Marlins fire sale buzz grows louder after 0-9 start

Things are not going well for the Miami Marlins right now. They are the first team in almost a decade to start the season 0-9 and will be without two of its best pitchers for the rest of the season. The avenues for getting significantly better do not seem plentiful, so they will likely move some key players before the trade deadline.

Driving general manager Kim Ng out the door has proven to be a bad move. After making the playoffs in a non-shortened season for the first time since 2003, team management wanted to bring in someone else and give them more authority on baseball decisions over her. The franchise hired Peter Bendix away from the Tampa Bay Rays, one of the best teams in recent MLB memory, but things are not looking up.

According to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports, the Marlins could be in for some major changes very soon. Manager Skip Schumaker could be among the many faces to leave after this season is up.

Nightengale writes the following: “The Miami Marlins, who could be the first team to conduct a firesale this summer after their 0-9 start, may also be find themselves needing a new manager in 2025. Skip Schumaker, the NL manager of the Year last season, is a free agent after the year. The Marlins originally had a club option on Schumaker in 2025, but the Marlins agreed to void the option during contract talks this past winter.”

Losing Schumaker, the National League’s Manager of the Year in 2023, would sting greatly. But the more pressing matter is what to do with the roster. After making no moves to significantly improve, they are unsurprisingly not a popular pick to make it to the playoffs.

Marlins could start to trade key players amid ugly start to 2024 season

The Marlins are in a difficult spot with star pitcher Sandy Alcantara and rising star pitcher Eury Perez both on the mend after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Even if they were both healthy, a return to the postseason would be tough to come by. Miami would be better off just dumping its veteran players this season and restarting for the future.

Nightengale pointed to Jazz Chisholm Jr., Josh Bell, Jesús Luzardo, Luis Arráez and Braxton Garrett as the “top commodities” for the Marlins to trade away. Each of those guys is 26 years old (besides the 31-year-old Bell) but it’s not exactly a core worth committing all the way to. It’s extremely likely that last year’s 84 wins is the peak of that squad. They’re not going to be the worst team in MLB this season but they still might not be a good one.

The San Diego Padres previously expressed interest in Arraez and Luzardo. It wouldn’t be surprising for teams to have an interest in the names Nightengale pointed to. Third baseman Jake Burger should also be of interest to teams in need of some more juice at the plate.

Fire sales are so engrained into the Marlins’ DNA that even their championship teams were disassembled quickly after winning it all, especially the 1997 team. While injuries have contributed to a lot of their problems, they have to do what’s best for them right now. As brutal as it would be to see another batch of promising Miami players head elsewhere, the team doesn’t have many more options.