The Marlins’ 2025 season marked a step forward. The rebuilding Miami club finished just four games under .500, thanks largely to a 56-50 record from June 1 onward. The Fish went 14-11 in September and won 13 of their final 17 contests. A fair portion of those wins came against last-place teams in Washington and Colorado, but Miami also won series against the Tigers and Mets, swept the Rangers and won a pair of games against the Phillies during that blistering finish.
With those improvements fresh in mind, they’re expected to be more active in free agency than in recent offseasons, per Craig Mish of FanDuel Sports Network Florida & Sun (video link). Specifically, Mish highlights the bullpen as a likely area of focus, noting that the Marlins seem poised to target late-inning arms with closing experience and/or left-handed relievers.
The Miami bullpen was a below-average unit in 2025, ranking 22nd in the majors with a 4.28 ERA on the whole. Marlins relievers ranked 24th in strikeout rate (21.2%) and 18th in walk rate (9.3%). Only six teams saw their bullpens give up more home runs per nine innings pitched than Miami.
That’s not to suggest that there were no bright spots. Waiver claim Ronny Henriquez was outstanding in his first full season in the majors (2.22 ERA, 32.3 K%, 73 innings), and other low-cost pickups like Lake Bachar, Calvin Faucher, Anthony Bender and Tyler Phillips all pitched well, too. Homegrown lefty Cade Gibson had a nice rookie showing as well, but other Marlins draftees/signees like George Soriano and Josh Simpson struggled.
Relief pitching is the most volatile commodity in the game, and it should be noted that the vast majority of the Marlins’ success stories in relief this year carried rate stats that were less encouraging than their earned run averages. Bender, Gibson and Phillips all had well below-average strikeout rates. Bachar, Bender, Gibson and Faucher all had walk rates that were worse than the league average. Gibson (.260), Phillips (.253), Bachar (.250) and especially Bender (.213) each benefited from BABIP marks that were well shy of the league-average .289.
The extent to which Marlins ownership will allow president of baseball ops Peter Bendix and his staff to spend is an open question, but it’s worth noting that Miami’s payroll is exceptionally clean. Sandy Alcantara is the only player with a guaranteed salary for the 2026 season ($17MM). They still owe the since-released Avisail Garcia the $5MM buyout on his 2026 option and owe the Yankees $10MM as part of the Giancarlo Stanton trade, but those are their only notable expenditures.
The Marlins also have a small arbitration class featuring Bender, Faucher, Edward Cabrera, Braxton Garrett, Ryan Weathers, Max Meyer and Andrew Nardi. Each of Faucher, Weathers, Meyer and Nardi is eligible for the first time, meaning their salaries will be small. Bender, Garrett and Cabrera all earned under $2MM in 2025.
Suffice it to say, there’s ample room for the Fish to spend on some bullpen help if the market presents offers to their liking. That could include buy-low opportunities for star relievers like Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley, or short-term deals for older veterans like Raisel Iglesias and Kenley Jansen. It’s not likely that they’d shell out the money needed to sign a prime-aged reliever who’ll command a notable multi-year deal (e.g. Edwin Diaz, Luke Weaver), but they’ll have plenty of opportunities to consider both in free agency and potentially via trade, where names like Pete Fairbanks, JoJo Romero and Dennis Santana will be among the potentially available names.
So they are going to go fish?
There are mid-large markets that won’t even spend on the bullpen. Its hard to imagine a poverty franchise like Miami would.
So funny, I was just about to say “bullpen help” when it came to the Marlins. A relief pitcher should help compete with the Mets and Phillies. Sounds like they are already aiming low on additions versus realizing they need to reel in some big fish to compete
They did enough to help eliminate the Mets this year, going 6-5 against them. So it looks like they can at least compete with the Mets.
They might need to do more to compete with the Phillies, as they went 4-7 against them.
Saying a team is interested in bullpen help on Sept 30 for next year? Shocking.
Slow news day? At least …so far?
The only active Marlins are in the water.
“per Craig Mish of FanDuel Sports Network Florida & Sun”
Please tell me he has a recurring Marlins column called “Mish on the Fish”
Kirby Yates is available…
If not, he should
They can have Tanner Scott back….swap it for one night table service at E11EVEN.
They need offense. The pitching isn’t bad but outside of Stowers and Ramirez there aren’t any run producers in that lineup
There shouldn’t be a comma before “too.”