Quantrill, one big swing keep Marlins surging into trade deadline

The Miami Marlins have been quiet ahead of Thursday's MLB trade deadline with the exception of shipping Nick Fortes to the Tampa Bay Rays, though their 2-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals should help facilitate additional moves. One potential trade chip in particular elevated his value to a contender. 

Making his 21st and potentially final start in a Marlins uniform, Cal Quantrill tossed five scoreless innings at Busch Stadium on Wednesday. Concluding July with a 2.92 ERA across his five starts, Quantrill lowered his season ERA to a more respectable 4.79, highlighted by a surge of just one total run allowed over his last three appearances.

As Miami's lone pending free agent, the 30-year-old is certainly being made available to the highest bidder.

"His stuff was as crisp as it's been all season," said manager Clayton McCullough.

Each of Quantrill's seven hardest-thrown pitches of 2025 came on the evening. He topped out at 97.1 mph.

In the batter's box, all the Fish would need came on Jesús Sánchez's 10th home run of the season in the third inning against Miles Mikolas (6 IP, 2 ER). At 439 feet, Sánchez's long ball was the second-farthest hit ball in Busch Stadium this season, trailing only Sean Murphy's 440-foot shot back on July 11. In 11 career plate appearances against Mikolas, Sánchez owns a .400/.455/1.200 slash line.

"I was searching for a fastball middle-away, but reacted to the changeup," said Sánchez, who finished July with an .819 OPS. 

Miami's bullpen got some defensive help courtesy of a pair of plays from third baseman Graham Pauley and shortstop Otto Lopez. The speed-challenged Yohel Pozo was victimized in both instances.

On the mound for the first of those two, Tyler Phillips threw 2 ⅓ scoreless innings in the combined shutout, finishing the month of July with a minuscule 0.59 ERA.

With the win, Miami, now 52-55, clinched their fifth consecutive series win, their longest such streak since 2017, and concluded a 15-10 month of July. In a year most forecasted to be one where victories would be hard to come by, first-year manager McCullough's club is currently playing at a 79-win pace. Since the start of June, the club's 3.51 ERA is fifth in all of baseball. 

"This group has a lot of confidence in their abilities since they left spring training. We just didn't play well at the outset," continued McCullough. 

Looking Ahead

It's an off-day for Marlins players and coaches on Thursday, but arguably the busiest day of the entire year for the front office. Fish On First will provide full coverage of whatever moves they make prior to the 6:00 p.m. trade deadline.

The Marlins will fly home to begin a three-game series with the defending American League champion New York Yankees to open up the month of August. Friday's projected pitching matchup is Janson Junk (5-2, 3.28 ERA) squaring off against All-Star Carlos Rodón (11-7, 3.18 ERA), but neither team will be listing their pitchers until the dust settles after the deadline. 

First pitch from loanDepot park is slated for 7:10 EST.