By wins and losses, the 2019 Marlins will not be the worst team in franchise history
It’s official: The 2019 Miami Marlins will avoid franchise infamy.
With their 8-4 win over the New York Mets at Citi Field on Monday night, the Marlins have firmly shut the door on the possibility of matching the club’s record for most losses in a single season.
The franchise record for futility is their 54-108 season in 1998, the year after they won their first World Series. Monday’s win moved the 2019 Marlins to 55-101 with six games remaining.
Catcher Jorge Alfaro sparked the Marlins on Monday, clubbing two home runs — including his first career grand slam — to pace an offense that had 13 hits. Jon Berti had four hits and scored three runs. Miguel Rojas and Harold Ramirez also had multiple hits.
Pitcher Caleb Smith was tagged for four runs — all coming on an Amed Rosario grand slam — while striking out three in six innings of work. He improved to 10-10 on the year.
Monday was a moment that, at points this year, seemed unlikely to happen. The Marlins opened the season 10-31, briefly turned their production around with a 13-5 run and then tapered off to a 33-55 record at the All-Star Break. They struggled again following the trade deadline, going 7-22 in August before going into a September slate in which five of their final eight series came against teams still competing for the National League’s two wild-card spots.
“We are playing teams that are in the hunt,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly told reporters Monday in New York. “You need to win games, no matter what the situation is. We talk about making sure we are playing hard and doing our part.”
For their part, the Marlins have played well in spurts while in the second season of their latest rebuild. They beat the Washington Nationals on Sunday to close out their home schedule and put the Nats on watch to potentially lose home field advantage for the wild card game. They can play a part knocking out the Mets from contention as well. The Mets can be eliminated from postseason contention Tuesday with a loss to the Marlins and a win each by the Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers.
Tracking the draft
With six games left and the Marlins being one of four MLB teams with 100-plus losses, eyes shift to MLB draft positioning.
If the season ended today, the Marlins would be selecting third overall in the 2020 draft, but the Kansas City Royals, at 57-100, are within 1.5 games of jumping the Marlins in the draft order.
The Detroit Tigers (46-109) and Baltimore Orioles (51-106) are expected to selected first and second.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 1:14 PM.
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