The 2021 season has been unacceptable for the Marlins

The 2021 season has been abysmal for the Marlins. I’m not saying they should have won the NL East division, but after a strong 2020 in which they finished with a .517 win percentage and advanced to the postseason, this season qualifies as a failure and a setback as well.

Miami enters Tuesday with a 64-91 record and it hasn’t gotten any better as of late. The Marlins are carrying a five-game losing streak and they’ve lost 44 of their last 74 contests, trending in the wrong direction rather than building momentum for next year. This is already their seventh campaign with at least 90 losses since 2011, which is more than any other franchise during that span.

Was last season a fluky fantasy for the Marlins? It depends on how you see it.

Photo by Bryan Cereijo/Getty Images

The Marlins have a great pitching core. They have established players like Sandy Alcántara, valuable rookies like Trevor Rogers, and precious prospects like Max Meyer. If you ask me, their pitching is the aspect I’m more excited about going forward.

But while their pitching staff has potential, their offense is among the worst ones—Jesús Aguilar is the only Marlin in 2021 to hit at an above-average level (higher than 100 wRC+) while playing at least half of the team’s games.

I’m still faithful and optimistic about Derek Jeter and Kim Ng. At the end of the day, Jeter has been a perennial winner and doesn’t stand losing. But I guess they could’ve been more aggressive, or at least demonstrate that they have a direct plan to make the Marlins a contending team. Right when they need to begin acquiring veteran, established players, they keep adding more flawed youngsters to an already crowded puzzle.

The Marlins don’t have as much time as they did at the onset of their rebuild. People’s patience is running thin. That’s why I say the 2021-2022 offseason is going to be as important as any other. The long-awaited time to invest has come.

The first step should be letting go of the weak links. The Marlins front office needs to make moves specifically aimed at helping them strengthen the 2022 major league roster.

The upcoming free agent market is stacked with a world-class group of shortstops, a huge amount of productive bats, and good pitchers. By taking action to get players who complement their interesting core, the Marlins can leave all the losing behind.