2027 Marlins arbitration class projected to cost $29 million

[Ely Sussman]

The Miami Marlins can essentially "run it back" with the same cast of characters next season, if they choose to. Reliever Pete Fairbanks is their lone pending free agent, assuming that the club option in Sandy Alcantara's contract gets exercised.

It was a similar story entering the 2025-26 offseason, except now, more of their core players have gained enough major league service time to qualify for significant pay raises via the arbitration process.

On Friday, MLB Trade Rumors continued their long-running tradition of publishing annual estimates of the salaries that arb-eligible players will get during the upcoming season if their teams tender them contracts. There are 11 Marlins who clear the estimated service time cutoff of two years and 133 days.

The following MLBTR projections are sorted from most expensive to least expensive:

• $5.4 million for Otto Lopez (first arbitration year)
• $3.5 million for Xavier Edwards (first)
• $3.4 million for Anthony Bender (fourth and final)
• $3.2 million for Eury Pérez (first)
• $3.2 million for Kyle Stowers (first)
• $2.9 million for Calvin Faucher (second)
• $2.7 million for Max Meyer (second)
• $1.4 million for Victor Vodnik (first)
• $1.3 million for Esteury Ruiz (first)
• $1.1 million for Andrew Nardi (second)
• $900,000 for Tyler Zuber (first)

The Marlins still have more than a month to finalize their decisions, but I expect nine of these 11 players to be tendered. The lone exceptions should be Nardi and Zuber, both of whom are rehabbing from elbow injuries and pitched poorly even when they were available this season. Subtracting them from the equation would trim the total cost of this group to $27 million.

At various points, Faucher looked like he was trending toward being a non-tender candidate, but he was quietly brilliant down the stretch (1.25 ERA and 2.09 FIP in 22 post-trade deadline appearances).

It has become increasingly common across the majors for teams to iron out contract extensions with their top players before they even reach arbitration eligibility, giving themselves cost certainty and avoiding the awkwardness of annual renegotiations. The Marlins haven't been able to strike any such deals during Peter Bendix's tenure so far.

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[Robert Hanson]

IMO, Nardi should be non tendered, though the Marlins may do so due to the absence of MLB ready LH relievers in Jville, despite the fact that he likely doesn’t pitch in 2027. 
    As far as Zuber goes, could depend on the diagnosis on his elbow. 
    Esteury not a slam dunk to be tendered, IMO. 
    The rest of the arb eligible players will all be tendered.