Marlins PBO: Team should be 'competitive' in 2026 season

Bendix addresses the Marlins' offseason plans

With Sandy Alcantara two years away from free agency, Bendix said, while speaking to the media, that he thinks in “2026 we’ll (Marlins) have a really competitive and exciting team,” while emphasizing he wants “to build a team that will compete for the National League East.” 

“I think that in 2026 we're going to have a really competitive, exciting team. Our goal remains to be as good as we possibly can be for as long as we possibly can be, to build a team that's competing for the NL East Division, competing for the playoffs every single year, year in and year out. I think that, like I said before, we made tremendous progress towards that goal this year. We didn't hit it yet. I think the 2026 team is going to be really exciting and competitive, and I think the future beyond that is also really bright.”

The Marlins need to build around what they have

The Marlins have a solid roster, but need to supplement around it, as they have too many young players and not enough veterans to play alongside them and show them the ropes. Having a solid top rotation of Alcantra, Edward Cabrera and Eury Perez (who returned from Tommy John surgery in June), and a nice crop of position players, led by OF Kyle Stowers, the Marlins' lone All-Star in 2025, the Marlins could fight for at least a wild-card spot next season.

The Marlins have money to spend this offseason to try to compete, as Alcantara is the only player officially on the books for next season, owed $17.3M, per Spotrac, and others are owed arbitration or are pre-arbitration.