While the 2025 season started off rough for the Marlins, things turned around in a big way once the calendar flipped to June. After going 23-33 through the end of May, Miami went 56-50 from June onward. That’s nearly an 86-win pace if maintained over the course of a full season. Coming off a year where 83 wins was all it took to secure a Wild Card spot in the NL, it’s not hard to imagine the rebuilding Marlins making the jump into legitimate contention next year.
That relative success this season came through steps forward across the roster. Liam Hicks and Agustin Ramirez provided intriguing results from the catcher position. An outfield trio of Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee, and Griffin Conine figures to have real potential next year. The combination of Ronny Henriquez, Anthony Bender, Calvin Faucher, Andrew Nardi, and Tyler Phillips has the look of a legitimate relief corps as well. Those areas still need reinforcements, of course. The Marlins are expected to take a look at the high leverage relief market and add a bat this winter for a reason.
The team’s rotation is the one place where there’s really no need for an upgrade. If healthy and firing on all cylinders, a starting five that features Sandy Alcantara, Edward Cabrera, Eury Perez, Braxton Garrett, and Ryan Weathers could be among the best in the majors next year. Arms like Max Meyer, Janson Junk, and Ryan Gusto offer legitimate depth behind that five as well, which will be important given the lengthy injury histories across that group. Thomas White and Robby Snelling, two of the club’s top prospects, reached Triple-A in 2025.
The combination of Miami’s questionable competitive status, that impressive pitching depth behind the starting five, and a number of exciting pitchers within the rotation itself has made the idea of the Marlins trading a pitcher for help on offense a widely-discussed possibility over the years. The team certainly isn’t opposed to the idea in theory, having already traded Pablo Lopez to the Twins to land Luis Arraez years ago and then shipping Jesus Luzardo to the Phillies for prospects last winter.
Now that the team is returning to competitiveness, however, are they really best served by dealing away someone like Alcantara or Cabrera? Alcantara is the Marlins’ only guaranteed contract on the books for next year, and they have zero guaranteed dollars on the books for 2027. Even for a small market team that routinely runs some of the lowest budgets in the league, that’s enough payroll flexibility that no hitter this side of Kyle Tucker appears to be completely out of reach. While it would be a surprise to see the Marlins make a splash for someone like Alex Bregman, it’s not hard to imagine the team being able to build out its lineup in free agency by targeting players like Ryan O’Hearn or Rhys Hoskins.
Signing a player in that tier would hardly be a major financial burden and it would allow them to reshape their offense without having to trade from their strong rotation group. With that being said, it’s unclear what sort of spending Marlins ownership might give the green light to this winter. If there isn’t room in the budget to add, then it would certainly be better to trade from the rotation.
It’s also possible that, in a class of starters that lacks a true shutdown ace like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, or Yoshinobu Yamamoto from recent years, teams will be hungry enough for starting pitching that the Marlins receive an offer they can’t refuse. As much as this rotation is a strength if kept together, would it make sense to do so if they could get a legitimate upgrade in a trade?
The majority of contending clubs will be likely to pursue starting pitching help this winter. Many of those will have young infield prospects or players they could offer the Marlins in exchange for a starter. If the Marlins see any of those players as a potential anchor for their lineup, giving up a member of a rotation that would remain full of quality options even after a trade might wind up looking like a relatively small price to pay.
How do MLBTR readers think the Marlins should handle their rotation this offseason? Should they hold their starters and try to upgrade the infield through free agency, or would they be better off trading a starter to restock their infield? Have your say in the poll below:
Keep the rotation, find a bat or two (Castellanos if the Phillies release him) and try for a playoff run
That assumes the owner wants to win
Of course he wants to win. Just doesn’t want to do it on a payroll that exceeds 20% of the Dodgers’ payroll;.
Rsox – Personally I feel that requiring their rotation to spend the entire winter together is a bit intrusive in their personal lives. I’m sure they’ve all got family and friends that they’d rather be with throughout the holidays etc.
Took it a little too literal there buddy
Rsox – Sorry it’s the Sheldon Cooper in me that comes out at times ….
It doesn’t matter what they do with their pitching staff. This franchise is not serious about competing.
Keep the rotation. FA, trade from minors, can make a trade at the deadline. Marlins could be good this year.
Same answer as always
If what they are offered in trade makes them better, trade. If it doesn’t, don’t.
Better when? Immediately, of course. Possibly down the road, nope.
You don’t need a rotation in the winter.
Highly debatable if Castellanos qualifies as “finding a bat”.
He put up 90 wRC+ in 2025. Yes, he hit better in 2024 (104 wRC+) and earlier years, but he may just be showing his age (turns 34 next March).
Add to that the limitations of not wanting to play him in the field due to his defense, which has graded out as consistently bad.
Miami is not a small market. It’s got lots of money
Markets big but there is no interest in baseball in Miami. Ask a local.
Hey they drew more than 3 million though!!….in 1993, their first year. Then the locals were like, “nah”.
Voted no then did some looking and 2023 was their most successful season. Arraez had a GREAT year, that offense was horrible, and their young pitchers stepped up. Sure maybe it was luck, .519 W/L vs .463 pythag W/L, but it’s as good as they’ve been able to do
A bigger question is if anyone should care what the Marlins do because their owner doesn’t care about winning. Plus about 10 other owners.
The Red Sox will take Eury Perez off their hands for Tristan Casas.
They should but they won’t
If they are going to trade a starter, look to the Mets to find a young contollable infield bat that the New York fans aren’t patient enough with, like local Mark Vientos, or Ronny Mauricio or Luis Acuna.
Let the Mets pay for Bregman, and Alonso and Edwin.Diaz or even Bellinger. They lost rhis year because of pitching. They could never have enough (lol, 46 used in 2025) but didn’t have too many keepers.
I think Alcantara showed enough to land a good return this offseason if they choose to move him. I also think a lot of those SPs, even some of the depth guys, are pretty underrated, so they could survive losing a guy or two.
The Red Sox are looking for a SP1/2 kind of arm, my guess is they move Duran and then eat a lot of the Yoshida money to get him off the roster. Feel like a swap with Alcantara could make a lot of sense to make that happen (and round out with a prospect or two if need be).
Stick Duran in one of the corners, then you have Duran-Marsee-Stowers as your starting 3. Move Agustin to 1B and stick Yoshida at DH. I get that he’s not a huge DH bat but the move out of Fenway would benefit his swing. He had like a .780 OPS in his first two seasons, which would be nice to have in a lineup ultimately.
I don’t really think the Marlins would want Yoshida but I’m certain the Sox are going to do everything in their power to attach him and Duran at the hip. Marlins have some bench players that could be capable regulars, but I think in 2026 they’re not going to have the same runway to experiment with these guys and instead look for a more ‘here’s our everyday lineup for 130 games of the year’
If this was a typical org, I’d say raid free agency for a 1B and a corner OF (I’m unconvinced Conine deserves an uncontested opportunity or that Stowers is entirely immune from another disaster like 2022-2024).
But, this is Miami, and their money just isn’t as good as other clubs. They have to overpay to land their free agents, i.e. Avisail Garcia, and that’s just not good policy for a club trying to run low budgets.
Honestly, though they pieced together a passable lineup top to bottom, there’s not a single position player who couldn’t be upgraded in that group. Despite good 2025 results, most of those guys demonstrate more downside than upside.
With their positive pitching reputation (good dev results and a big home park), they’d probably have better luck drawing decent rebound candidates like Griffin Canning on reasonable contracts. For these reasons, I’d trade aggressively from the existing rotation to supplement the offense. “Trade for a cleanup hitter” is easier said than done, but that’s what they need.
3 way trade
To Phillies Ward Soler
To angels Alcantra Mercado
To marlins Castellanos Klassen Jean Cabrera
Keaton anthony
I think they should keep them. The perpetual rebuild is exhausting. They have some good young players. Preller drafted half the team 🙂 but in all seriousness, the owners probably like that sweet revenue sharing MLB cheese. They have no reason to do better or spend any money.
They’ve proven they can draft and develop arms. It’s time to cash in on that gift and get what they clearly lack- MLB ready bats. They are the antithesis of the Orioles. Clear trade partners.
The Marlins seem to be able to generate great pitching through their system but lack hitter since the Stanton-Yelich-Ozuna days. I would deal one of the starters for at least two major league ready prospects.
Edward Cabrera has a junk elbow noooo thanks
With good controllable pitchers, they need to get some bats and try to win now. Their win cheap philosophy has a small window for success.
Marlins should make every player available and accept the offers with the most top prospects and time it so they all come up approximately at the same time. It’s the best chance of winning if they’re not going to drop any coin on free agents or even attempt to sign their own. They can certainly pull it off and can afford to host a bunch of kids looking to make the best of a situation. The us against the world is motivation enough and they just might land a few top future players if they’re do it right.