ForeverMarlins

I blame you lol

That's really the bottom line. I don't think we would've seen Skip not own his decision and the ramifications of said decision like we saw from Clayton last night.

I wrote this last night and I’ve cooled down a little bit. But I think it’s better to say what I meant without censoring myself so I'll present it as I wrote it fresh off of last night's heart-breaker. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this angry about a baseball game before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no stranger to disappointment, sadness, frustration, and, at times, utter destitution. I’m a Marlins fan. It’s kind of what we do. I’m prone to a good old Twitter rant when a Josh Simpson or Valente Bellozo type blows a game for us and I’ve definitely said some things about Brucey Boy that would make some of y’all shudder. But anger is different. It turns people into the worst versions of themselves, and I’m a family man. For as much as baseball is my favorite thing in the world, it’s never felt worth that kind of emotion- not in a truly genuine way. But tonight, I’m angry. I was born into Marlins fandom, swaddled in a Marlins towel in my parents’ apartment off Kendall in ’94. My only memories of my grandpa are of the two of us watching Boles’ boys at Joe Robbie in ’99. My mom’s inaugural season cola bottles sat on a high pantry shelf in every home we moved to, from Miami all the way to Austin, Texas. I take my daughters to a different city every year to watch the Marlins play. I'm flying to Kansas City in September just to watch the boys play. This team has been a part of me for as long as I can remember. As trivial as sports can seem, this means something to me. So yeah, I have more than a little fondness for the franchise ace, Sandy Alcantara. That Cy Young season ignited something in a lot of us. It showed us the Marlins had a future when that felt very much in doubt. It showed us we could retain talent. It showed us we could have star power. When he went down with Tommy John, the future felt uncertain again. And when he came back, it was hard to watch. I’ll be the first to admit I was vocal about wanting to trade him. I didn’t think he’d bounce back. Looking back, I’m a little ashamed of that. I was so focused on the direction Bendix was taking the club that I convinced myself our old workhorse didn’t have a place anymore after a handful of bad starts. That feels foolish to write now, but that’s where I was. The bounce-back that started in the second half of last season felt like a renaissance, like maybe the suffering was finally coming to an end. And sitting a few rows back on Opening Day this year, watching Sandy carve through the Rockies, it felt real. Following that up with a Maddux only reinforced it. Today, I sat my daughters on the couch and had them watch because they’ve never seen a complete game before and it felt like this might be their chance. Who better than El Caballo? As the eighth inning wore on, I was biting my nails. When the first out of the ninth came, I was on my feet. Even after the double, I didn’t doubt him. Not for a second. But I knew Clayton was getting twitchy. My fear wasn’t “we might lose this game.” It was “he’s going to pull Sandy.” One walk later, he did. We all saw what happened next. Despite any logic or feel for the moment, Clayton went to Anthony Bender. The result was the worst-case scenario. Sandy gets a no-decision after a gem, gets charged with two runs he likely avoids if he stays in, and the bullpen blows it in humiliating fashion. Bender and Calvin Faucher failed spectacularly to have their ace’s back, continuing a weekend-long display of bullpen ineptitude. At this point, I’m just grateful John King exists to clean up everyone else’s mess. Sure, an Agustín Ramírez base hit could’ve walked it off and salvaged some dignity, but that’s not the point. What makes me angrier than anything is this: Clayton McCullough disrespected Sandy. I get the logic. Bender had a good year last season. On paper, he’s a ground-ball guy. One out, runner on first, tight game, Sandy nearing 100 pitches. I understand the reasoning. But this is one of those moments where you have to look up from the spreadsheet and watch the game in front of you. Your ace just opened the season with 24 scoreless innings across 3 starts. He’s rolling. Yes, there are runners on. But this is Sandy. If anyone can get out of that jam, it’s him. And honestly, I think a lot of us feel the same way: if we’re going to lose that game, I’d rather lose Sandy’s game by Sandy’s hand than hand it off in the name of process. If your ace is on the mound in the ninth, you let him finish. Especially in April. Pair that with Clayton’s complete lack of accountability postgame and it starts to feel like malpractice. It puts a real dent in the hope a lot of us had for this season. Because if this is how he treats Sandy in April, what are we in for in September? More Michael Petersen blown saves while we’re trying to stay in the race? This is a rare moment of black-hole pessimism for me. There were good things in this game. I still believe in this team’s potential. But it’s hard not to feel like we might need someone else steering things in the dugout if this team is going to get where it should go. If not for everything else, then for the worst sin of all: Not trusting his guys when they’ve earned it.

As the offseason drags on and we see more and more eligible players getting snatched up by teams willing to open their wallets while the Marlins remain silent, hope begins to dissipate that this will, in fact, be the season when Sherman coughs up the dough. I don’t necessarily think that this is the worst thing in the world as I don’t really think we need to be treating 2026 as the target year anyways. More importantly, I don’t want to think in terms of target years at all anymore; I am far more interested in seeing us take our time under the relatively new Bendix regime to lay the groundwork for the Fish to be perennial contenders than to go all-in on a season in the somewhat immediate future and blow out our prospects and capital for suboptimal results. This approach is not satisfying for the understandably downtrodden Marlins fan that just wants to see us win another ring- I get that, but the last thing that I (and I imagine many other Fish-heads) want to see is for us to get that ring and then subsequently blow it for two straight decades. See, nobody ever thinks of the Brewers or the Rays and thinks “those teams suck” the way they do the Marlins and the Marlins have actually won two championships over the Rays’ and Brewers’ zero. That’s because those teams have prioritized long-term optimization over short-sighted ring chases and it would take a shock to the core of both of those teams’ rosters and exceptional farm systems to take them out of the contender conversation. I say all of this to make this point: I would be fine with the Marlins spending relatively little this season in order to focus on bolstering the farm and giving position players much-needed reps at the Major League level. For example, more than enough has been said about Agustín Ramírez’s defensive capabilities in the catcher position- I don’t intend to pile on any more than I already have, but the organization has made it clear that they view Ramírez as a catcher and that he will be getting plenty of reps in that position- even with Joe Mack waiting in the wings. While many have scoffed at this notion (myself included), I understand the utility of pushing a player to be a viable defensive asset when the bat has this much potential at his age and I understand that the Marlins are in a very important transitional period in which we can afford to take some losses in exchange for the possibility of growth for potential long-term assets like Ramírez. Which brings me to the heart of it all: the Marlins need a first baseman. I think we all get by now that the Marlins are desperately in need of competence in that position for the 2026 season and beyond after the paltry season from the Marlins’ primary first baseman, Eric Wagaman in 2025, but unless the front office is going to pull the trigger on someone like Yandy Diaz or Pete Alonso (that one is my pipe dream, but let me have it), it would seem as though we will be looking at internal options. We could, of course, run it back with Wagaman- it would be a very Marlins move and his offensive numbers still show him batting under his potential so I wouldn’t be surprised to see this. Alternatively, we’ve also heard murmurs that Heriberto Hernandez and Griffin Conine could be seeing reps at first and, while this doesn’t feel crazy given how much we like their bats, neither one is a seasoned defensive first baseman by any metric so it feels like a stretch. Liam Hicks took reps at first last season and was serviceable, but I don’t think that many of us are particularly excited about that option as he really does just feel like a placeholder there. As you comb through the farm system, it doesn’t seem like any of the established AAA corner infielders are ready for the majors be it Jacob Berry, Nathan Martorella, or Johnny Olmstead. But there’s one option that seems to have fallen off of a lot of our radars until somewhat recently- someone who has actually been on the Marlins 40-man roster for a while: Deyvison De Los Santos who I will be referring to going forward as DDLS for brevity’s sake. DDLS was signed as an international free agent by the Diamondbacks in 2019, but because of the cancellation of the minor league season in 2020, wouldn’t play a pro game until 2021, when he joined the Arizona Complex League Diamondbacks. His strong hit tool would help him ascend the ranks quickly as he found his way all the way to AA the following year. In 2023, he was picked up by the Guardians in the Rule 5 draft, but was returned before the season even began at which point he would play AAA ball until being traded to Miami in 2024 along with outfielder Andrew Pintar for Marlins pitcher, A.J. Puk. Fans were understandably high on DDLS when this happened and it wasn’t an uncommon sentiment that he would be a major player in the Marlins’ 2025 season. Yet that moment never came. From the trade all the way through the end of the 2025 season, we would see DDLS fail to break out in Jacksonville with the Marlins AAA affiliate. In 2024, his OPS dropped from .926 with the Reno Aces to .743 with the Jumbo Shrimp. By the end of his 2025 season, it had plummeted all the way to .674. Though DDLS is blessed with superb exit velocity numbers (even boasting a 100th percentile Max Exit Velocity of 118.5mph) and a plus hard-hit percentage, his pull was weak, he had a sub-optimal barrel rate, and he was one of the worst on the team in strikeouts, walks, chase, whiff, zone contact, and swinging strikes. When comparing these stats to his numbers in 2024, the most notable dip came from his failure to barrel which went from 11.8% all the way down to 5.9%, thus leaving many of his batted balls in the infield or shallow outfield while harshly diminishing his slug. Just look at his spray charts courtesy of Prospect Savant to see for yourself how much less bang for his buck that DDLS got on his balls in play from '24 (left) to '25 (right). Regardless of that, it’s not crazy to wonder if it would be worth giving him a cup of coffee with the Fish this season to see if he could be an improvement upon our current set of circumstances at first. Just as I was starting to get on board the DDLS train for the second time, a thought occurred to me: why wasn’t DDLS with the recently crowned National AAA champions during their playoffs run? There were certainly Jacksonville players with lower floors and ceilings who did play. He wasn’t reported injured. So why wasn’t he ripping dingers with the boys? No amount of statistical data could give me a super clear-cut answer here so I decided to get on the ground and talk to someone who might have more insight. In the pursuit of more information, I talked to an anonymous Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp season ticket-holder, friend of the AAA front office, and someone who I just generally consider a ball-knower who was able to provide some clarity here. First in response to my questions about DDLS’ viability as a potential Major League first baseman, the source said “DDLS is average at best at first. He has range issues when it comes to throws to first.” They went on to say “[DDLS] doesn’t seem to know how to cover the bad and come off for a bad throw.” Defensive concerns at what is widely considered to be one of the easier defensive positions in baseball are a bummer to hear in the context of a player whom many of us are contending with as a serious prospect, but these seemed to be the least of my source’s concerns as they went on to describe a much deeper issue: DDLS’ attitude towards his position saying that he’s “the last one on the field and the last one off as he walks both ways”. As for his absence during September, the source heard rumors that DDLS may have actually been disciplined by the team. These sorts of things are what I would consider to be intangibles that go beyond a player’s performance on the diamond. It begs the question: can Deyvison De Los Santos be a viable option for a club that seems to be very dependent on the power of friendship? I mean, it doesn’t take much to realize that the team in 2025 was a group of feel-good vibes guys being managed by a feel-good vibes guy who were thrilled to celebrate the accomplishments and successes of their peers. This is the sort of intangible that I would deem crucial to the continued success of the team and it seems like we’re asking for trouble if we’re willing to potentially jeopardize that just to roll the dice on a player that has upside, but has thus far failed to deliver. I can’t really know if Deyvison De Los Santos can be salvaged from over a year of underachieving, but I’d hate to see this team lose that spark that they found last season in an effort to find out. For now, only time will tell.

Couldn’t agree more. I was very low on him this season and now I’m legitimately excited to see how his next season develops.

With the Mesa Solar Sox’s Arizona Fall League season coming to a close yesterday, I thought it’d be interesting to stack the players’ pre-AFL numbers against what they did under the desert lights, and take a moment to analyze what those performances actually mean. The AFL is, by nature, a small sample size. While it’s an important developmental checkpoint, it’s not a crystal ball. Any progress or regression we saw over the last month and a half should be taken seriously but not treated as gospel. (AFL ranks listed are based on OPS for hitters and ERA for pitchers. Players are ranked specifically amongst their teammates in the Solar Sox as opposed to the whole league.) Starlyn Caba – 19 y/o, Dominican Republic SS, B/T: S/R - Single-A Jupiter Hammerheads / Rank: 8/18 2025 Regular Season: 51 G, 194 AB - .222/.335/.278/.613 43 H - 35 1B / 6 2B / 1 3B / 1 HR 21 RBI, 14 SB / 6 CS, 34 BB, 34 SO 2025 AFL Season: 18 G, 74 AB - .297/.409/.419/.828 22 H - 17 1B / 3 2B / 0 3B / 2 HR 10 RBI, 2 SB / 3 CS, 14 BB, 19 SO What it means: Starlyn Caba’s AFL performance is a sigh of relief for every Fish fan who was starting to feel like we got fleeced in the Jesús Luzardo trade. Caba’s jump from a .613 OPS in Single-A to .828 in the AFL shows impressive adaptability and an ability to handle more advanced pitching. His power ticked up without sacrificing plate discipline, suggesting real maturation in his approach. The combination of better contact quality, on-base skills, and emerging extra-base pop points toward a genuine high-contact, high-OBP middle infielder profile. If he carries this into 2026, a jump to High-A or even a quick push to Double-A looks well within reach. PJ Morlando – 20 y/o, Maryland OF, B/T: L/R - Single-A Jupiter Hammerheads / Rank: 16/18 2025 Regular Season: 58 G, 205 AB - .215/.371/.332/.703 44 H - 31 1B / 7 2B / 1 3B / 5 HR 30 RBI, 8 SB / 1 CS, 46 BB, 71 SO 2025 AFL Season: 18 G, 59 AB - .136/.261/.136/.397 8 H - 8 1B / 0 2B / 0 3B/ 0 HR 5 RBI, 4 SB / 0 CS, 9 BB, 23 SO What it means: There’s no way to sugarcoat this one. As rough as PJ Morlando’s regular season was, his AFL stint was even rougher. A .397 OPS with zero extra-base hits makes it clear he was overmatched. He couldn’t translate his regular-season discipline into actual impact against higher-level arms. The bat-to-ball issues, swing decisions, and ability to handle velocity all look like works in progress. As a number-one pick, expectations have been sky-high, and his continued inability to produce is setting off alarms for anyone paying attention. The talent is still there, but the timeline looks longer and more uncertain than anyone hoped. Fenwick Trimble – 23 y/o, Virginia OF, B/T: R/R - Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos / Rank: 10/18 2025 Regular Season: 84 G, 296 AB - .253/.372/.402/.774 75 H - 47 1B / 19 2B / 2 3B / 7 HR 41 RBI, 31 SB / 4 CS, 49 BB, 67 SO 2025 AFL Season: 21 G, 68 AB - .265/.388/.412/.800 18 H - 12 1B / 4 2B / 0 3B/ 2 HR 10 RBI, 11 SB / 1 CS, 13 BB, 14 SO What it means: The Fenwick Trimble hype train keeps rolling. His slight OPS bump doesn’t fully reflect the real progress under the hood. He maintained his plate discipline, kept the speed impact alive, and showed that his contact skills carry over against stronger competition. Trimble feels like one of the safest, highest-floor developmental wins in the system right now - a steady table-setter type with potential to exceed that ceiling if the power keeps inching upward. At the rate he’s going, a 2027 spring training look - or even a late 2026 cameo - doesn’t feel crazy anymore. Holt Jones – 26 y/o, Connecticut RHP - High-A Beloit Sky Carp / Rank: 3/24 Pitch Mix: big slider, heavy usage sinker & sweeper, light usage curve & changeup 2025 Regular Season: 34 G, 4.78 ERA, 47.1 IP, 62 K, 1.89 WHIP, 8.03 BB9, 11.85 K9 2025 AFL Season: 8 G, 2.23 ERA, 12.1 IP, 11 K, 0.99 WHIP, 5.21 BB9, 8.18 K9 What it means: Easily my biggest surprise of the AFL. Holt Jones didn’t just hold his own - he excelled. His ERA and WHIP both saw dramatic improvements, putting him squarely at the front of the Marlins cohort of arms out there. He executed his slider-focused arsenal with more consistency, limited baserunners, and trimmed down the walk rate. The command still isn’t pristine, but it’s enough to project him as a legitimate multi-inning relief weapon or depth starter if this sticks. Big riser in the org. Karson Milbrandt – 21 y/o, Missouri RHP – Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos / Rank: 10/24 Pitch Mix: low 90’s four-seam touching 96-99 with carry & arm-side run, good curve, developing slider and changeup 2025 Regular Season: 22 G, 3.00 ERA, 90 IP, 113 K, 1.28 WHIP, 4.80 BB9, 11.30 K9 2025 AFL Season: 5 G, 4.81 ERA, 13.1 IP, 23 K, 1.22 WHIP, 5.50 BB9, 15.80 K9 What it means: Not a horrible showing by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely short of the breakout I predicted. Milbrandt’s ERA climbed, but the strikeout surge is impossible to ignore. The stuff clearly plays against advanced competition. What held him back was scattered command and sequencing lapses - mistakes that AFL hitters punished. Still, his ceiling didn’t change. The fastball-curve combo is legit, and with sharper command and continued development on the slider and changeup, he remains one of the more exciting starting prospects in the system. Aiden May – 22 y/o, New Mexico RHP – Single-A Jupiter Hammerheads / Rank: 4/24 Pitch Mix: heavy usage mid-90’s sinker, plus-plus sweeper, developing changeup & cutter 2025 Regular Season: 10 G, 2.66 ERA, 27.1 IP, 30 K, 1.11 WHIP, 5.31 BB9, 9.96 K9 2025 AFL Season: 5 G, 2.98 ERA, 15.1 IP, 15 K, 1.13 WHIP, 4.77 BB9, 8.94 K9 What it means: May continues to be one of the more quietly effective arms the Marlins drafted in recent years. His AFL numbers mostly mirror his regular-season line - steady ERA, solid WHIP, and manageable walk rates. His sinker-sweeper pairing worked just fine against more advanced bats, and he showed enough polish to strongly indicate he’s outgrown Single-A. The big developmental hinge now is whether his changeup or cutter can emerge enough to round out a true starter’s mix, but either way, this AFL stint should bump him up the ladder. Darwin Rodriguez – 21 y/o, Venezuela RHP - Single-A Jupiter Hammerheads / Rank: 13/24 Pitch Mix: mid-high 90’s fastball, high-spin curve, developing changeup 2025 Regular Season: 4 G, 8.44 ERA, 3.2 IP, 4 K, 2.19 WHIP, 16.88 BB9, 11.25 K9 2025 AFL Season: 7 G, 6.59 ERA, 8.2 IP, 6 K, 2.32 WHIP, 10.98 BB9, 6.59 K9 What it means: Rodriguez missed almost two straight seasons due to injury, so the AFL was more about evaluation than results. Unfortunately, the issues that plagued him before injury remain. The command isn’t there, the walk rate is sky-high, and advanced hitters had no problem waiting him out. The raw stuff is loud enough to dream on, but the refinement isn’t close. Without major improvement in mechanics or strike throwing, it’s hard to envision a meaningful role taking shape. Jack Sellinger – 25 y/o, Nevada LHP – Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos / Rank: 15/24 Pitch Mix: plus slider with consistent sweeper, sinker, changeup 2025 Regular Season: 40 G, 2.31 ERA, 66.2 IP, 89 K, 1.19 WHIP, 5.44 BB9, 12.10 K9 2025 AFL Season: 7 G, 7.71 ERA, 7 IP, 12 K, 1.57 WHIP, 2.57 BB9, 15.43 K9 What it means: In what was my biggest surprise of the Fall League, Sellinger’s showing was rough - though not without silver linings. The ERA ballooned and mistakes over the plate got punished, but the strikeout rate spiking to 15.4 K/9 shows the stuff absolutely plays. The issue is consistency. When he locates, he’s flat-out nasty; when he doesn’t, the ball lands a mile south of anyone's glove. He remains a viable high-strikeout lefty with upside, but command and sequencing need to sharpen for him to succeed against upper-minors hitters. All told, this AFL run gave us a pretty honest snapshot of where the Marlins’ next wave of talent actually stands. We saw real leaps from Caba, Trimble, Jones, and May - players who either strengthened their prospect case or outright jumped tiers. We also saw reality checks for Morlando and Rodriguez who both flashed their ceilings, but also showed just how far they still are from reliably reaching them. Meanwhile my thoughts about Sellinger and Milbrandt's respective upsides remain relatively unchanged due to just how stark the difference in performance was from regular season to the fall. The Fall League isn’t a verdict, but it exposes flaws, rewards real skill, and gives us a glimpse into which players are ready for more and which ones still need to figure it out. If nothing else, it gave us plenty to look forward to (and plenty to keep an eye on) heading into 2026.

I'm definitely concerned with Nardi since we haven't heard anything in two months, but I'm really hoping for some good news in that department soon.

The season isn’t over yet and, at the time of writing this, the Fish are still alive in the wild card hunt- hanging by a thread, but not yet mathematically eliminated. With four games left, that in itself is an accomplishment when you think back to the expectations (or lack thereof) for this team in March. Just to still have a shot in late September is monumental in the context of where the Marlins were supposed to be. That said, hope for postseason baseball can be intoxicating, but it’s also important to stay realistic. The truth is our odds are respectable if you view 2025 as a developmental season, but dreadful if you strip away that organizational framing. Still, this campaign has been invaluable for re-establishing trust in the front office and providing fans with a sense that the future isn’t in some far-off, perpetual rebuild horizon but possibly right around the corner- in 2026. That collective vision has sparked a lot of conversation about what foot the team will get off on next April. There’s constant chatter about the 2026 opening lineup, which minor leaguers could debut, and even some wish-casting about free-agent signings (Pete Alonso homecoming to Florida, anyone?). Most of those discussions, though, have focused on position players and the rotation. The bullpen has largely been left out, aside from some jokes about signing Tyler Phillips to a 40-year extension… or maybe that’s just me... and maybe I'm not joking. But the bullpen is critical, and this season has proved it over and over again. Questionable management decisions, overly cautious usage, and flat-out blown games have cost Miami more wins than a playoff-hopeful team can afford. If you watched last night's game (and many others this season), it was clear that there are quite simply guys in our bullpen that are drastically outmatched by major league hitters and that has cost the Fish their chance to stay in control of the race at too many points this season. So let’s have that conversation. A standard roster carries eight relievers, sometimes nine. With that in mind, here’s who I think should stick for 2026 and why- plus who should be left off, and a few honorable mentions worth watching. MY SEASON OPENERS IN THE BULLPEN 1. RONNY HENRIQUEZ – RHP 2025: 67 G, 2.31 ERA, 70 IP, 94 K, 1.10 WHIP, 3.34 BB/9, 12.09 K/9 This is the easiest call. Henriquez has been electric. At just 5’10” he’s an undersized fireballer, but the stuff plays big. He’s thrived in high-leverage all year, missing bats at an elite clip while keeping traffic on the bases low. There have been rough spots- as there always are with relievers- but when the Fish need three outs with the game on the line, Ronny’s the one you want jogging in. 2. TYLER PHILLIPS – RHP 2025: 52 G, 2.88 ERA, 75.1 IP, 52 K, 1.17 WHIP, 2.76 BB/9, 6.23 K/9 Phillips went from afterthought to workhorse to cult hero. He’s durable, he’s consistent, and he has the kind of energy that fires up a clubhouse. Watching him slap himself silly, light up the side punching out three straight, then stalk off the mound muttering and cursing is almost as good as the outs themselves. He’s not flashy, but he’s dependable, and every good bullpen needs one of those glue guys who can cover multiple innings or slot into setup when needed. 3. CADE GIBSON – LHP 2025: 41 G, 2.72 ERA, 53 IP, 41 K, 1.17 WHIP, 3.23 BB/9, 6.96 K/9 The rookie lefty has been a revelation. As the only left-hander in the bullpen to consistently hold his ground, Gibson’s value multiplies. He’s been steady, he’s been versatile, and he hasn’t had a blow-up outing yet. That reliability matters, and the fact he can do it from the left side makes him indispensable. 4. LAKE BACHAR – RHP 2025: 52 G, 3.98 ERA, 70.1 IP, 75 K, 1.20 WHIP, 3.85 BB/9, 9.63 K/9 Lake has been a steady middle-relief option, eating innings and getting enough outs to stick. He’s not without his rough patches, but he’s dependable volume- something every bullpen needs over the course of a long season. His future could also lie as a trade piece, but for now, he belongs. And yes, I will keep saying “your team just drowned in Lake Bachar” as long as he’s on the roster. 5. CALVIN FAUCHER – RHP 2025: 63 G, 3.40 ERA, 58.2 IP, 56 K, 1.29 WHIP, 3.56 BB/9, 8.66 K/9 Faucher is not without stress, but he’s delivered far more than he’s blown. Sharing late-inning duties with Henriquez, he’s earned trust despite some shaky moments. He’s not the guy you relax with, but he’s one you can win with and that matters. 6. ANTHONY BENDER – RHP 2025: 51 G, 2.16 ERA, 50 IP, 42 K, 1.06 WHIP, 3.78 BB/9, 7.56 K/9 Assuming he’s back from his tibial stress reaction by Opening Day, Bender is as close to a sure thing as this bullpen gets. He was nails before the injury, controlling games with command and poise. His return is one of the biggest swing factors for 2026. 7. MAX MEYER – RHP 2025: 12 G, 4.77 ERA, 64.2 IP, 68 K, 1.43 WHIP, 2.80 BB/9, 9.53 K/9 This one’s controversial, but it’s time. The starter experiment has run its course. Meyer’s stamina and inconsistency limit him in that role, but his raw stuff could thrive in bursts. A bullpen conversion gives him a chance to leverage the best parts of his arsenal without the weight of working deep into games. 8. ANDREW NARDI – LHP 2024: 59 G, 5.12 ERA, 49.2 IP, 70 K, 1.26 WHIP, 3.29 BB/9, 12.80 K/9 The Nard Dog missed 2025, but assuming he’s healthy, he’s too valuable to ignore. The major league left-handed depth is currently nonexistent and his 2024 peripherals (FIP/xFIP/xERA in the 2.7–3.5 range) suggest he was far better than his ERA indicated. With his fastball-slider mix, he can still be a high-leverage weapon if used correctly. HONORABLE MENTIONS MICHAEL PETERSEN – RHP He hasn’t had much time in the bigs, but what we’ve seen is intriguing. A mid-to-upper-90s heater paired with a cutter gives him legit swing-and-miss upside. He’s not fully baked, but he’s shown enough to earn another look. JOSH WHITE – RHP White’s minor league numbers scream for attention: 1.85 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 70 K. He’s been used mostly in relief and has the swing-and-miss stuff to play in the bigs. High variance, yes, but the upside is real. CHRISTIAN ROA – RHP Roa’s brief taste of the majors went well, and his AAA line (2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 64 K over 60.1 IP) backs it up. He’s done all he needs to in Jacksonville—now it’s time to see what he can do against MLB hitters over a longer stretch. WHO NEEDS TO GO George Soriano: A few good outings don’t erase the season’s damage. If he can regain 2023 form, let him prove it in the minors. Valente Bellozo: Loved his vibe early on, but the bullpen experiment has been a disaster. The velocity just isn’t there to survive MLB hitters. Josh Simpson: Simpson is not an MLB pitcher which may sound harsh, but it sure isn't unfounded- he just hasn’t shown he can stick in the majors. He needs a reset in the minors or with the Rakuten Monkeys, not more leash in Miami. This season has been about glimpses of what could be. The bullpen has been equal parts frustration and promise, but looking toward 2026, there’s a clear framework to build around. Henriquez and Phillips provide stability. Gibson and Nardi give balance from the left side. Bender’s return could be a difference-maker. Meyer’s reinvention might just salvage his role in the organization. Behind them, Petersen, White, Roa, and quite a few other promising minor league arms form a lineup of “next men up” who can fill inevitable gaps. That depth is something Miami hasn’t had in years, and it gives the front office options instead of desperation. So yes, the bullpen has been a sore spot, but it’s also a canvas for optimism. If the Marlins can manage roles better, trust the right arms, and let the talent dictate usage instead of babying, 2026 won’t just be about contention- it’ll be about finishing games the right way and for a franchise that’s been haunted by late-inning collapses, that could be the difference between “almost there” and “finally arrived.”

Marlins 2-1 MVP: Griffin Conine

Maybe there will be an opening in Miami...

I'll be at Globe Life Field for all three Marlins/Rangers games this weekend with my daughters. Anyone else happen to be going? I'd love to meet some other fish fans!

1-2 Tigers

Optimistically, I’ll predict 3-1 Fish. Realistically, I’ll call it 2-2.

Josh Simpson back from AAA. Marlins 0-3

I was 100% in the same boat. If you carve through my tweet history, you would surely find the phrase "The Edward Cabrera experiment is over". I've never been so happy for a player to make me eat crow than I am with him.