Five thoughts as Marlins reach midpoint of 2026 season in playoff hunt
The Miami Marlins enter the midway point of the 2026 season in a spot that’s somewhat rare for the club: With a winning record.
The Marlins are 42-39 through their first 81 games of the 162-game schedule. That’s tied for third-best mark in franchise history through 81 games, behind only a 48-33 record in 1997 and 47-34 record in 2023. Both of those teams made the playoffs. It’s also only the 10th time in franchise history they’ve had a winning record after 81 games.
This has them one-and-a-half games behind the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, who were tied for the National League’s final two wild card spots entering play Thursday.
So how did the Marlins get to this point?
Here are five key takeaways.
Weathering the storm
At its simplest, Miami never let the rough patches get too bad. They dealt with a few losing streaks, but nothing longer than five games.
And after that season-long five-game losing streak brought their record to 26-34 at the end of May, the Marlins have become one of baseball’s hottest teams.
They are 16-5 in June and have won six of their seven series — sweeping the Washington Nationals, Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants while also taking two of three against the Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers. Their only series loss this month was dropping two of three on the road to the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We were able to kind of keep our heads above water for a little bit when we weren’t playing that well,” second-year Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “We all felt like there was going to be a stretch when we were going to get going and put a run together. Just try not to dig ourselves too big a hole until that happened, and this month we played very well.”
Top performers
Otto Lopez: The shortstop has built upon his breakout 2025 season. Lopez leads MLB in hits (107, 11 more than the San Francisco Giants’ Luis Arraez), batting average (.340, seven points ahead of the Gaints’ Jung Hoo Lee) and multihit games (33, four more than Arraez and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nick Gonzales). His 21 doubles are tied for third in MLB, and he also has six home runs, 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts and 51 runs scored while forming a solid one-two middle infield punch with second baseman Xavier Edwards.
Max Meyer: The 27-year-old righty is finally living up to his potential after an injury-filled start to his career. He is 8-0 with a 2.80 ERA and 102 strikeouts against 34 walks over 90 innings across 16 starts. Opponents are hitting just .210 against him. Meyer is the only qualified pitcher (out of 62 entering Thursday) without a loss to his name. The total starts, strikeouts and innings pitched are already single-season career highs. His success on the mound — and ability to stay on the mound — along with ace Sandy Alcantara has helped Miami deal with several injuries to its rotation over the first half of the season.
Liam Hicks: He’s currently on the injured list due to a low back strain, but Hicks was hitting .278 with a .831 on-base-plus-slugging mark over 73 games prior to the injury while splitting time between catcher, first base and designated hitter. He leads the team with 13 home runs and 53 RBI, the latter of which is tied for 10th in MLB.
All-Star’s rebound
A pair of hamstring injuries in spring training had Kyle Stowers slow out of the gates in 2026 after being an All-Star and Gold Glove finalist in 2025.
He is starting to turn the corner.
Stowers has an .874 OPS, five home runs and 18 RBI through 20 games in June after having just a .663 OPS, three home runs and 11 RBI over his first 37 games of the season. Having his middle-of-the-order production helps lengthen Miami’s lineup.
What’s also lengthening Miami’s lineup: Stowers getting somewhat regular playing time at first base, which allows Miami to better utilize its outfield depth (Jakob Marsee, Esteury Ruiz, Owen Caissie, Heriberto Hernandez and Griffin Conine in addition to Stowers) when it comes to lineup construction.
Rookie’s rise
The Marlins had high expectations for catcher prospect Joe Mack coming into the season.
While his defense has been top-notch since making his MLB debut on May 4, his bat is finally heating up as well.
Mack is hitting .327 (17 for 52) with a .993 OPS, four home runs, 12 RBI and 11 runs scored in June.
Defensively, Mack has already thrown out 12 of 35 potential baserunners. He is one of 12 catchers to have caught at least a dozen players attempting to steal. Only one of the other 11 has been behind the plate for fewer innings than Mack’s 315 1/3 — the Toronto Blue Jays’ Tyler Heineman, who has caught 12 potential basestealers in just 235 innings of work.
Dominant bullpen
Miami’s relievers have been among baseball’s best through the first half of the season.
The Marlins’ bullpen ranks among the top five in MLB in opponent average against (.200, first), walks and hits per inning pitched (1.18, second), strikeouts per nine innings (9.54, fourth) and ERA (3.40, fifth).
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