Louis Addeo-Weiss

The 2026 season has come and gone for the Miami Marlins. While the year brought its many ups and downs, there will be ample time to reflect this offseason. Before they bid adieu to their 34th season of play, the Marlins had the goal of winning the final series against the NL East champion Atlanta Braves. Thanks to a combination of Janson Junk, a pair of home runs, and new part-time closer Sandy Alcantara, they did just that, ending the year with a 5-3 victory over Atlanta. How It Started As he has consistently done this season, Janson Junk put forth a strong effort, striking out five in his 4 ⅔ innings of work. The 30-year-old ends his 2026 season with career bests in innings pitched (123 ⅔) and strikeouts (89). Junk allowed two or fewer runs in 18 of his 25 starts, finishing with a 4.22 ERA. The lone blunder on Junk's afternoon came on a Mauricio Dubón solo home run in the top of the third. Clutch Pop Sitting on 24 home runs on the final day of the season, Heriberto Hernández tied the score in his second plate appearance with a solo home run of his own. Since returning to the big leagues on May 7, Hernández hit a team-leading 25 home runs. In the bottom half of the seventh and his final plate appearance, Griffin Conine showed the light-tower power that looks to see him be a regular in the 2027 lineup. It was remarkably well-timed, just as longtime play-by-play broadcaster Rich Waltz made a surprise appearance in the TV booth, joining his former partner Tommy Hutton, who was working the final game of his career. Hutton, who has called Marlins games across two stints since 1997, teamed up with Waltz in 2005, a year when the club had another Conine, Griffin's father, Jeff, on the roster. The Closer Adding to the ending on a high of it all, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough turned to Sandy Alcantara in the bottom of the ninth to end it where it all started. Speaking before the game, McCullough hinted at the move with a wry, "we hope things line up that way." Alcantara, the major league leader in innings pitched at 213, entered seeking his third save of the season. The previous two came during the Marlins' last road trip. The last time any player had a season of at least 200 innings pitched and three or more saves came in 1980 via Jerry Reuss. As he had the prior two such outings, Alcantara wasted little time, needing just 10 pitches to lock down the win for Miami while notching save number three in the process. His final pitch, a 92 mph changeup, resulted in a swinging strikeout of Dashawn Keirsey Jr. "After a bad season last year...I'm very happy with myself because I finished strong. I finished healthy—I got 200-plus innings," noted Alcantara. In his first season off Tommy John surgery in 2025, Alcantara pitched a 5.36 ERA, though he still threw 174-plus innings in the process. He ends 2026 with a much more Sandy-like 3.87 mark. Now through the final year of a five-year extension he signed following the 2021 season, Alcantara will, in his own words, "wait on the couch until the team calls" to confirm whether they are picking up his $21M club option for 2027. "I want to keep myself here with the Marlins. I've been with this club for nine years...I love this organization so much." Miami concludes 2026 with an 80-82 record. At a run differential of plus-3, this year's club ties 2008's Florida Marlins for the fifth-best mark in franchise history, a 92-run improvement year-over-year. Their 168 home runs are the most since they hit 194 in 2017. "A lot of high moments," reflected McCullough, now through two seasons as manager. "We certainly had to navigate through quite a bit of adversity." Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix is scheduled to hold his end-of-season press conference at loanDepot park on Tuesday. View full article

The Marlins may be mathematically out of the playoff picture, but that does not mean the end of their season has to end on a sour note. Experimental in their approach to pitching, the Marlins, for the second night in a row, deployed the strategy of having a starting pitcher throw in-game. After Eury Pérez tossed a scoreless eighth inning in Tuesday's extra-innings victory, it would be Sandy Alcantara, yet again, in to close it out. Whereas the first such occurrence last week in Arizona came with a pair of close-call fly balls, Alcantara fared much better on Wednesday, needing just 12 pitches to secure his second save of the season. In doing so, Alcantara becomes the first pitcher since 1996 with a season of at least 200 innings pitched and two or more saves. How We Got There Had someone told you at the beginning of the 2026 season that Ryan Gusto would be making a compelling case to start for the Marlins in 2027, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who agreed. Through the end of July, Gusto sported a 5.31 ERA, a case of déjà vu from his rookie season when he posted an ERA approaching six. And then, something clicked. Gusto's performance in Miami's 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday read more like the pitcher he has been for the better part of the last two months. Tossing 5 ⅓ scoreless innings before being lifted in the bottom of the sixth, Gusto showed why the Marlins brass has entrusted him to work deeper into games. "I thought Ryan was fantastic tonight...He was moving the ball around, using his mix really well...and he's just been throwing the ball really well of late," noted McCullough. Finishing his season on a strong note, Gusto has posted a 3.12 ERA since the beginning of August. The right-hander allowed two or fewer earned runs in nine of his last 10 starts. Giving the ball to Michael Petersen , Miami's best reliever at stranding baserunners (93.3%), one had to figure they would exit the inning retaining their 2-0 lead. But, because baseball is baseball, Petersen allowed a two-out, two-strike single to Dansby Swanson, tying the score at two apiece. Like Gusto, veteran Kevin Gausman matched him pitch-for-pitch, allowing two over 5 ⅔ innings, striking out seven. The lone blow against the splitter specialist came in the top of the sixth when Kyle Stowers homered for the second time in as many days. Though he has played most of 2026 on a pair of injured hamstrings, a compromised Stowers still ranks second on the club with 21 home runs, while sporting an OPS right under .800. The Marlins would take the final lead of the evening when a Joe Mack ground ball originally ruled a 6-4-3 double play was overturned on replay review that showed Esteury Ruiz slid into second just before the transfer was caught by Swanson. The Current Playoff Picture With the Marlins playing spoiler this final week of the season, the Cubs and Phillies remained deadlocked for a share of the first NL Wild Card spot with identical 87-71 records. The Don Mattingly-led club fell 4-1 at the hands of the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers, who secured their 99th victory of the season. The Phillies will commence their final series of the year against the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays, while Chicago will match up against the Boston Red Sox. Of Note Miami will close out the season series against Chicago on Thursday in an afternoon affair at the Friendly Confines. Tyler Phillips (5-4, 3.45 ERA) gets the call for the Marlins in his final start of the season. In his lone start against Chicago earlier this year, Phillips allowed three runs over five innings pitched in a 10-3 Marlins win. Matthew Boyd (9-5, 4.06 ERA) will oppose Phillips as he vies for his tenth win of the season. First pitch from Wrigley Field is slated for 2:20 pm EST. View full article

With the Marlins officially eliminated from postseason contention, the focus shifts from competing in 2026 to finishing strong and laying the groundwork for a superior 2027 campaign. This weekend was not too encouraging from that standpoint. The Marlins fell to the San Diego Padres, 7-3, to wrap up a three-game sweep. Overall, Miami ends the season having gone 0-6 against the Padres, marking just the eighth time in franchise history they failed to collect a win in a season series of six-plus games. Making his first start since earning his first career save on Wednesday, Sandy Alcantara surrendered four runs over six innings of work, raising his season ERA to 3.91. Miami have now lost each of Alcantara's last eight starts, a stretch in which Alcantara has a 5.21 ERA. The Padres wasted little time in getting to Alcantara thanks a second inning, two-runner homer off the bat of Jake Cronenworth. Of the 209 MLB hitters who entered Sunday with at least 375 plate appearances this season, Cronenworth's 72 adjusted OPS+ ranked as the seventh-worst. At just 325 feet, Cronenworth's home run is tied for the third-shortest in Petco Park history. Cronenworth's role as the Marlins villain was far from over though, as he would follow up his home run with an RBI double in the fourth. His coup de grace, however, came in the eighth when he launched his second two-run homer of the day. Miami's comeback attempt came in the top of the seventh when Walker Buehler, working into the seventh inning for the first time this season - surrendered a three-run home run to Javier Sanoja. The long ball gave Sanoja the first double digit home run season in his career. Winners of nine of ten, the Padres 87-69 record sees them tied with the Marlins' next opponent, the Chicago Cubs, for the top NL Wild Card spot. The Marlins will have to win out to finish above .500 and go at least 4-2 to surpass last season's record. Of Note In what will be a light schedule in Major League Baseball on Monday, the Marlins will fly to Chicago, where they will open up a three-game series Tuesday against the Cubs. Janson Junk (6-9, 4.50 ERA) will get the ball for Miami in the series opener. First pitch from Wrigley Field is set for 7:40 EST. View full article

Other teams must see this Marlins offense as pests. If you thought their ninth-inning rally against the Nationals on Sunday made for a wild game, then I am afraid you were not prepared to process the emotions of Wednesday's mid-series matchup against the Kansas City Royals. In a game that saw the two teams club three home runs apiece, it was a total coin flip in deciding a winner for this game. Fortunately for the Marlins, the coin landed in their favor in a 9-6 victory. Miami is now 71-69, merely 2.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, with just 22 to go in the regular season. "We kept clipping away and won the second half of this game," noted Clayton McCullough. Mirroring the Nationals three days prior, Miami jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against southpaw Noah Cameron (5 IP, 4 R), needing just seven pitches to do so. Otto Lopez provided the opening blow, collecting his eighth triple of the season, becoming just the 11th different player in franchise history to accomplish that feat and the first to do so since Dee Strange-Gordon in 2017. And with Eury Pérez on the mound, the Marlins had to feel themselves firmly in the driver's seat; until they were not. One-upping the Marlins by plating their first two runs in just 6 pitches, the Royals gave 23-year-old Eury Pérez one of the biggest challenges of his young Major League career. In a bottom of the first that would wind up being a 34-pitch affair, Kansas City tagged the Fish for a five-spot, highlighted by a pair of home runs courtesy of Carter Jensen and Salvador Perez. Jensen would later go on to homer a second time against Perez in the bottom half of the fourth. The prevailing thought in that trying first inning though had to be one of "how long can they afford to keep him out there?" And then, Pérez settled in and made the most of an otherwise forgettable outing, allowing a lone run in the following 3-plus frames, working deep into the fifth inning. After a 13-start, 75-plus-inning stretch from May 22-August 22 where he allowed just 14 earned runs, Pérez has now allowed 11 runs over his last two outings. Come the top of the third, the Marlins would begin to claw back thanks to Kyle Stowers ' 18th home run of the season. Riddled with injuries and IL stints due to hamstring strains on both his right and left legs, Stowers owns an .801 OPS in his 103 games played. Heriberto Hernández would contribute two innings later, blasting a ground rule double to cut the Kansas City lead to two, but it would be the sixth inning where Miami clawed all the way back to take a lead they would not relinquish. Griffin Conine, a mid-game substitution for Esteury Ruiz, singled home Javier Sanoja before a sacrifice fly from recently called-up Jared Serna and another Heriberto two-bagger put the Marlins out in front. Sanoja and Jakob Marsee would later pad the lead with back-to-back home runs in the ninth. Sanoja certainly seems to have found his stride at the plate in his third season, the owner of a 106 wRC+ through a career-best 122 games played. Matching the offense's contributions, Miami's bullpen in relief of Pérez posted 4 1/3 hitless frames, highlighted by a six-pitch save from Calvin Faucher. Looking Ahead The Marlins will bid adieu to the Royals in 2026 when they play the series finale on Thursday. Saving the best for last, both clubs will throw their aces, as Sandy Alcantara (13-8, 3.46 ERA) will oppose Michael Wacha (8-8, 3.32). In two career starts against Kansas City, Alcantara owns a 2.40 ERA, limiting Royals hitters to a .572 OPS. First pitch from Kauffman Stadium has been slated for 7:40 pm EST. View full article

The clock is ticking on the Miami Marlins to make up ground in their 2026 playoff push. Dropping the first two games of a four-game set against the Nationals to fall to .500 and four games out of the final NL Wild Card spot, they had no choice but to make a statement on Sunday. Through eight innings against the division rival Washington Nationals, it looked as if that statement was, "we surrender." The Fish trailed 2-0 entering the top of the ninth inning. They had previously been 2-58 when trailing in the ninth this season. Then, the Marlins improbably reeled off this sequence of events: Walk Walk Popout Double steal Walk Hit by pitch Sacrifice fly, E8 Walk Double steal Two-run home run Groundout Sending all nine men to the plate, the Marlins left the top of the ninth with a 6-2 lead, one they would not relinquish, picking up their 69th win of the season in the process. Scoring six runs on the strength of merely four hits, the Marlins became the first MLB team to do so since the Mets on June 4, 2025. The Marlins last did it way back on April 24, 2011. One of those four hits came via Otto Lopez, his first home run since July 5, snapping a drought of 197 plate appearances. Lost in Sunday's game was the solid effort put forth by Janson Junk, who held Washington to merely one run over 4 ⅔ innings of work. After a rough stretch in May, Junk has rebounded to allow two or fewer runs in nine of his last 10 starts, finishing the month of August with a 1.59 ERA. Carrying a scoreless tie into the bottom of the fifth, Washington broke through first when former Marlins farmhand Nasim Nuñez doubled in center fielder Jacob Young. Washington would net a second run three innings later with help from Leo Jiménez, whose second error of the day allowed Brady House to go first to third. On a more serious note, second baseman Xavier Edwards had to leave the game following Jorbit Vivas' slide that saw Edwards jam his left thumb. He will undergo imaging on Monday to determine the severity of the injury. Edwards has yet to miss a game this season. Looking Ahead The Marlins will wrap up the season series against the Nationals on Monday. Ryan Gusto (1-3, 3.98 ERA), fresh off one of his best starts of the season, will take the ball for Miami. A win would clinch the Marlins' first 10-win season series against any NL East team since going 11-2 against these Nats in 2023. The first pitch is slated for 6:45 EST at Nationals Park. View full article

Each loss for the 2026 Miami Marlins is a dagger in their playoff aspirations, with Wednesday being no exception. Following their 4-1 loss to the division rival Atlanta Braves, Miami's season record now sits at 58-57, 2.5 games out of a wild-card spot in the Senior Circuit, a tough cross to bear following a trade deadline that saw the departures of Liam Hicks and Lake Bachar. With this defeat, the Marlins now own a lifetime 23-57 (.288) record since Truist Park's opening in 2017. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates own a worse winning percentage in that span (.258). Making his 20th start of the season—matching a career-high set last season—Eury Pérez ran into trouble in the second, throwing 34 pitches and allowing a trio of runs. Atlanta would tag on a fourth run in the following inning courtesy of a Mauricio Dubón single. Gutting through an otherwise mediocre outing, Pérez struck out nine in his five innings of work, falling to 5-9 on the year. Reflecting on Pérez's outing postgame, manager Clayton McCullough took the glass half-full approach. "If his clunkers look like this, we'll be very encouraged with it," noted McCullough. "There's a lot I can feel proud of. The ground balls I was able to induce and the fact that I was able to make it through five innings. It's a growing process...", said Pérez through interpreter Luis Durante. Looking under the hood, Pérez had more than the five innings of work to be proud of, as he induced 18 swings-and-misses, aided in part by a near-unanimous bump in pitch velocities. While his start ERA of 7.20 would lead one to call his outing less than savory, the underlying metrics tell a completely different story, as evidenced by minuscule 0.70 and 1.92 FIP and xFIP. Miami's lone run came via Joe Mack on a fifth inning ground out that plated Owen Caissie . Now with 34 RBI since arriving in the big leagues, Mack's total ranks third best amongst Marlins rookie catchers who started a minimum of 60 percent of their games behind the plate, trailing only 1995 Charles Johnson (39) and 2015 J.T. Realmuto (47). Through the series' first two games, Miami has gone 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position. Bryce Elder, making his 12th career start against Miami, shut them down to the tune of 7 innings of 1-run, 1-hit ball, lowering his career ERA to 3.31 opposing the Marlins. As they did in Tuesday's loss, the Marlins had late-inning comeback attempts thwarted by the Atlanta bullpen. After collecting a pair of hits against the conservative hit surrenderer Dylan Dodd, Miami would ultimately see this one end on an Otto Lopez first-pitch ground out to Austin Riley. Thanks to an 0-for-4 evening, Lopez's season batting average fell to .320, putting him .005 points behind former Marlin and three-time batting champion Luis Arraez in the NL batting title race. Looking Ahead Miami will conclude their trip to Atlanta on Thursday in a rare game three nightcap. Janson Junk (5-6, 4.58 ERA) will square off against veteran left-hander Martín Pérez (7-6, 3.24 ERA). First pitch from Truist Park is slated for 7:15 pm EST. View full article

Each ensuing game for the Miami Marlins from here on out has compounded importance, ever more so true as the club opens up their final series against the New York Mets in advance of Monday's trade deadline. Fresh off the heels of a franchise record 12-game losing streak, Miami responded by sweeping the Phillies at home, entering the Big Apple one game over .500 at 55-54. On the other end of the spectrum, the New York Mets, a team which entered 2026 with a payroll estimated north of $360M and playoff aspirations after the previous season's collapse. The club traded for Luis Robert Jr. and Marcus Semien, signed Bo Bichette to pair with Francisco Lindor in the infield, and shored up the bullpen with the addition of Luke Weaver. However, the disaster that was the second half of 2025 for the Metropolitans returned tenfold, as New York entered play Thursday 46-63 and last in the National League East. Unfortunately, the game went as forecasted at the outset of the 2026 season and the Mets found themselves on the right side of victory, besting Miami 4-2. Repeating what they did in Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Philadelphia, the Marlins were aided early by a solo home run off the bat of Kyle Stowers . After sporting an OPS near .900 in June, Stowers has continued to see his season trend in the right direction, boasting an .812 mark in July. His 15 home runs trail only Heriberto Hernández 's 16. On the mound, it was more of what has been the case with Eury Pérez of late, as the flame-throwing 23-year-old held New York hitless into the fifth inning. Entering the bottom of the sixth on just 69 pitches, Pérez ran into trouble following a leadoff walk to Francisco Alvarez, as Francisco Lindor promptly singled him home. Then, 24 pitches into the sixth, Pérez surrendered a slow-moving chopper off the bat of the aforementioned Robert Jr. that caromed off the glove of third baseman Graham Pauley to put the Mets out front 2-1. In his six innings of work, Pérez allowed merely a trio of hits, striking out six. In seven starts since returning from injury, Pérez owns a sterling 1.71 ERA. As great as Pérez was, so too was Nolan McLean in his 6 1/3 innings of two-run ball. The only mistakes made by McLean would end in the longball. Looking to respond following the coughing up of the lead, Jakob Marsee —the touted outfielder that has struggled mightily in 2026—came through with his sixth home run of the season. Miami then called upon the man who had arguably been the club's most reliable reliever this season, Michael Petersen. In his first game since taking a comebacker off his forearm on Monday, Miami would see the 2-2 tie go by the wayside, with three consecutive hits courtesy of Bichette, Carson Benge, and Robert plating a pair of runs. Now 55-55, the Marlins currently find themselves 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Looking Ahead Miami will continue to steer the ship towards the postseason in the sequel Friday night. Janson Junk (4-6, 4.89 ERA) will square off against two-time All-Star Freddy Peralta (5-9, 4.99 ERA). The reigning NL wins leader, Peralta owns a 4.47 ERA across 13 appearances (10 starts) against the Fish. First pitch from Citi Field is slated for 7:10 pm EST. View full article