Marlins add veteran starter Paddack. How rotation looks and who’s competing
For the second consecutive year, the Marlins have added a veteran starting pitcher just before spring training. They must hope than new addition Chris Paddack works out better than last year’s addition, Cal Quantrill.
Paddack agreed to a one-year, $4 million deal with Miami on Monday, putting himself in position to join a rotation led by Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez.
Paddack, 30, went 5-12 with a 5.31 ERA last season in 33 appearances and 28 starts; he made 21 starts for Minnesota and seven for Detroit, which acquired him from the Twins last July but moved him to the bullpen after he posted a disappointing 5.40 ERA over his first six starts for the Tigers.
Paddack, who went 5-3 with a 4.99 ERA for the Twins in 2024, was the Marlins’ eighth-round pick in 2015 and was traded to the Padres for Fernando Rodney in 2016.
The Marlins must hope for better results than they received from Quantrill, who went 4-10 with a 5.50 ERA in 24 starts for the Marlins last season before being released last August.
The Marlins had a choice this offseason: Deal 2022 Cy Young winner Alcantara or trade other pitchers who have had injury issues.
It wasn’t much of a decision.
The Marlins determined immediately after the season that Alcantara would remain unless they were absolutely bowled over by an offer. The strong preference was always to keep him.
That delighted Alcantara, who has two years remaining on his contract and didn’t want to leave.
“I’m happy to stay in Miami,” Alcantara said last Friday, his smile confirming his words.
By the Marlins moved on from two pitchers with a history of injuries — Edward Cabrera and Ryan Weathers — in deals with the Cubs and Yankees. By doing so, they added seven prospects (including well-regarded outfield prospects Owen Caissie and Dillon Lewis) and also created rotation spots for others.
When Marlins pitchers and catchers report to the team’s Jupiter complex on Wednesday, only Alcantara and Eury Perez can be penciled into the rotation (with the eraser thrown overboard). Because of his salary, Paddack appears very likely to be in the rotation as well, barring a disastrous spring.
The pitchers who will complete for the two other slots in the Marlins’ season-opening rotation will need to earn it, in a battle featuring Braxton Garrett, Janson Junk, Max Meyer, Ryan Gusto, Adam Mazur, Dax Fulton and top prospects Thomas White and Robby Snelling.
Garrett has a decent chance if he proves he’s all the way back from major elbow surgery 14 months ago. He has made only seven starts during the past two seasons (all in 2024) but has looked very good in bullpen sessions, catcher Liam Hicks said Friday.
Garrett, who has a 4.03 ERA in 65 Marlins appearances (63 starts) over four years, “had a great offseason,” manager Clayton McCullough said. “We’ll let the spring play out and let Braxton go out there and pitch again. I’m more excited to know Braxton has had a great offseason physically.”
Meyer, who missed all of the 2023 season after Tommy John surgery, missed the final 3 ½ months last season with a labrum tear in his left hip. He started the season well (including a 14-strikeout performance in a 6-3 win against the Reds on April 12) but struggled when the hip started bothering him and finished 3-5 with a 4.73 ERA in 64 innings.
“Everything feels good, how it should feel,” he said Friday.
Though some scouts have said Meyer is better suited to the bullpen, McCullough said the Marlins view him only as a starter.
“We need Max Meyer as a starter,” McCullough said. “He has the pitches to do that. He showed such promise early in the season, the ability to miss bats. He’s in a very good spot from the [hip] procedure.”
Junk has a good chance to make the rotation after a promising first season with the Marlins (6-4, 4.17 ERA in 21 games and 16 starts). He improved over his brief stints previously with the Brewers (5.87 ERA) and Angels (4.74 ERA).
The Marlins are intrigued by Gusto, who had a 4.92 ERA in 26 games and 16 starts for Houston last season before the Marlins acquired him last July for Jesus Sanchez. But he had a 9.77 ERA in three starts for the Marlins.
Mazur had a 4.80 ERA in six Marlins starts and showed enough to get a serious look this spring. But Mazur and Gusto are long shots for the rotation.
White and Snelling, the Marlins’ top two pitching prospects, could give president/baseball operations Peter Bendix and McCullough something to think about if they dominate this spring, though Paddack’s signing makes it more likely they’ll start the year in the minors.
White had a 2.31 ERA in 21 starts — and 145 strikeouts in 89 2/3 innings — at Single A, Double A and Triple A last season. Snelling had a 2.51 ERA in 25 starts at Double A and Triple A, with 166 strikeouts in 136 innings.
Asked if he and Bendix are open to starting the season with either prospect in the rotation, McCullough said: “I can’t say what pushes over the needle [for that to happen]. Health, performance, roster considerations will play factors in that.
“We all believe Robby and Thomas will impact our major-league team sooner than later. We saw Robby some last year in spring training; what stood out was uptick in the stuff, how hard he was throwing, how our pitching group was able to enhance a lot of his secondary [pitches].”
Fulton, the Marlins’ second-round pick in 2020, is the biggest long shot for a rotation spot; he had a 5.36 ERA in 20 starts at Double A Pensacola last season.
Meanwhile, Alcantara is headed into the final guaranteed season of the extension that he signed after the 2021 season. He will make $17 million this season and has a $21 million club option for 2027 that comes with a $2 million guarantee if the option is surprisingly not exercised.
In his first year back from Tommy John surgery, Alcantara finished with a 5.36 ERA overall last year, but he was much better in the second half of the season (3.33 ERA in 13 starts) than before the All-Star break (7.22 ERA in 18 starts).
“We saw the real version of Sandy the last couple months [as he moved further away from Tommy John surgery] and that will be the real version of Sandy we’ll see going forward,” Bendix said. “We feel really good about the starting pitching depth we have.”
Perez returned June 9 from Tommy John surgery and was solid, finishing 7-6 with a 4.25 ERA in 20 starts. He didn’t regain his pre-surgery dominance (3.15 ERA in 19 starts), through his strikeout totals weren’t dramatically different (108 K’s in 91 pre-surgery innings, 105 in 95 post-surgery).
His walk rate was the same post-surgery as before the procedure, and his velocity was still strong, though he allowed a greater volume of harder-hit balls than he did before the Tommy John procedure.
McCullough says there’s no rush to figure out the rotation.
“We have a lot of high-quality depth,” he said. “It will be fun to have a lot of talented arms. We’ll make a determination who those five are who we get to the end.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2026 at 12:45 PM.
