In 2023, the Miami Marlins returned to the postseason for just the second time since 2003. (That's the generous version, which requires you count the shortened 2020 season.) They rolled out this lineup in their first Wild Card game against the Phillies:
- Luis Arraez 2B
- Jorge Soler DH
- Josh Bell 1B
- Jazz Chisholm Jr. CF
- Jake Burger 3B
- Bryan De La Cruz LF
- Jesús Sánchez RF
- Jon Berti SS
- Nick Fortes C
Not one year later, three of those guys remain on the team. Berti was traded to the Yankees this past offseason; Soler signed with the Giants in free agency; four more departed in the Marlins' prolonged season sell-off, which began back in May and ended with surely the busiest deadline day in MLB on Tuesday.
The Marlins had begun the year 9-25 when newly hired Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix decided to call it a wrap and trade Luis Arráez to the Padres, a rare early-season flicker on the hot stove. At the time, Bendix told a reporter that it was a “difficult type of move to make” and one he knew sent “a difficult message in the short term.” If Arráez is a polarizing player—a one-tool guy whose one tool has won him batting championships—he was also a fan-favorite All-Star and the face of the 2023 team. The trade no doubt felt familiar to Marlins fans, who know never to grow too attached.
Marlins fans probably won't miss a scuffling Josh Bell, whom the Diamondbacks picked up yesterday to be an injury replacement for Christian Walker at first base. The 26-year-old Jazz Chisholm Jr., who socked four towering home runs in his first three games in Yankee pinstripes, may be a different story. Also, Bryan De La Cruz is on the Pirates now. And those are just the position players. The Marlins also dealt closer Tanner Scott and middle reliever Bryan Hoeing to the Padres, sent a controllable lefty starter in Trevor Rogers to the Orioles, traded righty reliever Huascar Brazobán to the Mets, shipped lefty reliever A.J. Puk to the Diamondbacks, and jettisoned JT Chargois to the Mariners. It's enough to make a blogger need more synonyms for "trade."
By the end of Tuesday, the Marlins' roster was nine major-league players lighter, and Miami's farm system had essentially absorbed San Diego's. Only the fan who bought a Jake Burger jersey is safe—and who knows for how long?
“It’s certainly been stressful, but it’s been exceptionally exciting. We have an opportunity here to really build a first-class organization and I’ve been entrusted to make that happen and I’m very honored by that,” Bendix told the Marlins Radio Network after the deadline. “The last month in particular, I think we’ve been able to add a tremendous amount of talent to the organization that’s going to serve us well.”
There were reasons for Bendix to doubt the existing version of the Marlins. They made the playoffs last year with a record-low negative-57 run differential, and possibly record-high levels of dawg and clutch; the 2023 Marlins went 33-14 in one-run games. After being bounced from the playoffs in two games, Miami paid the price for all that good fortune in rotation injuries this year: Sandy Alcántara, the runaway Cy Young winner in 2022, was shut down late last season and eventually underwent Tommy John surgery. Precocious Eury Pérez delivered on the “baseball’s best pitching prospect” hype in his brief call-up last year, but also needed Tommy John this spring. When the club scratched Jesús Luzardo from a start because of back inflammation in late June, he became the seventh starter on the injured list. At 38-68 before the deadline, the Marlins were long doomed to a lost season.
Conventional MLB wisdom goes that the team stripped for parts is a "deadline winner." But whether the Marlins have won the deadline depends on a lot more: whether the new front office can actually develop the “tremendous amount of talent” they've acquired, and whether they can make the necessary investments to retain them. It's easy to sell. It takes a lot more courage to be a Marlins fan.
