NL-worst Marlins must play "cleaner baseball"

It simply was not supposed to look this way.

When the Miami Marlins lost ace Sandy Alcantara to a torn UCL and slugger Jorge Soler declined his 2024 player option, the expectation was that the team would take a step back, but not bottom out. On the eve of Opening Day, FanGraphs projected the Marlins to finish 81-81. Even the most critical of pundits had their win totals in the high-60s/low-70s range.

Now, the Marlins are 6-22, a historically bad pace. It’s not even the end of April and their playoff odds, per FanGraphs, have cratered to 1.0 percent entering Sunday, compared to 28.8 percent the month before.

You’d be remiss not to take into account the Marlins’ injury luck. During spring training, they lost starting pitchers Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett, and Eury Pérez, and relief pitcher JT Chargois. Of these pitchers, Cabrera is the only one to have returned. Just in the past week, the Marlins lost reliever-turned-starter A.J. Puk to fatigue in his throwing shoulder and ace Jesús Luzardo to discomfort in his throwing elbow. Both are on the 15-day IL. The injury bug has also bitten Jake Burger, one of the better hitters the Marlins had in the first couple weeks of the season. He has been sidelined for the last two weeks with a strain of his left intercostal muscle (though he is expected to begin rehab games soon).

“Obviously this is not what we envisioned coming out of spring training,” Skip Schumaker said Saturday. “We've had some injuries, but a lot of teams have had injuries.”

While many criticized the front office for not being proactive during the offseason to build off of last year’s postseason appearance, the 2024 Marlins are beating themselves with sloppy play more so than lack of talent. Bad mistakes on the basepaths, poor decisions in the field, and all-around bad offensive play have consistently plagued the Marlins. On Saturday, that poor play came to a head. 

The Marlins lost 11-4 to the Washington Nationals, largely because of things they did to themselves.

“We just haven't played clean baseball,” Schumaker said. ”And we've had some tough losses. Days we hit, we don't pitch. Days we pitch, we don't hit…Today was probably the sloppiest of all of them, honestly.”

Starting pitcher Edward Cabrera allowed five runs in the loss, and you can make the argument that almost all of them could have been prevented with better defense. 

The first run came on a passed ball in the third inning that allowed Jacob Young to score. It was a changeup in the zone that appeared to glance off Christian Bethancourt’s glove.

The fifth inning is where it all came apart. Cabrera allowed a single and a walk to open the frame. The third batter of the inning in Nick Senzel bunted the ball back to the mound, and Cabrera threw over to third base to get the lead runner Trey Lipscomb out. Third baseman Vidal Bruján tagged Lipscomb instead of simply touching the base on the force play and trying to throw out Senzel at first base on the double play. Senzel, a slow runner, was about halfway up the first base line when Brujan received the ball.

“It was a firm bunt,” Schumaker said. “So that is a go to third, redirect, try to get the double play. That part is a mental mistake. Mental mistake of not mixing up your looks. That's mental for sure. Errors are going to happen. We got to somehow play cleaner baseball, there's no doubt, but errors will happen. That is part of the game.“

Eddie Rosario, the runner at second base, stole third during the next at-bat. Jacob Young then hit a ground ball to Emmanuel Rivera at first base. Rivera threw home but catcher Christian Bethancourt was just a hair too late on the tag.

Cabrera walked CJ Abrams, setting up a bases-loaded opportunity for Jesse Winker. Cabrera hung a curveball middle-middle, and Winker hit it to the home run porch in right field for the grand slam.

"The mental stuff, the baserunning, where to put the ball, where to put the bunt down, how to field the bunt, all that stuff, that is mental stuff, that is gameplay,” Schumaker said.

The Marlins are in the bottom five of the majors in batting average (.221), slugging percentage (.323), and runs per game (3.3). When you add bad baserunning, like Jesús Sánchez failing to return to first base after he rounded second on a hit-and-run that resulted in a flyout to right field in Friday’s loss to Washington, the precious few baserunners the Marlins get are not scoring.

“I'm sure they're pressing because they don't want to keep getting out,” Schumaker said. “If I was in that scenario, I'd be pressing too, so I get it. That's human nature. They want to win. It's not for lack of effort. I mean, again, (Tim Anderson) and all those guys were in the cage, it felt like for hours today, and working with the staff and up and down the lineup. We hit the ball hard, no love a lot of the time.”

Luis Arraez leads the team's qualified hitters with a .301 batting average and has been looking like himself since a slow opening series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The next-highest is Bryan De La Cruz, hitting .252 and leading the team with five home runs. Christian Bethancourt began the season 0-for-29 before an RBI single Saturday. Free agent signing Tim Anderson is hitting .222 with a .507 OPS, a continuation of his severe 2023 struggles rather than the rebound that Miami forecasted.

“Just not the game or the type of team that we are," Schumaker said, "I know that. They know that. They're as frustrated as anybody. But they’re big leaguers. So we flush it and try to get them tomorrow.”