Marlins made push to improve at deadline. Now, can they solve their second-half woes?
Sandy Alcantara has more or less seen it all with the Miami Marlins’ rebuild. The right-handed pitcher was one of the first big acquisitions of the Bruce Sherman ownership group, the headliner from the Marcell Ozuna trade with the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2017.
Jon Berti joined the Marlins a year later, signing as a minor-league free agent before the 2019 season. He was promoted to the MLB roster in April that year and has been in the big leagues ever since as Miami’s do-it-all, speedy utility player.
They were there through all the lows, all the 90-plus loss seasons that come with the start of a rebuild. They remain as the two longest-tenured players on the big-league roster as the Marlins attempt to reach the highs.
And after five season of mostly toiling at the bottom of the league — outside of the team’s surprising run to the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season — Miami, for the first time since the rebuild began, found itself in a place to be focused on competing in the present, not just thinking about competing in the future.
“I’ve been here since 2018,” Alcantara said. “I know everything the Marlins have gone through, losing a lot of games. And this year, we’re doing great. I think there’s a lot of people surprised about us, but we’ve been waiting to win some games, and this year we do it. I think we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, keep fighting against any team and win games.”
The Marlins’ success in the first half of the season — they went into the All-Star Break 14 games over .500 (53-39) and with the second-best record in the National League — enabled them to be buyers at the trade deadline.
Miami swung five trades in the week leading up to the deadline, adding two impact bats (Josh Bell and Jake Burger), two high-leverage relievers (David Robertson and Jorge Lopez) and starting pitching depth (Ryan Weathers).
“There aren’t that many times when you’re in this type of situation,” Marlins general manager Ng said. “Mr. Sherman and the entire ownership group [was] completely supportive of us really going out there and spending some money and making sure that we support these guys who for the first four months of the season have absolutely just played their hearts out. When you’re in this type of situation, you just have to make sure that you treat that with care and that you understand how big a deal this is for the city and for the Marlins’ fans and for all those guys downstairs, and you have to do what you can to improve the club.”
Berti added: “It’s a lot more fun that way leading up to the trade deadline, kind of seeing who we’re going to acquire as opposed to thinking ‘All right, who’s leaving?’ Obviously, we lost a few guys that I played with for a while and we’ll miss them, but we’re exciting about where we’re at and where we’re going.”
To get where they want to go, though, the Marlins need to get back to their winning ways from the first half. Entering Saturday’s game against the Texas Rangers, Miami has gone just 5-14 since the All-Star Break and is a half-game out of a wild card spot. Their five wins are tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the fewest in the second half of the season.
The Marlins’ 64 runs scored in their first 19 games back since the All-Star Game are the second-fewest in MLB, ahead of only the Oakland Athletics (64). Their 14 home runs are the fewest in baseball in that span.
Meanwhile, the pitching staff’s 4.43 ERA is 14th in MLB and up from a 4.06 mark before the break.
And this slump is coming in the midst of the Marlins’ hardest stretch of the season. This week started a run of 22 consecutive games against teams who are in the playoff hunt. Miami dropped three of four to the Phillies before losing the opener to the Rangers 6-2 on Friday. After they finish with Texas, the Marlins play the Cincinnati Reds on the road, New York Yankees and Houston Astros at home, and then the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres on the road.
“These guys are playing hard. We’re just not winning right now,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. “Nothing has changed as far as their effort level, the preparation. We’re running into some tough arms, some tough teams, and we’ve got to figure out a way to string some wins together. But it’s not lack of effort or sense of urgency. They’re going about it the right way, and this thing will turn.”
The Marlins have two months left to get things to turn back around and make sure a solid first half and a flurry of moves at the trade deadline don’t go to waste.
“Obviously not where we want to be [after] the break,” Berti said. “We’ve got to continue to get better.”
Roster moves
Prior to Saturday’s game, the Marlins swapped out two members of their bullpen.
Out: Right-handed pitcher JT Chargois (to 15-day injured list with right ribcage strain) and left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer (designated for assignment).
In: Right-handed pitcher Huascar Brazoban and left-handed pitcher Ryan Weathers.
With Chargois hurt and the Marlins only having two other right-handed pitchers in their bullpen (Jorge Lopez and David Robertson), recalling Brazoban was a logical decision.
The same goes for bringing up Weathers for Smeltzer, who had pitched a combined 3 1/3 innings on Thursday and Friday and would likely be unavailable to pitch Saturday. Weathers gives Miami length out of the bullpen.
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