Marlins’ time has come to start showing progress on the field originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The National League East sent two very different teams to the playoffs in 2020.
One was the Atlanta Braves, winners of each of the previous two division titles with a young core that rivaled any other in the game. The other? The Miami Marlins, who hadn’t made the playoffs in 17 years before sneaking in as the sixth seed in the NL with a 31-29 record.
Miami went into the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign with low expectations. The team was still in the midst of a rebuild that began when Derek Jeter assumed control of the club in 2017. In the season prior, the Marlins went 57-105 and finished with the lowest run differential in the NL at -193. Their division also appeared stacked, featuring the Braves, the defending World Series champion Nationals, a rebooted Philadelphia Phillies roster and the always-going-for-it New York Mets.
But by October 2020, only the Braves and Marlins were still standing. Miami even won a playoff series, sweeping the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in the Wild Card round before Atlanta knocked the Marlins out in the NLDS. Now, the Marlins are pushing toward 2021 with the hope of carrying over that success.
Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald joined NBC Sports Washington’s Nationals Talk podcast for an NL East roundtable. McPherson explained why the Marlins have a chip on their shoulder as the calendar turns to 2021.
“Their goal this year is to build on the momentum from last year and prove that it wasn’t a fluke of making the playoffs just because it was the 60-game schedule and the expanded field,” McPherson said. “They are going in knowing that it’s Year 4 of the rebuild constructed by Derek Jeter. They’re at the point where they can’t just be relying on selling hope, selling that they have the farm system, they have the guys up and coming. They need the results and the results have to start coming now.”
Miami’s roster is built around a slew of young pitchers. Sandy Alcantara (25), Elieser Hernández (25), Pablo López (24), Trevor Rogers (23) and Sixto Sánchez (22) are expected to make up their starting five, though manager Don Mattingly hasn’t ruled out capping some of their innings to help them get through a full 162-game season. Behind them are several of their top prospects as well as Daniel Castano, who got an opportunity when the Marlins experienced a coronavirus outbreak and ran with it.
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The offense is a little less certain. Miguel Rojas was the Marlins’ best hitter in 2020, but his career numbers suggest that was a product of a small sample size. Former top prospects Lewis Brinson and Jorge Alfaro didn’t take the steps forward that Miami was hoping for and rookie Jazz Chisholm hit an uninspiring .161 in limited action. Brian Anderson, Garrett Cooper, Jesús Aguilar, Starling Marte and Corey Dickerson are all solid players, but none boast the star power to anchor the middle of the lineup.
Of course, the bar is expected to be raised in 2021 by the rest of the NL East as well. The Braves are reloading, the Nationals have a bevy of roster holes they plan to address, the Mets have a new billionaire owner looking to spend and the Phillies hired Dave Dombrowski in an attempt to turn their franchise around. After several teams in the division saw their worst-case scenarios unfold in 2020, the race for the NL East title will likely be tighter next season.
The Marlins plan to be right in the thick of that race. But first, they must prove that their 2020 success was a sign of what’s to come. If they don’t, Miami could very quickly be left behind by the rest of the pack.
