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Ugly yet unsurprising
Sure, you may be feeling deflated about the 1-5 start to the Marlins season. The team is in a familiar position despite supposedly making huge strides in their rebuild. The Braves hogged much of the bad press out of the gates by losing four straight, but then swept a doubleheader on Wednesday, meaning that the Fish have sunk to the bottom of the NL East.
However, I’m struggling to understand why anybody would be outraged or demanding roster moves so soon. The 2021 Marlins were not constructed with postseason contention in mind. Yes, in a dream scenario, they have the potential to sneak into October, but not because the Adam Duvalls and Adam Cimbers of the world will lead them there.
This major league season is all about watching the young core pieces continue to progress toward their ultimate ceilings. So far so good from Sandy Alcantara and Pablo López, and even Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trevor Rogers have given us some thrilling sequences despite mediocre overall stats. The next wave of must-watch players aren’t currently on the active roster, but it’s a long season.
There’s time for Sixto Sánchez and Edward Cabrera to recover from injury. There’s time for former first-round picks JJ Bleday and Max Meyer to break through. There’s time for Jesús Sánchez, Lewin Díaz and Monte Harrison to adjust after 2020’s rude welcome to The Show. There’s time, and nothing about this six-game sample changes that.
Walk-off links
- FiveThirtyEight gives the Marlins a 37% chance to win their next game against the Mets.
- Thanks to Gary Mack for inviting me onto his MetsMusings podcast to look ahead to the series.
- Takes Were Made covered a lot of ground on their Wednesday post-series Twitch stream.
- Aram Leighton and I have been on the same page regarding what the Marlins should do at the catcher position: “go all-in for Willson Contreras.”
- Derek Jeter has joined the board of Rockefeller Capital Management.
- Bally Sports Florida wasted no time replacing the camera that Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill accidently destroyed on Tuesday.
- The Athletics’ Britt Ghiroli selects the Marlins as one of her favorite “fun bad” teams for this MLB season.
- The Man On Second Baseball podcast discusses what they’ve seen through the first week of regular season games.
- In their study of player demographics, Baseball America confirms that Jazz Chisholm Jr. was the only Bahamian who was active for MLB Opening Day.
- Double-A Pensacola received approval from MLB to have fans in attendance when the minor league season starts next month. In their first year as a Marlins affiliate, Blue Wahoos radio broadcasts will continue to air on ESPN Pensacola.
- The Marlins’ in-house education program seeks part-time ESL teachers to work with prospects in Pensacola and Jacksonville.
- Nearly 150 unique users participated in Fish Picks during opening week. Join them! It’s quick and easy. You’ll find the props posted daily in our game coverage section and pinned to our Twitter account.