggles the mind. The enduring presence of Leo Jimenez. The excellence of Cristopher Sanchez, a continuation of Miami's years-long inability to handle lefty starting pitchers.

However, I wanted to focus on something that might have flown under the radar. John King pitched horribly. Cade Gibson was better, but not by much. The ineffectiveness of Miami's lefty relievers since essentially the start of July is highly concerning.

For much of the year, King looked unequivocally like the best of the Marlins' offseason acquisitions. Overall, he remains a positive WAR player with a 3.88 ERA and still-sterling 0.98 WHIP. Yet his season splits are eye-opening. First half? A 2.48 ERA and 0.75 WHIP. Second half? Those numbers have ballooned to a 10.48 ERA and 2.07 WHIP.

To be fair, King's first-half stats come from 40 games' worth of appearances, compared to only nine games in the second half. He has also maintained a pretty clean sheet when it comes to high leverage. There hasn't been a meaningful velocity dip. A slight decrease in sweeper spin was evident on Monday, but there just isn't a lot to point to other than the poor results and an MLB track record that always indicated he was unlikely to maintain his elite pace.

At least Gibson has been consistent in 2026. Unfortunately, that just means he's been equally unhelpful all season long. Going into Wednesday, that came out to a 5.25 ERA in the first half and a 6.55 ERA in the second. He has struggled all season long to recapture his 2025 form. He's been a -0.6 bWAR pitcher. Only two Marlins pitchers have been worse this season from that standpoint. One of those is Chris Paddack. The other is Pete Fairbanks, but he's showing every sign of having resurrected his season these past couple weeks.

The clock might be ticking on this bullpen composition...except for the fact that the Marlins essentially have no impactful lefty reinforcements to call upon.

Scheduled to undergo elbow surgery, Andrew Nardi, who thrived as the club's high-leverage lefty during their last NL Wild Card campaign in 2023, has been fully ruled out. Two of baseball's best southpaw prospects, Robby Snelling and Thomas White, are also hurt. The only 40-man roster alternative is rookie Dax Fulton.

Dipping deeper into the organization, there's not much help. Other than Fulton, Patrick Monteverde and Justin King represent the lone lefty offerings at AAA. Monteverde, who's mostly been used as a starter in the minors, has just a 5.79 ERA and 1.49 WHIP. Justin King doesn't even meet that modest standard with a 6.84 ERA and 2.00 WHIP.

Bottom line? No help is coming from within if the Marlins either continue to not get much help from their lefty relievers, or if it turns out the reason they have struggled is a yet to be revealed injury. Which makes it all the more essential that King (John) and Gibson turn it around ASAP. 

Well that, or some team decides to shed some salary and dumps a lefty on waivers over the next two weeks. 

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