Will next Miami Marlins no-hitter hit differently?

Happy Edinson Volquez day, Miami Marlins fans!

That officially brings you halfway through Marlins no-hitter season. And hey, this time next week, you'll be two-thirds of the way home. That's when the twenty-eighth anniversary of Kevin Brown's no-hit, near perfecto rolls around. Twenty years apart, yet within the same week, came arguably the two greatest pitching performances in Marlins franchise history. In fact, if you go by game score, those are the top two, with Volquez somehow edging Brown out despite the fact he walked two batters, whereas Brown's only baserunner was a HBP on a guy who was really, really crowding the plate. 

Generally, this is the kind of thing I would leave in the capable hands of our resident Marlinsversarian, Mike Ferguson. He's certainly welcome to break down how only one other Marlins no-hitter cracks the Game Score Top 10...and it comes in at tenth. Tenth! Pushing A.J. Burnett and the Most Effectively Wild Start Ever down the charts I can get behind, but Henderson Alvarez, Al Leiter, and Anibal Sanchez? How can... 

Anyway, I digress. Fib too, as Marlins no-hitters might be the baseball topic I've written the most about over the years. Most recently, I spent some time last May pondering whether a no-no like Burnett's would ever even happen again with analytics at the forefront, and whether fans would even want it to. I mean, let's be honest here.  If a starting pitcher under Clayton McCullough walked five through three innings and nine over the course of a competitive 3-0 game? I'm pretty sure Marlins Twitter would eat themselves over the bullpen mismanagement. 

However, just one year later, there's now another wrinkle to consider when it comes to how Marlins fans would react to a prospective no-hitter. Not just a wild and wacky one like Burnett's either. Even something as close to perfection as those Brown or Volquez starts could now go under the microscope in a whole new way. 

Why? Because as you might have read here, there, or everywhere since the Marlins adopted the practice last summer, the team is now calling pitches from the dugout. Meaning that a pretty sizable chunk of the strategy that goes into the feat of a no-hitter now lies in the hands of people that might never set foot on the field. 

Which begs the question- will that make a difference when it comes to celebrating the achievement? 

Obviously, Marlins fans will still be happy for the almost certain victory. But in that wider, "baseball is the best" sense, will a Marlins no-hitter today mean the same as the six previous ones? Would it even mean the same as MLB's two most recent no-nos, a pair of combined efforts from the Astros and Cubs? The last true one was all the way back in 2024 when Blake Snell did it, and the last Marlins no-hit effort was Volquez's 2017 gem. 

Now the answer is probably yes. Pitchers still need to execute, keeping those sliders on the corners and not hanging over the middle of the plate. Catchers still need to work some framing magic, even if the game calling is out of their hands. Plenty of athleticism is still required. If you extend this line of thinking to another sport, it's not as if fans ever question a record setting performance from a quarterback even though an offensive coordinator is calling the plays. So most folks would probably let Miami's pitching staff off the hook here. That definitely seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst those of you that took the time to vote in a recent Twitter poll on the subject:

Hey #Marlins fans? Leaving "happy for the very likely win" out of it, how will you feel about a Marlins no-hitter with pitches called from the dugout?

— Sean Millerick (@miasportsminute) June 2, 2026

All the same, I can't shake the sense that it seems worth asking. That there might be some potential for an asterisk to start being affixed, especially if it came to pass that the Marlins or any other team calling pitches from the dugout pulled off the feat more than once. If nothing else, it does feel like it makes the catcher much more of a passenger than ever before. I can still recall watching Charles Johnson and Miguel Olivo fielding questions left and right during the postgame pressers of the no-hitters they helped bring about. Particularly Olivio's, as I perhaps uncharitably thought it would end up easily going down as the highlight of his career. Does it change the accomplishment if there are now three or four seats at that podium, with coaches doing a lot of the strategy talk?

It would appear that at least a few of you think so. 

Here's hoping the Marlins give us the chance to put this question to the test sometime soon.