Why Cal Quantrill chose the Miami Marlins and what he brings to the team
Cal Quantrill saw an opportunity and took it.
That’s essentially what went into the right-handed pitcher’s decision to sign a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Miami Marlins on Wednesday as the team began spring training at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex in Jupiter.
“I think this is an exciting young team,” Quantrill said Thursday before his first workout with the team in Jupiter. “It’s an impressive group of guys. I think that the league’s getting younger, and I think that this team’s in a really good position to take a step forward, and I want to be a part of that.”
Quantrill, 30, will immediately slot into the Marlins’ rotation, and can go anywhere from No. 2-5 behind Opening Day starter Sandy Alcantara. Assuming everyone stays healthy, lefty Ryan Weathers and righty Edward Cabrera should occupy two more spots. The final pitcher in the rotation to begin the season will likely come down to Max Meyer, Valente Bellozo and prospect Adam Mazur.
“Extremely talented,” Quantrill said of the Marlins’ rotation. “Obviously led by — people may have forgotten — arguably one of the best pitchers in baseball [in Alcantara]. He missed last year, but Sandy is pretty special. I think anytime you got somebody like that at the top, it makes everyone else’s job a little easier, but I think there’s talent throughout, and I think that I’ll get to know him a little bit here in the next couple weeks, but I like what I see.”
The Marlins like what they see in Quantrill, too.
In particular, they like the fact that he has a proven track record. Over his six-year career, with stints in San Diego, Cleveland and Colorado, Quantrill has thrown 719 innings over 161 games (123 starts). He threw a career-high 186 1/3 innings with Cleveland in 2022 and has thrown at least 149 2/3 innings in three of his past four seasons.
For comparison, only Alcantara among Marlins starters has pitched at least 100 innings in a season at the MLB level.
“It brings a lot of value,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Quantrill’s experience, “not only just his major league experience, but also the fact that Cal’s been able to post and and have seasons logging innings. Providing that in the rotation is incredibly helpful throughout the year with what it does to help your bullpen throughout the course of the season. Having Cal here part of our group is very beneficial.”
Now, the goal is getting production on top of the innings. From 2020 to 2022, Quantrill had a 3.08 ERA over 90 games (57 starts) and boasted a 25-8 record. During his past two seasons, however, Quantrill’s ERA jumped to 5.08 over 248 innings that spanned 48 starts.
He got off to a good start with the Rockies last season, pitching to a respectable 3.77 ERA through his first 18 starts, with half of those outings being quality starts (at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed). His final 11 starts to the season: A 7.50 ERA over 48 innings.
“Really good first half,” Quantrill said. “I think I thought the pitch mix was good, the preparation was excellent. We got into the second half, and I dealt with a little bit of, little bit of injury stuff — nothing to be worried about, but I think it kind of just got me a little off kilter. I went away from some of the stuff that was working so effectively in the first half. I didn’t finish the season exactly how I wanted, but I did finish healthy and feel healthy coming in.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 1:24 PM.
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