The Marlins rode a big September winning streak to the fringes of the Wild Card race and weren't mathematically eliminated from the postseason until Sept. 25. They have very little money on the books for the 2026 season and saw some key young players step up as potential building blocks. The front office, led by president of baseball operations Peter Bendix as he enters his third winter on the job, will now need to determine how real that surge was and how strongly to pursue win-now moves for next year.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Sandy Alcantara, RHP: $19MM through 2026 (including $2MM buyout of $21MM club option for 2027)
Additional Financial Commitments
- $10MM annually to Yankees, through 2028, as part of Giancarlo Stanton trade
- $5MM buyout on 2026 club option for since-released OF Avisail Garcia
- $500K buyout on 2026 mutual option for since-released RHP Woo-Suk Go
Option Decisions
- None
Total 2026 commitments: $32.5MM
Total future commitments: $54.5MM through 2028
Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; salary projections via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Anthony Bender (4.153): $2.3MM
- Braxton Garrett (3.168): $1.53MM
- Edward Cabrera (3.147): $3.7MM
- Ryan Weathers (3.066): $1.5MM
- Andrew Nardi (3.053): $800K
- Max Meyer (2.166): $1.3MM
- Calvin Faucher (2.156): $1.9MM
Non-tender candidates: Nardi
Free Agents
- None
Bendix offered little insight into his club's direction during his end-of-season press conference. The former Rays general manager noted that he was both proud of his club's strong finish to the season but disappointed to be talking to the media when other clubs were still playing. Bendix spoke in typical baseball operations generalities, deflecting questions about his expected level of aggression this offseason to merely say he hoped to build a team that was as good as it could possibly be for as long as it could possibly be. Asked whether fans should expect Sandy Alcantara to be a Marlin by the time spring training rolls around, he sidestepped and stressed the importance of being open-minded to any and all scenarios (link via Isaac Azout of Fish On First).
None of that is meant as a critique of Miami's president, to be clear. The simple reality of running a low-payroll club and trying to navigate some degree of rebuild is that hard decisions will have to be made and that payroll concerns will persist each year. It's unlikely that the Marlins will cannonball into the deep end of free agency this winter, but there's plenty of reason to believe that they could also be a bit more active than they've been in recent offseasons.
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No mention of the spending compared to Rev sharing received and possible grievance?
It remains fascinating how similar the low budget team problems are. Several complete paragraphs in this article could apply to the Orioles.
Very interesting to see how things play out with the fish.
If Stowers had been healthy for those last 60+ games, I bet they’d have played the Dodgers instead of the Reds
There is no reason why a team in the Miami area should be low budget. If Miami is not a baseball town, then they should move. They have a larger population than Tampa, Minneapolis, and Arlington.
Geography lesson. Arlington is smack in the middle of Ft Worth and Dallas. Population means crap for sports teams. TV does. San Antonio is a top seven in population and can barely keep the Spurs in play. Average income, TV ratings, business all determine desired location. Miami and Tampa struggle because there is no busineeses that support an income higher to meet pricing demands, thus shared revenue. Miami may be home to some of the most wealthy, but they’re not the audience that attend baseball games. Factor in retirees and zero major corporations and it suffers. They why not move? Optics for MLB, but also what other locations will do better? And when there are, that leads to expansion opportunities with more injected revenue.
The gap between the rich and the poor clubs is increasing every year. It doesn’t mean that the highest payrolls will succeed (Mets) or the lowest will fail (Brewers), but in the long run, the markets and the baseball business will crack.
Oh really? In what another 30 years? Because the last 30 have been quite successful.
MLB has had only 2 relocations in the last 55 years (A’s ’26,Expos ’04, TEX ’71) with no contractions. Only Montreal has not reacquired a franchise. It’s been the most stable pro league by a long shot. The lowest revenue teams are still making money. I’m not convinced a “crack” is coming anytime soon.
Should a Yankees fan really be the one telling another fan that baseball is fine and doing great? Probably not.
He’s the reality of the sport, even the small market teams want the yanks and dodgers to be successful because they generate a so much money that it’s better if they win.
This is going to be news to any fan of a small market team but if every team finishes 81-81 that would be very boring.
Also spending doesn’t equal winning it never has. If it did the rays would never ever be in the playoffs and the Mets would make the playoffs every year with a 340 million payroll.
Teams like the Pirates want the revenue sharing money from the big market teams. But it isnt fair competition. Thats what sports are supposed to be about is fair competition. I dont care if rich teams make bad decisions or poor teams make good ones. There is supposed to be fair competition in sports.
How’s it not fair? If you think those sports with salary caps are fair I have an interesting crypto coin you’d definitely be interested in.
Financially they are doing great. Whether or not some wealthy people are appropriately subsidizing other wealthy people enough is up to the individual.
They are more fair than MLB. Baseball is like college football.
It shouldn’t be up to the individual. Its sports its supposed to be fair competition. That is what sports are supposed to be about. Didn’t you learn that when you were 10?
Again Yankees fans probably shouldn’t be giving speeches on this subject.
Amateur sports should be fair. Pro sports are businesses. Owners make money, players get paid and fans choose to finance it. I don’t care how MLB chooses to run their league. If they want to go full kumbaya NFL or NBA style I’ll still be a Yankee fan. The reality is they don’t have to because they’ve never been in the financial straits that the other leagues were in historically.
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful and the Yanks just won a playoff series.
“MLB has had only 2 relocations in the last 55 years,” says the guy who goes on to list three in the same sentence.
Or you could just simply interpret the details as 2 relo’s since Texas in ’71, 55 years ago. Is that kindergarten enough for you? Lol. There were 4 relo’s ’65 through ’71 which would suggest instability however each of the vacated markets reacquired franchises eventually.
StudWinfield: Can you bring a bit more hostility to the table next time, Mr Kindergarten?
If you can’t handle the curriculum get out of the classroom. 🙂
But you’re factually wrong. You chose 55 years as the timeframe. That takes us back to 1971, the year before the Rangers began playing in Arlington. Their relocation was the first of three in the timeframe of your own choosing.
Don’t be so condescending with claptrap about curriculum when you don’t even have your facts straight.
Holy pedantic. Yes, should have stated 54 years. As I mentioned earlier, the Texas move was the last of 4 the previous 6 years. Is the point of 50+ years of franchise stability really that muddled or are you going to keep pretending you don’t see the forest through the trees?
Pot, meet Kettle.
Do you have any thoughts on the topic of MLB failing anytime soon? That was what the discussion was about.
@Steve: Is this the first of these for this year? Please provide a link to where they will all be located.
Also, no mention of a player grievance on team salary? That seems like a glaring omission for this team.
Thanks!
This is actually the second offseason outlook article they have published this year. They did one on the Athletics last week. I know there is a link to where they are all at so I’ll try to get it for you!
@BobinTexas
There’s no list yet but they did the A’s recently:
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/09/offseason-outlook-athle…
I’m sure once they get things moving, they’ll have a list of them for you.
Time for the owner to invest. I see upside attendance of maybe 400,000-800,000. They’re better than some other contenders.
I agree the owner should invest. But only if he is serious about sustained contention. We really don’t know what kind of baseball market Miami can be. Their short franchise history has had so many violent ups and downs there hasn’t been a chance for a real grass roots development of a fan base. Loyal fan bases can be developed. The Marlins owners have never had the patience to let the process play out.
For Alcantara…
Jonah Tong
++
Some offensive players with upside.
Ronny Mauricio at 3b.
Mark Vientos at 1b.
Here we go with the ridiculous trades.
The Marlins should NOT trade Sandy to the Mets even for Juan Soto and $700M of that contract.
Andrew Nardi is definitely not a non-tender candidate, especially if his arbitration salary projects under $1M.
No mention of Pauley at 3B? + defense and not horrible offense