This Fightin’ Fish team is young AKA no experience AKA total rebuild AKA Mighty Ducks-esque. Owen Caissie has all of 26 Major League at-bats. Left-fielder Griffin Conine has 161. Catcher Liam Hicks is a grizzled veteran with 332 at-bats in comparison. The good news is the results have been in the .250-.260 range so far. 

Otto Lopez provides decent offense from the shortstop position. (21 homers in about the same number of at-bats as Edwards. Third baseman Connor Norby and outfielder, Heriberto Hernández are right there in that .250 zone, too. Graham Pauley

It looks like they are building around second baseman, Xavier Edwards, and if they are willing to spend money now, they have a chance to be really good for a really long time. If they don’t spend money now, MLB needs to step in and force a sale. The front office has done its job.  Edwards is a .304 career hitter with 65 steals in a season and a half.

On the mound, Sandy Alcantara was a Cy Young winner before a bum elbow knocked him out. His return last year was not good (5.36 ERA in 2025). Eury Pérez saw his ERA jump a full run last year after he also had Tommy John surgery. Max Meyer has gone from terrible (5.68 ERA in 2024) to not good.

All of this adds up to a lot of close games through four or five innings and then a need for a strong bullpen. Unfortunately, this is not where Marlins management spent its money. There are four relievers -Pete Fairbanks, Anthony Bender, Tyler Phillips, and Luke Bacher- with decent career numbers, even if the number of games in those careers is relatively low.

Forecast: They are going to win some games. They desperately need to shore up the bullpen while the returning starters regain their form. A couple of recuperating starters, those four relievers and eight guys who hit .250 could hold them for the first couple of months…maybe the first half of the season. But, that can’t hold up forever. It’s hard to see more than 73 wins without reinforcements.