2021 Marlins Season Review: Dylan Floro

He may not have been among the more elite relief arms in the sport, but credit Dylan Floro for his continued consistency.

2021 Timeline

• February 12: Traded from the Dodgers to the Marlins in exchange for Alex Vesia and Kyle Hurt.
• May 24: Collects first career save in win over Philadelphia.
• October 3: Collects 15th save in Miami’s season-ending victory over Philadelphia.

By the Numbers

Floro’s first year in Miami featured many of the same positive attributes that made him a valued member of the Reds and Dodgers in previous seasons. He matched a career-high in innings pitched (64), as well as setting new personal bests in strikeouts (62), H/9 (7.5), and SO/9 (8.7).

FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching, is a metric used to account for outcomes only a pitcher has control over—strikeouts, walks, and home runs—and serves as an indicator of both pitcher performance relative to the rest of the league as well as how much stock should be put in one’s ERA. Floro’s FIP indicates the right-hander didn’t get cheated in 2021: his was identical to his ERA at 2.81.

Much of this can be seen in Floro’s sheer reluctance in allowing the long ball, serving up just 2 over the full-length campaign. For his career, Floro has allowed 12 home runs over 223 ²⁄₃ innings (0.5 HR/9).

Looking over his MLB rankings, courtesy of Baseball Savant, it’s no wonder Floro does as well as does. He finished in the 95th and 91st percentile, respectively, in average exit velocity and Hard Hit rate. Simply put, Floro relies on weak contact.

Baseball-Savant

While primarily a sinker-baller, throwing the pitch 32.3-percent of the time, Floro’s out pitch, oddly enough, has been his four-seam fastball. Throwing 328 of them in 2021, hitters were limited to .145 average and .158 slugging against the 30-year old’s four-seamer. Hitters swung and missed 44.2-percent of the time with two strikes, generating a 34.1-percent whiff rate.

Since the start of 2018, Floro owns a 2.94 ERA (142 ERA+) and 3.05 FIP. Among relievers with at least as many innings as him in the span (199), Floro’s ERA ranks 5th.

1. Josh Hader, 2.30
2. Liam Hendriks, 2.32
3. Ryan Pressly, 2.48
4. Blake Treinen, 2.51
5. Dylan Floro, 2.94

Highlights

Will Floro Be Back in 2022?

Barring another offseason trade, Floro is among the locks to be on the roster come Opening Day 2022. It may not even be out of the realm of possibility to see the right-hander resume his role as closer, considering he pitched to a 2.52 ERA of 25 innings pitched in the 9th this past season.

However, if the Marlins are concerned about Floro’s uneven performance in high-leverage situations, they may to shop for veteran reinforcements to compete with him.