The Marlins want to ‘make noise’ in 2020. A strong spring training will be Step 1
The Miami Marlins know where they stand. Two years have come and gone through this rebuild that began when the Bruce Sherman and Derek Jeter ownership group took over.
Year 3 is on the horizon, with pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training Wednesday and the rest of the team joining them at the club’s training facility in Jupiter on Monday.
There’s a refreshing aura around the team: The message heading into this season is no longer focusing on the long-term or emphasizing organizational depth.
The Marlins made some significant under-the-radar signings, retooled parts of the roster, and anticipate improvement from their top young players.
“We want to make noise,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
How much noise, exactly, is still to be determined. After all, this is a team that has gone 120-203 in the past two seasons.
But there is reason to believe this team will field a more competitive roster and be a pest to other teams.
The Marlins return their core group in third baseman/right fielder Brian Anderson, starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara and Caleb Smith, catcher Jorge Alfaro, and shortstop Miguel Rojas.
Many of their top prospects acquired in trades over the past three offseasons are on the cusp of making their MLB debuts. That group includes pitchers Sixto Sanchez and Edward Cabrera as well as outfielders Monte Harrison and Jesus Sanchez.
And the Marlins are complementing their in-house players with some relatively big signings in outfielders Corey Dickerson and Matt Joyce, versatile infielder Jonathan Villar, catcher Francisco Cervelli, first baseman Jesus Aguilar, and reliever Brandon Kintzler.
On paper, this should be a better team than the one that posted a National League-worst 57-105 record last year.
“The only step is to win,” Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “That’s the overriding goal. Everything we’re working for, working towards, is to win championships. That’s the standard. That’s what we said from the beginning. We had to make tough decisions as we started, to put ourselves on a solid foundation. But to build anything, you had to have a solid foundation.”
The optimism brings expectations.
“The results are real when you do it during the season,” Mattingly said. “As an organization, I think this is the first year in the last couple that if we don’t make significant improvement this year, we’re going to be disappointed. We feel like our young dudes have gotten experience. We’ve got more young guys coming. We brought in a good group of veterans that we think can supplement them. We’ve put money back into the organization.”
The organization also put its faith in Mattingly to oversee this phase of the rebuild by giving him a two-year contract extension at the end of the 2019 season.
“The fact that Derek and ownership believed in what we’re doing and believed in me is a key for any manager,” Mattingly said. “You don’t want to be anywhere where someone doesn’t want you. That was the key last year. ... Now, it’s a matter of getting us to play our best baseball.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 11:04 AM.
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