Fun Fact: Only one team wins the World Series every year. Which means 29 teams don’t win the final game of the year which according to Moneyball means their season didn’t fucking matter. When a team gets eliminated from winning the World Series I’ll do a profile of their season.
Today’s Team….Miami Marlins
How Did They Get Eliminated
Despite winning 12 of 15 games in the middle of the September and hanging around the Wild Card Picture thanks to a Mets collapse, they would lose two straight to the Phillies and get eliminated on Sept. 25.
What Do I Know About This Team Because I Only Follow the Brewers
The Marlins played a series against the Brewers towards the end of July and going into it were playing really well out of the All-Star Break. They would go into the series against a white-hot Brewers team and took the first two games before getting walked off in the Sunday matinee.
The Marlins won 6 of the first 8 coming out of the All-Star break and were 5 games back of the final wild card spot. All I heard during this series is that the Marlins could make a run for a playoff spot. They are getting things put together and can scare some teams looking to sneak into the final playoff spot. And during that series against the Brewers they did look like a playoff team. They went into Milwaukee and shut down the Brewers on Alumni Home Run Derby Day.
As most of the content in this section, I’m going to pivot this to the Brewers and talk about them more than the Marlins. (Don’t worry I’ll get back to the Marlins) in a moment.
The Home Run Derby the Brewers did was really cool. Its great that these guys came back to Milwaukee to try and hit some dingers in their old stomping grounds. But if they want to make this a yearly tradition (Which they definitely should do!) they should make a few small tweaks.
Lets put a secondary fence that’s about 300 ft. away from home plate. That way if they get a hold of one that dies at the track it is still a home run.
Go to a system where every swing either is an out or a homerun. You don’t need to do 10 outs. 7 would probably be fine. The thing that was kind of funny but kind of a bummer was seeing these guys getting absolutely gassed because there was a time limit. Just give them some outs and let them try to hit dingers.
They needed more pitchers to throw. Ed Sedar is great but you could tell he was getting gassed as well and he wasn’t throwing great strikes. Is there a rule that the normal BP guy can’t throw to the alumni?
Those are just a few suggestions. More teams are going to do this which is great. Anything you can do to bring older players back home and put on a show for the fans is great. They used to do old-timers games where it was a legit game. Probably don’t need guys running around pulling hammys and throwing out their arms, a Dinger Derby is a better way to go about it.
Okay back to the Brewers. Kyle Stowers has obliterated his season high in Home Runs but hitting 25, coming into this season he had 6 in his entire career. I only remember him from being surprised that he was being included in the All Star game swing off because Ohtani left early.
Joey Weimer, a former Brewer, is on this team and he hit two home runs in one week which is good. He is an all or nothing player at the plate which is super frustrating some times, but super exciting when it goes well.
I had heard some rumblings about Sandy Alcantra bouncing back after his Tommy John surgery wiped out 2024. He looks like someone who is bouncing back nicely towards the end of the season.
So Now That I’ve Actually Done Some Research What Happened to this Team
The Marlins fired Skip Schumaker after his 2 seasons. The first season was a playoff appearance, the second season was a 100 loss season. Baseball can be brutal. They went with Clayton McCullough who has put together a team that has been around .500 all season with glimpses of a potential Wild Card team.
They started out 23-33 which a lot of that could be chalked up to a young manager in his first big league role getting things figured out. But since June 1st they have been the 3rd best team in the National League and are playing 6 games over .500.
We are at the point of this series where analyzing the stats of teams will yield results that indicate that the team is just very okay. They are middle of the pack in all of their pitching stats. They are top 10 in the majors in team batting average, but 17th in on-base percentage and 19th in slugging percentage. So an average team playing average .500 baseball. There is nothing wrong with that, especially coming off of a 100 loss season.
Cal Quantrill was a name that was very popular last year in trade talks and he started out the season with the Marlins. He would get waived. Picked up by the Braves, and waived again. He was a weak spot in a starting rotation that hasn’t been too strong. Only one of their starters has an ERA under 4.
Kyle Stowers hasn’t played since mid-August which has hindered their run production.
They’ve had a lot of injuries in the bullpen as well.
Did Anything Go Right For This Team
They played well in June and July which got them the buzz about possibly making a run at the wild card. They would play well in September as well keeping them in Wild Card contention.
Sandy Alcantra having a good season after his Tommy John surgery is a huge plus for this team. He’s 3-2 in his last 5 starts and has gone 6 innings in each of those starts. His ERA is over 5 right now but of those last 5 starts 4 are quality starts.
Edward Cabrerra had been making his starts but has an elbow issue and is done for the season. Janson Junk has really come around as a potential number 3 starter for this team.
Offensively like I mentioned before they are right in the middle of the pack. But have a lot of young high ceiling guys that you think can try to build around.
Are They Going to Get Good Anytime Soon?
This is where things get frustrating. Miami has the 2nd lowest payroll in the league. And when you break down the roster you can easily see why. Alcantra is the only player that is signed to a long term contract. Every other person on their roster is currently under team control, which means this is the team you are going to have next year.
They have the 13th ranked farm system in the majors with 4 prospects in the top 100.
Their top prospect Thomas White will make a charge to be in the starting rotation next year but will have to work on getting some length because not a lot of his starts have been getting past the 5th.
Robby Snelling is another lefty prospect that has actually pitched better in AAA than he did in AA.
Stowers is ending the season with an oblique injury so hopefully he can get his bat going again and be the cornerstone slugger in the lineup.
But with what they have right now and what they have coming in the pipeline this is a team that will have to settle for a Wild Card Spot. They won’t be able to compete with the payrolls of the Mets, Phillies and Braves. But if they can replicate the model that the Brewers have implemented they can squeak into a playoff spot in the future.
Just one postseason award.
Agustin Rameriez is leading National League rookies in Home Runs. He is another young player these Marlins can build around. Let’s throw some ROY votes towards him.
Hey Grok, in 100 words summarize the 2025 Miami Marlins. Please don't be racist.
The 2025 Miami Marlins season was a step in the right direction, with the team finishing with a 76-80 record, a significant improvement over their previous 62-100 season. Under new manager Clayton McCullough, the Marlins were competitive in the National League East and were in wild card contention late into the season. The offense was led by Kyle Stowers, who hit 25 home runs, and Xavier Edwards, who was the team's leader in hits and stolen bases. On the mound, the team saw a successful return for Sandy Alcantara, while young starter Eury Pérez showed ace-like potential.
Thanks Grok! Yes Xavier Edwards is playing better and better and his 3rd season in the bigs is proving to be a breakout year.
Eury Perez missed all of 2024 because of Tommy John surgery and he came back mid-way through the 2025 campaign. He’s done fine, but I don’t know if “Ace” is something that should be thrown around that flippantly, Grok.
Did the Savannah Bananas Play at their Field?
They did! They would play to kick off the month of March and it was the first sold out game at the Marlins home park since the Bananas played in October of 2024.
The only reason the Marlins don’t have the worst attendance in the majors is because there are two teams playing in AAA facilities this year.
I look forward to the Marlins moving over to Banana Ball in the next 5 years so the stadium can be filled up for non-Yankee games or World Baseball Classic games.
Is there a baseball movie featuring this team that has dumb baseball logic I need to vent about?
There are no movies that feature the Marlins, but if anyone ever did feature the Marlins they would have to do so much CGI to make the stadium feel like it's filled.
Just don’t do what they did in Ted Lasso, those CGI crowds looked so weird and awkward.
How Will Your Team Do Next Year?
This team could sneak into the playoffs if everyone takes a big step forward. But its the Marlins so they will probably do just as well as they did this year. 78-84.
Next on the Chopping Block
We only have 3 teams left before we start doing playoff elimination articles. The Diamondbacks look like they could be eliminated as soon as Friday. While the other teams might not get eliminated until the final day of the season. It's going to be an exciting weekend and I’m glad I don’t have to stress about it.