Five Miami Marlins storylines to watch as the 2025 season gets underway
A new Miami Marlins season is upon us.
The Marlins open the 33rd season in franchise history on Thursday when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates at loanDepot park. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m., and the game will be televised on FanDuel Sports Network Florida.
It will be the latest season of change for the Marlins, who have a new manager in Clayton McCullough and a roster that is overhauled mightily from the team it fielded a year ago that finished 62-100. Most of the key contributors from that team were traded for prospects as president of baseball operations Peter Bendix works to restock the organization’s depth and then rely on the player development department to maximize the production of those prospects.
Here are five storylines to watch with the Marlins as the season gets underway.
Sandy Alcantara returns ... but how long will he be with the Marlins?
Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins’ ace and the 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner, will take the mound on Thursday for the first time in a game that counts since Sept. 3, 2023, after missing all of last season while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.
Alcantara’s return will provide a boost for the Marlins and serves as half of arguably the most marquee pitching matchup on Opening Day as he goes opposite Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes, who won NL Rookie of the Year last season and is an early Cy Young favorite this year.
But the main question that will surround Alcantara during his return is whether he’ll be with the team at season’s end. Rumors and speculation are already swirling about if — or when — Miami will trade off Alcantara, who’s in Year 4 of a five-year, $56 million contract that also includes a $21 million club option for the 2027 season. Bendix at the start of spring training simply said “Sandy is here right now” when asked about Alcantara’s future with the club.
They’re already dealing with a slew of injuries.
Four starting pitchers are hurt, with Braxton Garrett (left elbow surgery) out for the year, Eury Perez (Tommy John rehab) out until around the All-Star Break, and Ryan Weathers (left forearm) and Edward Cabrera (right middle finger blister) sidelined for the early going of the season. This leaves the Marlins with a rotation of Alcantara, Connor Gillispie, Valente Bellozo, Max Meyer and Cal Quantrill to start the season.
High-leverage relievers Andrew Nardi (back) and Declan Cronin (hip) are out, too. Nardi’s absence leaves the Marlins without an experienced lefty in the bullpen. Anthony Veneziano is the only other lefty reliever on Miami’s 40-man roster, though Josh Simpson is also an option to make the team. Righties Calvin Faucher, Jesus Tinoco and Anthony Bender will likely be Miami’s primary high-leverage relievers.
And Miami has injuries to two of its top position players in third baseman Connor Norby and outfielder Jesus Sanchez, both of whom are dealing with oblique strains. A combination of Eric Wagaman, Jonah Bride and (if he makes the roster) Graham Pauley will fill in for Norby at third base, while Miami’s outfield without Sanchez will include righties Derek Hill and Dane Myers plus lefties Kyle Stowers and Griffin Conine.
The team is young ... really young.
Miami only has two players on its roster who are 30 years old in Bender and Quantrill, both of whom hit the milestone last month.
They only have 10 players with at least two years of MLB service time accrued — and half of those are starting the season on the injured list — and four (Alcantara, Quantrill, Bender and Sanchez) with more than three years of service time under their belt.
That leaves a lot of opportunities for players who have yet to scratch the surface.
There are some who will be intriguing to watch. Shortstop Xavier Edwards, for example, flashed in his 70-game sample size last season when he hit .328, posted a .397 on-base percentage and stole 31 bases in 36 attempts. He has the makings of a prototypical leadoff hitter.
Norby is one to follow as well once he returns from his oblique injury. Acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles, Norby began his Marlins tenure last season with a 10-game hitting streak and went on to produce a .760 OPS with eight doubles and seven homers over 36 games. He has 30-home run potential.
Maybe others surprise as well. Eventually, the team will call up some of the bigger prospects they acquired last season — catcher Agustin Ramirez and slugging first baseman Deyvison De Los Santos come to mind, as do pitchers Adam Mazur and Robby Snelling.
How will Clayton McCullough fare in his first season as manager?
McCullough comes to the Marlins after four seasons as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first base coach and was part of the Dodgers organization for a decade overall. Before joining the Dodgers he spent seven seasons managing at the lower levels of the minor leagues in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.
And he, like the players he is leading, will go through the season with a lot to prove as he maneuvers through his first MLB managerial season.
Will they be able to defy expectations?
Granted, external expectations are pretty low for the Marlins. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projections predict the Marlins to go 60-102. FanGraphs has the Marlins pegged to go 70-92 while giving Miami a 1.3 percent chance of making the playoffs and just a 0.1 percent chance to win the National League East.
It will certainly be an uphill battle for the Marlins in 2025.
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