Marlins owner Bruce Sherman spoke with Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald about the club’s season, expressing his delight with the overall results thus far and declaring that general manager Kim Ng will have financial resources to work with at the upcoming deadline.
“This has been one of the most exciting seasons in Marlins history, and I am thrilled with what we have accomplished thus far,” he said. “The job is not done. We want to be in the 2023 postseason. I am prepared to give Kim and her staff the resources she needs over the next month to help the club.”
It’s been a long time since the Marlins found themselves in this position. Though the club made the postseason in the shortened 2020 campaign, the last time they qualified in a full season was way back in 2003. The last time they finished with a winning record in a 162-game season was 2009. But here in 2023, the club is well above .500 at 51-38. They’re 8.5 games back of a dominant Atlanta club in the National League East, but Miami currently holds the top Wild Card spot in the NL. A skeptic might point to the club’s negative run differential and incredible 21-5 record in one-run games to suggest this run isn’t sustainable. But regardless of how they came to be, those wins are in the bank and the club is well-positioned to make deadline additions to help with the remainder of the schedule.
Part of the reason the club has struggled so much over the past two decades is a lack of financial resources, as the club has rarely been a significant spender, especially not in recent history. Per the data at Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the club has only twice in this century run a payroll to get out of the bottom 10. The most recent time was back in 2012, well before Sherman bought the club in late 2017.
Shortly after the Sherman group took over, the club’s most significant moves were of the cost-cutting variety. Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna were all traded between December of 2017 and January of 2018, with J.T. Realmuto dealt just over a year later. The club has essentially been in rebuilding mode since then, with last year’s 69-93 record their strongest in any recent full season.
That means that we don’t have much of a blueprint for how the Marlins will operate at this year’s deadline, with the club never having performed this well during Sherman’s tenure. The same goes for Ng, who only got her job after the 2020 season. This year’s deadline is also expected to be fairly unpredictable in the sense that few clubs are clear sellers and it’s expected by many that there will be more trades between contenders.
All those factors make it difficult to predict exactly how the Marlins will behave, but there would be reasons to expect aggressiveness. Since it has been so long since the club had any kind of meaningful success, it would be fair to expect an internal desire to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of their current position. The fact that Sherman is apparently willing to help the club out with some financial wiggle room should only help them keep more of their trade targets on the table.
As for which parts of the roster they upgrade, there would be a few options. Just about every contender looks to grab an extra reliever or two around this time of year and the Marlins should be no exception. Their relief corps has a collective ERA of 4.12, placing them 20th out of the 30 clubs in the league. The rotation has been an area of surplus at times but suddenly has some question marks. Each of Trevor Rogers, Johnny Cueto and Edward Cabrera are currently on the injured list while 20-year-old Eury Pérez could run into some workload limits at the season progresses. Cabrera and Cueto could potentially return shortly, with their health and performance perhaps having an impact on whether or not the club feels the rotation needs reinforcing.
On the position player side, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco recently wrote about how an infield pursuit makes sense for the club, especially with third baseman Jean Segura hitting a paltry .202/.272/.252 this year. The outfield has been fairly strong overall but center field is a question mark right now. Jazz Chisholm Jr. recently landed on the injured list due to an oblique strain and his replacement, Jonathan Davis, is potentially done for the year due to knee surgery. Thankfully, Chisholm’s strain is apparently mild and he could potentially return shortly. Behind the plate, neither Nick Fortes nor Jacob Stallings are providing much offense but catching upgrades at the deadline can be tricky because an incoming backstop would have to learn an entirely new pitching staff on the fly.
However Ng and her staff decide to play it, it’s surely an exciting time for the Marlins and their fans. The on-field results are the best they’ve had in quite some and they’re going into the deadline as obvious buyers with the owner signaling that notable moves will be possible. The extent of those resources and how they are deployed won’t be known for a few weeks, but the Marlins are positioned to be key players between now and the August 1 trade deadline.
Go get that guy from the nationals the 3Baseman switch hitter plus defender and put it at the middle of the lineup and get Cody from the cubs and we good to the playoff with Jonny Cueto back
That’s going to be a very heavy price, considering half the league wants him. The Nats would be foolish to give him to a division rival, but the Fish and Phils will be asking.
All due respect to the 2019 WS champ Nats, but they don’t exactly have division rivalries at this point…
Yeah. That’s definitely true, but they’ll hope to come out of this rebuild in 3-4 years.
I don’t think Washington is worried about sending a 1st year rental player to a team in the same division. Candelario isn’t Bryce Harper and the Marlins aren’t exactly bitter rivals to any team. Also like you mention, Nats probably aren’t going to compete for a another few years. If Miami offers the best package, Rizzo would be foolish to turn them down
The Nats shoudn’t care even one bit about trading a one year rental in the division lol
Nats should prefer to send him in division. Take a prospect away from a contender within the division. Potentially weaken their position for when the Nats matter again.
Fair point.
“It” is Jeimer Candelario. He’s had a really good season compared to last year with Detroit. From what I’ve heard, the Nats will trade him for the right price.
Yea give us Max Meyer 😉
I think they could get Mark Canha for a lot cheaper and he is more versatile.
Candelario or DeJong make the most sense
DeJong is about right on par with Segura offensively. He was red hot for about a week and a half in May before he fell off a cliff, and he’s still falling.
Sounds kinda fishy to me.
Applaudable and cringe-worthy at the same time. Well done.
Great job unloading Stanton. He’s accumulated 4.7 total WAR over the first 5+ years of his contract, and the Yankees are still on the hook for two more seasons at 32 million a pop. The last two years are on the Marlins. I wonder how long the Yankees hold onto him, especially since they don’t owe him the entirety of the contract, and he’s entering years 34-37.
Imagine the Yankees cut him and he goes back to Miami
I don’t understand selling the players who got you a WS title the following off-season. Look at the Braves. Since winning the WS on 2021, the only changes have been replacing Swanson at short, which they’ve done remarkably well. They added Strider to the rotation and he’s been brilliant. So has Olson, Freeman’s replacment. I haven’t looked up any statistics, but it seems Olson is having a better season than Freeman. So instead of getting rid of Riley, Acuna, Albies, Michael Harris II, they’ve kept almost the whole team from ’21 and they’re the best team in the NL.
You might want to look up those statistics. Olson is having a great year and more power but Freeman is outperforming him in most areas. I think ATL made that deal for the back end of the contract though.
Avenger
.254/.361/.577/.938 with a 146 OPS+, 146 wRC+, and 2.7 WAR
.320/.397/.542/.939 with a 150 OPS+, 152 wRC+. and 3.2 WAR
Freeman is better, but not by a lot.
On that Atlanta squad, Albies, Ozuna, Riley, and Acuna are OG. The rest are new. Of the starting pitchers only Morton and Fried are OG. Rest are new.
I would bet that ratio is true of most teams. I could be wrong though. Way too much work to check it for all 30 teams.
Pads Fans: The only thing you wrote that has any meaning is someone is hitting .254/.351/.577. The rest is gobblety-gook.
I am sorry you don’t understand even the basics. There are classes you take for baseball beginners.
Here is something easy enough for you to understand. Freeman was better.
I don’t think either sell off was necessary, though you are talking about very different players than the article referenced (Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna, etc.) and different owners. Freeman versus Olson had everything to do with age and the fact that Oakland was selling an all-star at a discount. They’ve traded away so many players in recent years, and they have almost nothing to show for it. Braves just made a smart move, and while Freeman is the better player, Olson is an outstanding replacement.
Trash organization
Excellent post.
Trash comment.
“an exciting time for the Marlins and their fan.” Cut Segura and trade for someone. The Angels wasted no time upgrading when they had an injury on the infield in their failed attempt to entice Ohtani to stay with them by possibly sneaking in the postseason once.
It looks like it’s not going to happen without Trout, or at least it’s gonna be very difficult. The Angels.can either lie down and flounder to the finish, or the rest of the team can step up a notch or two. No one can replace Trout, but the players are professionals and they should use Trout’s absence as a motivator.
Scherzer salary dump for nothing?
Go grab Elias Diaz from the Rockies
Make up for all that lack of spending during the off-season. But I get it-they thought the division/league was stacked.
Shoulda given the twinkies Sandy , kept Lopez , woulda got Arraez plus plus plus.
Who would known though. A move that would take balls though.
Mind you. I guess without balls you don’t get Arraez either ?
As a Cards fan, I’m rootin’ for a Marlins/Orioles World Series
I keep waiting for the Miami coach to turn back into a pumpkin. That one-run record looks like a landmine to me. That said, the club is hanging onto a wild card, though just barely (two games in the loss column over the Giants).
I guess they will buy something at the deadline, but I still expect a fade in the second half. It was fun while it lasted.
Haters are going to hate but wins speak for themselves. Got to hand it to the Marlins for swimming upstream.
Kim Ng will find some way to louse things up by the deadline. Her ineptitude has been masked thus far by players performing beyond their on-paper abilities, but the glass slipper will fall off over the next month.
In reality, players she was involved in attaining are playing at the level they should, whereas before they weren’t.
Puk, Soler, Arraez, Luzardo…just to name a few before you ask.
Kim Ng was not horrible before and she is not brilliant now. She is an average GM who made some good moves and some bad moves and we don’t know which were dictated by the owner. Arreaz and Soler are great, Avisail was a bust. But small injuries can take great players and make them worthless. Unless Sandy regains his form, the fish will not win it all.
Best run teams for past five years
Tampa Bay
Atlanta
Houston
Dodgers
Baltimore
Cleveland
Honorable Mentions
Milwaukee
Arizona
Best young prospects
Cincinnati
Arizona
Atlanta
Dodgers
So where are all the Ng haters now?
Read the post above yours.
None of the haters from earlier this season and last offseason on this thread. Their predictions have not come to pass and they are not going to come eat crow on this particular thread.
Pads, you must have muted Nothinginhisbrainham.
Misogynist-ingham
Go pick up old friend Jake Marsinick to provide some CF depth
Go pick up Chris Devenski and Aaron Loup from the Angels
Go pick up Matt Duffy from the Royals to replace Segura
Angels won’t be sellers. I just can’t see them holding on to Ohtani but trading away other players. If anything, they add to appease him.
I don’t think either sell off was necessary, though you are talking about very different players than the article referenced (Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna, etc.) and different owners. Freeman versus Olson had everything to do with age and the fact that Oakland was selling an all-star at a discount. They’ve traded away so many players in recent years, and they have almost nothing to show for it. Braves just made a smart move, and while Freeman is the better player, Olson is an outstanding replacement.
Great to see Miami competitive but MLB in south Florida just isn’t sustainable. Both Miami and Tampa are killing it this year, Tampa is 27th in attendance and Miami 29th. And KC isn’t too far behind Tampa, Oakland is not too far behind Miami. I’m a Giants fan as while it greatly benefits SF to have NorCal/southern Oregon all to themselves, the truth is that MLB should have blocked the A’s move to Las Vegas and instead offered that market to one of the south Florida teams. The demographics are there, great population base with a decent income level but I lived in Florida for years and the truth is there is just way too much going on during summer to really get into a baseball season the way I always have here in CA. I don’t know that LV would be a better market than Tampa or Miami but it seems MLB believes it would be, so why not move one of those teams there, and keep the A’s in the lucrative Northern CA market. Tell fisher to sell based on his lack of decor and the way his actions and statements have turned off a large part of a generation of fans in one of MLB’s largest media markets in the east bay.
I agree with some of what you’re saying but I think the east bay has similar issues as south Florida. The hippies in Berkeley aren’t very interested in supporting baseball. Certainly Fisher is to blame for souring those fans but I think Portland or Sacramento would be more interested in supporting a team than an area of mostly Giants fans like Oakland. The Bay Area belongs to SF, Sacramento, Vancouver or Portland should be the next west coast cities to get an MLB team. Many in Vegas aren’t very excited about getting the A’s though and I wish Fisher sold the team and the A’s never left Oakland, but now that the cat is out of the bag, I don’t see Oakland getting another baseball team soon.
As someone who lived in Berkeley for five years, this is a gross generalization. Because, you know, there’s the City of Oakland and the rest of Alameda County, Walnut Creek, Concord, and the rest of Contra Costa County…
The stadium deal is whole conversation unto itself, but baseball would absolutely thrive in Oakland if ownership invested in the franchise. But with a crap stadium and, more significantly, the constant flipping of fan favorites, people in the East Bay don’t have a true MLB experience.
Here’s the thing about South Florida Baseball.. I’ve discussed this before, and all of the Nay-sayers about South Florida Sports have the same response. Silence. Here goes: South Florida Sports, Specifically Baseball and Hockey, have had some of the most tight-pocketed franchises in the History of sports. The Marlins, and Panthers, have NEVER ATTEMPTED putting a sustained winner out there (More than ONE season of Playoff Appearances in a row). Winning breeds excitement, and in a market like South Florida, you need to win or with all of the things to do down here, people will do something else. Even more so the Franchise has never attempted to win consistently like that to begin with. Two World Series Championships, BUT The Marlins have torn down every notable team they have ever assembled IMMEDIATELY following them winning. Pretty hard to support a Team that does that. AVG Attendance in 2022 was 11,000 and this year has gone up to 12,500 per game and steadily increasing. The difference you may ask? About 12 wins in the Win column. With a sustained winner, meaning more than 1 or 2 seasons of playoff baseball or it’s equivalent, you will see the South Florida Market (Producers of the Top Baseball Talent in the Country) increase Attendance, Revenue, and the likelyhood of stud FA’s signing here. On top of that, every season the Marlins have competed, they have seen a drastic increase in attendance per game (Examples: 1. 1996 Attendance: 21,565, and the following season of 1997, we won the World Series and average attendance was up 30% to 29,190 per game and 2. 2002 Attendance 10,038 per game After almost 7 years of Garbage play and Mediocrity. In 2003, they put a winner out there and attendance increased to 16,290 per game a 47% increase.) While I can see what you mean, blaming the South Florida market on the reasons for lack of Fans and Success is almost 100 percent due to the lack of respectable ownership. Now that the Marlins have an Owner in place willing to do something, the Miami market will thrive. BTW, I get your Bias. The Marlins denied the Pennant not once, but Twice from the Giants on years that they had a pretty good shot to win it all. :p
The problem is what one considers “resources” and what those resources actually are are two different things. Jeter thought he had the “resources” to sign Nick Castellanos, but had to settle for Jorge Soler and quit. I expect the Marlins to add a couple of players but don’t expect a franchise altering addition
Marlins need to make a strong offer for Salvy Perez… he would take this team to the next level.
Max Meyer, Joe Mack, Jake Eder, couple younger prospects may get it done?
Marlins are pretenders not contenders. Phillies will pass them in the standings eventually.
Phillies definitely showed the fish they’re pretenders this weekend.
The marlins were very smart to sell high on both Stanton and Yelich but now they need to go in getting some consistent players that will help them not only this year but for years to come.
Pick up my boy Nick Goody for relief. Free agent and is a veteran.
Go get Juan Soto. He and Arraez batting consecutively atop the order would give Soler and others a million RBI chances.