Pete Fairbanks Praises Relationship with Marlins Boss After Signing

Bendix was a long-time employee of the Rays, beginning his baseball career with the franchise as an intern in 2009. He worked his way up and became the franchise's general manager in late 2021. Then, in 2023, the marlins hired Bendix to be their president of baseball operations.

Fairbanks joined the Rays after a trade in 2019 with the Texas Rangers. He became a permanent part of their bullpen in 2020 and eventually emerged as their closer a few years later. Fairbanks and Bendix have a good relationship, and that mattered went to Fairbanks was looking for a new home, as he told MLB Network during a recent appearance.

“Having that it makes it easy right?” Fairbanks said. “You know the lines of communication are there, you know what he brings to the table, and what he's really trying to build. So just being able to talk to him about it [helped]. I had a good long conversation with him over a couple of days to see the vision that they have down there and where they’re going. I'm pretty excited about the direction and being able to talk to him was a big part of that.”

Fairbanks signed a reported one-year deal worth $13 million. He’ll augment a bullpen that features last year’s top closer, Calvin Faucher as closer. Fairbanks will probably handle a significant number of the Marlins’ high-leverage situations.

The right-hander is coming off a 2025 in which he went 4-5 with a 2.83 ERA in 61 appearances, with 59 strikeouts and 18 walks in 60.1 innings. Fairbanks has a career ERA of 3.19 and hasn’t had an ERA higher than 3.59 in any of his last five seasons with the Rays.

In the past three seasons he’s recorded at least 23 saves in each of his last three seasons and had 27 in 2025. He has 90 career saves, with 75 coming from 2023-25.

Last season represented breakthrough campaigns for catcher Agustin Ramirez and outfielder Kyle Stowers. Ramirez finished sixth in National League rookie of the year voting while Stowers reached the All-Star Game for the first time. The Marlins have young, controllable talent throughout the roster and are banking on Christopher Morel to bring them more offense to first base.

Fairbanks gives them a reliable closer on the back end, which should make the Marlins more competitive in 2026.

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