One Regend

Uhh... have you seen how awful Manny Machado has been this year? We're not taking on the rest of his massive contract if his performance this year is indicative of his future years.

I'm surprised we were able to get a Top 5 pick at pick 14. Consider us blessed. We're covered up the middle though, but he could be a really good 3B for us if he progresses quickly and Otto and X are still here.

I do agree with locking Stowers up, but through Age 35 is excessive. His toolkit falls apart the moment he starts aging. Even a contract through Age 33 seems risky. If there's anyone who is worth an 8 year extension, it's definitely Otto Lopez.

Getting Justin Lebron gives the Marlins insurance at 3B if they switch gears on positional development. This is notable because they have literally 0 answers at 3B. That 40 hit tool is a massive problem, though. It's the same problem that Lewis Brinson and Monte Harrison had, and those aren't good barometers of prospect success.

This guy screams Relief Pitcher risk. No thanks.

Honestly, I'm okay with trading an outfield bat or two. We have a massive surplus of outfielders in our minor league system. I'm sure we could part with one of them to snag a starting pitcher for us down the stretch. And after seeing Joe Mack play for us? I don't see a lane for Agustin Ramirez to get everyday playing reps. 1B is starting to be a competitive position between Liam Hicks and Kyle Stowers, and C has Joe Mack, with Liam Hicks filling in for Mack's days off. His only lane to getting playtime is DH, and he needs to be an exceptionally good hitter to crack the roster just to be a DH, which he hasn't proven he can be. He could be traded to a team that's well out of the playoffs that would give him a chance to re-establish himself. He has the talent with the bat to pull it off, I just don't see it materializing with the Marlins. No matter what, though, 3rd Base is a problem. I'm not sure how we could leverage snagging a 3B without giving up our big prospects. We can all agree that Karson Milbrandt, Thomas White, Robby Snelling, and Kemp Alderman is untouchable on the trade market. And Cam Cannarella is creeping towards untouchable status, too. This leaves us with guys like Brandon Compton and Fenwick Trimble as maybe guys we could dangle on the trade market. Starlyn Caba, too. Caba's having a good season right now, but after years of mediocre-to-replacement-level performance, I can't buy this year's success. Perhaps selling high might be the call to make.

I do too, but not for the same reasons. I'm all for buying at the deadline, but our winning team formula doesn't have Fairbanks on the team. Fairbanks $13 million dollar contract is the only reason why he's still around (he's not around because he's performing well), and is the only reason why William Kempner is still stuck in AAA dominating AAA batters, when he should be dominating MLB batters.

Seattle's offense has been stinking it up. Julio Rodriguez hit the IL, and Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone is carrying the team. The only thing they've got is pitching, and their pitching is looking mortal this year. 2-1 Marlins. Otto Lopez MVP.

@Jose Herrera Pete Fairbanks is cooked. I'm sorry. That $13 million was a mistake. I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he exited a game with a 6.65 ERA by saying they should have him pitch in lower-leverage situations, but high enough where it matters, to see if they can get him back on track. But I don't think the way he's performing suggests he'll be effective in even that role. Yes, his xERA is nearly 3 full runs lower than his actual ERA, which suggest there's been bad batted ball luck, but we're already at the All-Star break. At this point of the season, you have to stop looking at performance predictors, and start looking at results. Pete Fairbanks just isn't getting his job done, and that's what matters. If the Marlins want to win, they have to cut bait. They'll have to DFA him and eat his contract, or trade him for an unranked prospect just to get the contract off their hands.

I was watching the game and just witnessed Lake Bachar lose the perfect game, and then lose the no-hitter almost instantly. I got yanked away from the game, unable to watch the rest of it, and in my head, I was thinking, "Man, it would be so funny if the Marlins ended up losing this game," That ALMOST happened. That would've been PEAK Marlins. I was literally just kidding, and they almost made it happen. Now I have some serious questions about the Marlins bullpen after this past week.

LolMets.

He was sent packing because he was a malignant cancer that would compromise the locker room. I would make this trade again, even with hindsight in tow. Especially since, without Josh Bell, the Marlins do not have their cinderella 2023.

They're already giving Aiva reps at 3B. If he's getting big league experience, it's likely it'll be at 3B, where we have zero answers for currently. Starlyn Caba is a different story. He's not going to be a third baseman, and he has no real lane to get playing time at the MLB level. Sure, he's having a good season, but after putting up nothing but mediocre seasons, the real question should be, instead of asking if Otto Lopez is a flash in the pan (he isn't), you should be asking if this season a flash in the pan for Caba. You could make the case that the Marlins should extend Otto Lopez (hell he should've been extended this past offseason, what a huge missed opportunity) and sell high on Caba by flipping him for a frontline starting pitcher; preferably a left-hander. Garrett can't throw strikes, Snelling and White are OFS for this year and possibly next year, and Dax Fulton inexplicably hasn't been stretched out to be a starter this year.

What this tells me is that Clayton McCullough got out-managed. This really makes me wonder if he's holding this team back from its true potential.

I already had low expectations of Christopher Morel from the very start. He accomplished basically nothing for the past 2 years (in hitter-friendly confines mind you), so to expect him to magically revert to his 2023 form in the hitter's graveyard that is loanDepot Park in half of his games was nothing short of an absolutely ridiculous pipe dream. I panned this contract the moment it was signed, and they held onto him for way too long. Literally any AAA no-face could come up to the big leagues and do what he did but better. The easiest move they could've done was to train Agustin Ramirez at first base in the offseason, but that would mean they admitted they're wrong about the Jazz Chisholm Jr trade. Their ego is way too high above the clouds to ever admit they're wrong about guys they gave up all-star talents for. Christopher Morel is what happens when you combine ownership cheapness with a sky-high ego.

At what point do they stretch out a guy like Dax Fulton and build him up to about 4 or 5 inning starts? I'd rather them give him a shot at the rotation than continue to rely on bullpen games 2 out of every 5 games.

Great series win! ...but why is Christopher Morel still here?

Can you believe there are some people who think Otto Lopez isn't an All-Star? All because he allowed 9 errors on the season? If Otto's "bad" at fielding, then by that logic, Elly De La Cruz is terrible, and CJ Abrams is gruesome. That's such a ridiculous claim to make. I don't know. Is leading ALL OF BASEBALL in batting average and in hits, being a good baserunner, and being an excellent defender enough to be on the All-Star team? Yes, of course it is. Hell, I'll make the argument that this is enough for him to start the All-Star game. I still think the Marlins had a huge missed opportunity to extend him in the offseason by not even talking to him at all. He had a modest improvement on his offensive profile and he's an excellent defender at short. Good hitters who are good fielders at the hardest position to field at don't grow on trees. You make sure you secure them a bag before anything else. Now, because of this breakout, and the lack of extension talks, we now begin counting down the days until Otto Lopez gets traded because of this skinflint ownership.

Develop Arquette as a 3rd baseman. We have literally 0 answers at 3rd base, and no, Graham Pauley and Connor Norby don't count. And trading him for an all-star 3B doesn't make sense when he could potentially be one. If there's anyone the Marlins could be trading, it could be one of their many surplus of outfielders. Cam Cannarella is good, but can he be trusted to develop power as he ages? Is he going to receive ample playing time to do so? At least Aiva has an open lane to the majors. I don't see an open lane for Cam.

I've always panned the Ryan Weathers trade, and this is a pretty big reason why. Now, I wasn't expecting literally everyone to have Tommy John surgery, or in the case of Thomas White, have shoulder surgery, which could carry future TOS implications. But even taking away all the freak injuries, the pitching depth wasn't all that great in the first place, which was why I was stunned when they traded Ryan Weathers. The team didn't need outfield depth. They needed to retain their starting pitching depth. That trade hurt them short-term, and doesn't help them long-term. It didn't make any sense from all angles. This trade, and all these injuries, set this team back at least 2 years.

I suggest relegating Fairbanks to the 7th inning. It's a lower leverage job, but high leverage enough to matter in most games. That will take the pressure off of him and allow him to get his footing again. If he can't do even that, then cut bait, and eat the remaining of his salary. It's not worth the sunk-cost fallacy when the team's already depleted of nearly all of its starting pitching depth. Speaking of starting pitching depth, where is Dax Fulton? Why isn't he up in the majors? He could help turn this 3-man rotation into a 4-man rotation and try to help a gassed bullpen.

At this point, when you have this many one-year whiffs (lets not forget last year's mistakes), it starts to become almost as bad as a multi-year flop. Makes you start to question Miami's use of analytics.

Okay. Credit where credit is due. Clayton McCullough realized how godawful Pete Fairbanks has been this season, and that he wasn't getting anyone out. Props for realizing something isn't going to work out and bringing in someone else to finish the job. And, with that, I think the Marlins now have a $13 million dollar problem on their hands. They can't just keep chucking him out there in the 9th inning hoping he naturally fixes himself. They've got expectations to win.

You can count Snelling out for the rest of this year, and likely the rest of next year too, because of Tommy John Surgery. As for Thomas White, gotta hope he doesn't suffer a setback. Which, considering shoulder injuries and how brittle the shoulder joints typically are, very well could be on the table. You're basically praying Noble Meyer figures out how to throw strikes. Given his track record so far, not looking good.

Simply put, the Marlins rushed Andrew Salas and it stunted his development. Starting his professional career at Low-A Jupiter and skipping DSL and FCL entirely was a bold move. Having him repeat that level this year even when he was massively overmatched last year was certainly a choice. They finally sent him down to FCL now, but honestly? He should've been sent down to FCL last year the instant his slumps started extending. He's 18 so he has plenty of time to turn it around, but he will no longer be the next 20-year-old MLB star that the Marlins envisioned him to be, that's for sure.