The Miami Marlins are somewhat like cicadas. Every couple years, they emerge and make the playoffs, only to then immediately go back underground for a while. Unfortunately, the Yankees caught one of the worst years of that cicada infestation in 2003.<\/p>\n
Recently, the Marlins made the playoffs in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and then somewhat more legitimately in 2023. Those appearances didn\u2019t end up leading to anything substantial and the Marlins dipped to below .500-dom, sending Jazz Chisholm Jr. to the Yankees in the process.<\/p>\n
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Going into 2026, it\u2019s tough to expect that this will be a year where the cicadas emerge.<\/p>\n
Miami Marlins<\/p>\n
2025 record: 79-83 (3rd in NL East)
2026 FanGraphs projection: 75-87 (4th in NL East)<\/p>\n
At least prior to the new season, it sure does appear like the 2026 season will be a year of the Marlins seeing what they have. For position players, all but two of their expected Opening Day roster (at least according to FanGraphs<\/a>) are under 27, and the two that aren\u2019t are only 28. The pitching side of things has a bit more experience and guys you\u2019ve heard of, but a bunch of them are probably candidates to be flipped in a trade if they\u2019re good and the team isn\u2019t going anywhere this season.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n At the top of Miami\u2019s rotation will still be 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara. Between injury and a bit of a decline, he hasn\u2019t been close to that pitcher since winning the award in 2022, and has been below average in general since 2023, when he was pretty good. He\u2019s set to be a free agent after this season, so it\u2019s hard to imagine any scenario where he ends the year in a Marlins jersey. If he looks good again, he probably becomes a top trade target. Even if he\u2019s not great, there will probably be some team who tries to take him on a low risk deal and figure out if they can unlock the former All-Star that he was.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, the Marlins already cashed in on one particular rotation trade piece in sending Edward Cabrera to the Cubs. They signed Chris Paddack to the one-year contract, so if he shows anything, he could be another one that gets flipped if he\u2019s even somewhat good.<\/p>\n As far as position players go, as mentioned this\u2019ll probably be a year of development. Of the young players on their roster, Otto L\u00f3pez and Xavier Edwards have both shown promise in the field, but the Marlins will hope they can show something at the plate, while they hope for improvement of a little bit of everything from former Yankees prospect Agust\u00edn Ram\u00edrez. In the aforementioned trade with the Cubs, Miami picked up Owen Cassie, who debuted for Chicago last year and is still making appearances on top 100 prospect lists. Besides him, several of the Marlins\u2019 highest rated prospects <\/a>are in the higher levels of the minors, so we could see several of them get callups this year.<\/p>\n The best hitter the Marlins had last season was outfielder Kyle Stowers. Age-wise, he falls outside of that group of 26 and below players, but he\u2019s still early enough into his service time that they don\u2019t have to make any decision yet. That being said, he\u2019s nearing arbitration, and it wouldn\u2019t be shocking given the Marlins\u2019 history if they do something with him before a potential pay rise. Other than him, Miami doesn\u2019t have a ton of position players you\u2019d want to spend big on, but maybe someone can play themselves up in esteem.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n At least as of now, I can\u2019t say that there will be many Marlins games I\u2019ll be intrigued to watch, but as a former Yankees radio broadcaster would say \u201cyou can\u2019t predict baseball,\u201d so who knows.<\/p>\n