How Marlins get no luck in draft lottery. And opening day moved, personnel news
The Marlins had no luck at all in the fourth annual draft lottery on Tuesday evening.
Not only did the Marlins not move up into the top six of next July’s amateur draft, but they ended up dropping five spots, from ninth (where they would have picked if there were no lottery) to 14th.
Fifteen nonplayoff teams, including the Marlins, were eligible to win a top-six selection in the 2026 Draft.
The Marlins had a 1.85% chance of landing the top pick, the ninth-shortest odds, but instead tumbled to 14th. The White Sox entered with the best odds to win the top pick ($27.3 percent) and, in fact, ended up with the top pick.
The only time the Marlins selected 14th, they drafted deceased former All-Star pitcher Jose Fernandez in 2011.
Colorado, which lost 119 games, wasn’t eligible to win the lottery since they won lottery picks the past two years, and the Angels and Nationals were not eligible because teams that pay revenue-sharing funds cannot receive lottery picks in consecutive drafts.
Opening day moved
The Marlins moved their opening day game (vs. Colorado) from Thursday afternoon, March 26 to Friday night, March 27 at 7:10. It’s the first night Marlins home opener since 2016.
▪ The Marlins have an open spot on their 40-man roster if they choose to select a player in Wednesday’s 2 p.m. Rule 5 draft.
Dan Uggla — who had 154 homers and 465 RBI in five seasons as a Marlin — remains the best Rule 5 pickup in Marlins history, but Liam Hicks was a helpful addition last season, producing a .346 on-base average and driving in 45 runs in 390 plate appearances while playing catcher, first base and designated hitter.
▪ Shortstop Otto Lopez, who was claimed by the Marlins off waivers from the Giants in April 2024, continued his pleasantly surprising evolution last season by hitting 21 doubles, 15 homers and driving in 143 runs, with a .305 on-base percentage. Manager Clayton McCullough says there’s still more to be extracted.
“He’s a terrific defender,” McCullough said at this week’s MLB winter meetings in Orlando. “He brings some value on the bases, and I just feel Otto, offensively, is just scratching the surface. He impacted the ball last year better than he had. He’s never struck out a whole lot, and his walk rate improves some. I think there’s still some plate discipline, things, when Otto continues to tighten those up, the overall offensive game will [rise], an above-average ball player at shortstop is hard to find.”
▪ McCullough said that in his view, one key to the Marlins’ pitching last season was the “big turnaround in the middle of May when our walk rate dramatically dropped. Early on in the season it’s not sustainable to have a 12% walk rate in the Major Leagues as a pitching staff.
“We have arm talent. We had guys that really had great stuff, but we needed to get it in the box more. When we cut the walk rate down to 6, 7% and our defense cleaned up, in turn, we played probably as good a brand of baseball for a few months as we could have.
“And that’s going to continue to be the recipe — filling up the strike zone with high-quality stuff, and when you have a chance to put people away to be able to go get a punch-out.”
And offensively?
“We’ll continue to hammer home the plate discipline, decision-making, because that’s a big part of where things start. We’re facing high-quality stuff every single night. You have to be able to control the strike zone; we have a lot of players that have real ability to make contact.
“Now, it’s just trying to get more out of that contact. Hopefully a year after getting a lot of Major League at-bats, [the young players will take] some of those throw-away at-bats and just tighten things up a little bit. We can create more run-scoring opportunities and use our athleticism on the bases; [that’s] where we can continue to make strides on the offensive end.”
▪ Asked the strength of the organization, McCullough said “our arm talent.”
▪ The Marlins hired Blake Butler as infield coach, replacing Tyler Smarslok, who became field coordinator with the Nationals. Butler has been a minor-league coach in Pittsburgh’s system since 2020 and managed Single A Greensboro for the past two seasons.
This story was originally published December 9, 2025 at 6:01 PM.
