How the 2026 Marlins Could Turn Heads

Adding offensive impact, specifically at a corner infield position, building a strong backend of their bullpen by targeting high-leverage arms on the free agent market, and building around their strong core in any way they can.

To spearhead this task alongside him, Bendix named former big league manager Gabe Kapler the new General Manager of the team. A promotion from the Assistant GM role he was serving in last season.

Throughout the offseason, we heard rumblings about the team exploring the back-end of the bullpen options that were available on the free agent market. After striking out on a couple of them, they were able to reel in the arm that looked to take over the ninth inning. The news could not come at a more perfect time, considering they were just dealt a huge blow to one of their best high-leverage arms from the 2025 season.

Then, there are the inevitable trade rumors around Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera. While that seems counterintuitive to what building a winner may be, the Marlins actually have the luxury of using some of their starting pitching depth in a trade to help build the impact offense they are in desperate need of.

Aside from the potential moves they will make to improve the roster, this current iteration of the team is ready to prove itself.

Offense

If the casual baseball fan were to look at the names in this lineup from one through nine, they would likely have a hard time recognizing the players that make up the batting order.

The success of the 2025 Marlins came from an all-around team performance. Both sides of the ball produced better than anyone would have ever expected heading into the year. The preseason win totals would confirm that.

Then you take the time to look at the individual performances of All-Star outfielder Kyle Stowers, rookie catcher Agustin Ramirez, all-team underrated Otto Lopez, speedster Xavier Edwards, and players who debuted later in the year like Jakob Marsee and there is nothing you can do but be optimistic about what a full-season with everyone will look like.

While it wasn’t quite a “full” season due to injury, Stowers finally got his shot at everyday playing time, and it led to a career-high 149 wRC+ and a 4.0 fWAR. What aided his first All-Star campaign was his selective approach at the plate, which contributed to a walk rate of about 10% and a strikeout rate below the league average of 27.4%. However, it is the graphics below that are the biggest testament to the success he found last year.

Stowers no longer had as much of an issue with the inside pitch. In an article I wrote during the season, before his injury, stating he deserved more MVP consideration, I showed the changes he made in his batting stance that contributed to this success.

While the defense is still a cause for concern, Ramirez’s bat sort of looks like the real deal, despite the ultra-aggressive swing every time he attempts the ball. The way he was able to maintain his success throughout the year was because of how aggressive he was, particularly at the first pitch he saw. Per MLB.com, the average first pitch swing percentage in 2025 was somewhere between 32-33%.

Ramirez had an F-Swing% of 61.2%! If he is going to continue finding success by doing so, I would be hard-pressed to say he should change that mentality.

The up-the-middle tandem seems to have a chemistry that goes beyond just on the field, but it was the guy in center field who impressed me the most.

Jakob Marsee became the lightning rod the Marlins needed at the top of the order, seemingly from day one. While his wRC+ from his first season in pro ball had never been below 104, it was the quality and the hard-hit rate that drastically improved this year. Just looking at the 18% in the minor leagues in 2024 to 41.4% in 162 events in the big league is a true indicator of true progression in an approach and mental standpoint as a whole. Then you have 81 at-bats against lefties, where he hit .324 with a .924 OPS. He is not a platoon-bat. He looks to be an everyday center field option for the Marlins for years to come.

Look, for as long as I have been writing about the Marlins for Just Baseball, I have been preaching the need to add power to this offense. This team ranked 20th in baseball last season in team slugging with a .393. That isn’t going to get the job done.

That is why I believe they are still going to be in the market, whether via free agency or trade, to look to add to this lineup.

Pitching

When it comes to the Marlins, pitching development has been the cream of the crop for some time now. That did not change through an overhaul of the regime. As a matter of fact, it may have actually improved.

The rotation looks as if it is ready to become one of the better units in all of baseball if the arms continue to make the progressions they have. Alcantara is now a full season removed from Tommy John surgery and truly became looking more and more like himself as the year came to a close. Eury Perez worked his way back from an elbow surgery of his own and also showed the fan base that he is the future ace of the rotation, maybe even as early as 2026. The emergence of Cabrera was a long-time coming. Then you have Ryan Weathers and Braxton Garrett looking to get back after an injury-riddled year.

Yet, that isn’t even where the optimism comes from.

If you were to look at this article I wrote recently about prospects who are going to make a big league impact next season for the Marlins, you would see that two of the top three in the organization are starting pitchers, and it’s not just in their farm system alone. Both, per the recent Top-100 Prospect list up on Just Baseball, Thomas White (No. 18) and Robby Snelling (No. 30) both rank in the top-30.

This is an organization with one of the better track records for developing arms, particularly starters, for some time now. With the depth they have trickling all the way down through the minors, and Sandy being the elder-statesman at 30-years-old, this pitching staff is primed to continue to churn out competitive performances going forward.

Now, the bullpen would be a different story.

We recently found out that Ronny Henriquez is set to miss all of the 2026 season after undergoing UCL Reconstruction surgery on his right elbow. That is not a small hit to a bullpen that saw Henriquez pitching in a lot of high-leverage spots at any point in the game.

Aside from that, the Fish will see all of their relief options from the 2025 season return. Calvin Faucher and Tyler Phillips were both productive back-end arms for this ballclub, producing 19 of the team’s 40 team saves last year. Anthony Bender is also now a year removed from his elbow surgery and will look to fill a high-leverage role.

My favorite arm of the group would have to be 2025 rookie Lake Bachar, who actually led all rookie relievers in strikeouts last year with 73. There is plenty of intrigue in Lake, beyond his name, that gives me reason to believe he could be the pitcher used in the Henriquez role in 2026.

Per Statcast, he has a four-pitch arsenal consisting of a mid-90s fastball, a sweeper/slider combination both used over 23% of the time, and a taste-breaking split finger featured 12.2% of the time. All of which also have a Whiff% over 25%, led by the slider at 37%. His overall Whiff% of 30.2% would rank him in the 84th percentile of all qualified Major League arms.

Then, ’twas the afternoon before Christmas and the Marlins’ front office decided to get a gift for Marlins’ fans celebrating the holidays.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan was the first to report that the Marlins and closer Pete Fairbanks agreed to a one-year, $13 million deal to make him the primary option for saves heading into the 2026 season. Given the news that the team received about Henriquez earlier in the week, the agreement came at a perfect time. While some may not see the move as “impactful”, it solidifies the reports coming out that they were ready to spend to be competitive.

There have then been the everlasting trade rumors surrounding the Marlins’ pitchers for some time now. Alcantara, Cabrera, and many of the bullpen arms were heavy in trade rumors at the deadline, and the Marlins’ choosing to hold on to them should be a true indicator of where this front office sees itself stacked amongst the rest of the National League.

Are They Truly Ready?

Yes, I am a fan of this team.

Yes, I am also an optimist in what they have done and the way they have set themselves up for the future.

No, that does not make me delusional in what my honest expectations are for this team in 2026.

The main thing that makes me optimistic about the team next year would be how the approach is vastly different. By that, I am mainly referencing back to all the trade rumors being about how they were looking to tear it down last year, i.e the Luzardo trade and everlasting trade speculation surrounding Sandy. Rather, rumors around the trade market surrounding them looking to move from what many deem a surplus of pitching to help bolster the offense.

They are not a finished product, but not every team that ends the season raising the World Series trophy was from Day 1 of the MLB season. A lot can happen throughout the entirety of the 162-game schedule. Either way, this team still needs some help, as I highlighted in this article.

Peter Bendix has positioned this team in such a way that there are multiple angles as to which they can still improve this team, and given his past strategic aggression in making moves during his time as the President of Baseball Operations, I have no reason to believe he will not continue that going forward.

In that, I believe this is going to, again, be a team making noise deep into the 2026 season.