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. 

[Rob V]

You can replace Ruiz with that kid Cam Cannarella who was minor league MVP. Give him a shot up in the show, looks like another Marcee but with power. Ruiz regressed in his fielding and power in the 2nd half after his fast start. He can be replaced internally I believe

[Rob V]

Kemp Alderman is another AAA OF ready for an audition at the show

[Ely Sussman]

5 hours ago, Rob V said:

You can replace Ruiz with that kid Cam Cannarella who was minor league MVP. Give him a shot up in the show, looks like another Marcee but with power. Ruiz regressed in his fielding and power in the 2nd half after his fast start. He can be replaced internally I believe

Over the course of the season, if you're getting nothing else but baserunning from Ruiz, he can be replaced internally. But I think it would be irresponsible to let him walk right now. Hang onto useful depth players as long as you can.

Cannarella will eventually come up either way. Ruiz won't be blocking him.

[One Regend]

I never understood why the Marlins had so much faith in Andrew Nardi. The guy is literally a one-year wonder. Even if you bring up the argument that the Marlins have no left-handed relief options in AAA other than the absolutely-gassed Cade Gibson, Nardi is going to start 2027 sidelined to injury, so there's no point in taking him to arbitration. Cut the bait. I'd rather send a dominating RHP against a lefty than send in a garbage LHP against a lefty. I can say the same thing for Cade Gibson too. There were many times where simply having Josh Ekness pitch to the lefty would've been better than Cade Gibson.

Am I the only person here who never understood the value of Tyler Zuber? He sucked every single year and he's still getting high-leverage opportunities. Why is he even in the conversation to receive a pay raise? Why not just pick up literally anyone from AAA?

[Rob V]

Nardi is season ending injury prone and needs to be released so we can stop the bleeding. What I mean is he gets hurt, he misses the season. Max Meyer is another injury prone pitcher and when do we unload this guy we can't ever count on to complete a full season for us? He reminds me of an old expensive car of mine that always had a costly mechanical issue. I replaced it and never looked back. If you want to keep him till his free agent year then turn him into a closer asap cause he will never get through a full season as a starter. History does not lie.

[One Regend]

7 hours ago, Rob V said:

Nardi is season ending injury prone and needs to be released so we can stop the bleeding. What I mean is he gets hurt, he misses the season. Max Meyer is another injury prone pitcher and when do we unload this guy we can't ever count on to complete a full season for us? He reminds me of an old expensive car of mine that always had a costly mechanical issue. I replaced it and never looked back. If you want to keep him till his free agent year then turn him into a closer asap cause he will never get through a full season as a starter. History does not lie.

The Marlins had an injury-prone pitcher before. His name was Josh Beckett. He ended up becoming a World Series MVP.

Injuries alone should not dictate whether or not a player should be gotten rid of. Performance-to-availability should. When he was on the field, however rare it was, Josh Beckett was the best there ever was.

With Nardi, even when he was on the field, he was still mostly garbage. I don't see the value in keeping him. At least Max Meyer proved he has All-Star potential. No sense in dealing him.

The reason why I was hoping Edward Cabrera was being dealt last winter was because of how maddingly inconsistent he was, paired with his injuries. Even when he was on the mound, he was frustrating to watch. He has the talent of a Cy Young contender, but was unable to put it together, often following brilliant outings with back-to-back dumpster fire outings. He's on the Cubs now, and there's a chance he can put it together on another team, but I'd rather hinge my bets on Owen Caissie in his 5 years of control than bet the lottery on Cabrera putting it together in the 2 years he had left with Miami.

Max Meyer is less talented than Cabrera, yet kept it together long enough to warrant an All-Star nod. Those are the guys who you should generally try to keep. It's also the reason why I absolutely hated the season-killing Ryan Weathers trade. He had also proven himself in the same time frame as Max Meyer, and he was dealt away with the same motivation of the trade as yours: Injuries alone. Now look at what he's done for the Yankees.