By Jonah Drew

Lets take a minute to rewind to October 25th, 2022, the Marlins were coming off of yet another abysmal season and had recently fired Manager Don Mattingly. On this date, then GM, Kim Ng hired 11 year MLB vet and former Padres Bench Coach, Skip Schumaker to be their Manager. Fastfoward a couple of to January 20nd, 2023 and Kim Ng scores a blockbuster deal, trading up and coming ace Pablo Lopez, along with prospect Jose Salas for the reigning batting champ, Luis Arraez(More on him later). Despite the move, there were very little expectations heading into 2023, and certainly nobody thought they would break their full season playoff drought that had been standing since their World Series victory all the way back in 2003.

The 2022 Marlins had some ridiculous bad luck in one run games but regression to the mean was all but inevitable. This proved to be the case as the Marlins had a record of 35-17 in games decided by one run. The Marlins were long starved for any thing that resembled offensive firepower but that changed too as Luis Arraez won his second batting title, batting .354, and posting an OPS+ of 132. Jesus Luzardo and Braxton Garrett were effective and Uber reliable southpaws to go along with the scattered dominance of Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez(Both of whom are out with Tommy John Surgery). All of this lead to them snapping their full season playoff drought, winning 84 games and scoring a wild card berth. This scored them a date with the Phillies at the Bank and well, it did not go well. Behind a rowdy Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies beat Miami handedly in both games en route to a 2 game sweep. Unfortunately, this looks like it will be the last Marlins baseball we will see in October for a while.

In a shocking turn of events, Bruce Sherman and Miami Marlins ownership fired the Woman who brought Marlins baseball back to relevancy in General Manager, Kim Ng. Bruce Sherman has long salivated over the Tampa Bay Rays model of spending little to no money and still being a playoff team year in and year out. With that in mind, it only made sense that he quickly hired those same Rays GM, Peter Bendix to fill Ng’s shoes. Rumors of the Bendix and the Marlins looking to tear it down with a trade of young stars Luis Arraez and Jesus Luzardo. The former did not take very long as on May 4th, Arraez was dealt to the San Diego Padres in a deal for Woo Suk Go, Dillon Head, Nathan Mortarella, and Jakob Marsee. This is a lot to unpack with this mid season blockbuster deal but rather let’s discuss how we got to this current juncture.

Coming of a playoff berth, the Marlins were looking to get back to the Postseason. To say the least you wouldn’t know it by the way they started the season. The Marlins got swept in a 4 game set with the Pirates, then got swept in a 3 game set with the Halos, then promptly got their first win in a series loss with St. Louis. This pathetic start was a sign of things to come as it somehow took the Marlins until the month of May to even win a series, where they beat the equally poor, Colorado Rockies.

Not only are they losing, they are embarrasing themselves in the process. Their current bWAR leader(.9) and former 3rd overall pick, Max Meyer is currently in triple A right now. Their big move of the off-season and another former batting champion, Tim Anderson is currently a -.4 win player, barely hitting over the Mendoza line, 35 OPS+, and has some of the most appalling peripherals you will ever see. The man tasked with constructing this team, Peter Bendix flat out said “We are unlikely to make the playoffs this year”(via @CraigMish on X). You rarely hear GMs say this at any point in the year but in the beginning of May with this much Baseball left? Now that is just unforeseen. This is how you inspire hope in a struggling fan base? Now that Luis Arraez is gone I would frankly be suprised if players like Jazz Chisholm and Jesus Luzardo are playing in Miami in August and beyond. It is clear what Peter Bendix wants, he wants to model his team after the Marlins of 20 years ago. He wants to completely tear it down, start from scratch and attempt to set themselves up to contend with a new core. It remains to be seen how successful he is but this sure has all the makings of a major league disaster.

Sources

Baseball Reference

Baseball Savant

Fangraphs

Fox Sports

@CraigMish