So, who exactly are the 2025 Miami Marlins?

The Miami Marlins are in their 2007 era, as the kids would say; and by the kids, I mean a majority of the Marlins roster, of which the oldest position player currently on the active roster is 28-year-old “grizzled vet” Nick Fortes, with the oldest pitcher being the freshly 30-year-old reliever Anthony Bender. To make a long story short, this 2025 Marlins team is young. Whether that is a good or bad thing, is a matter of perspective depending on what one’s view of the organization pre-2024 was. Were you bullish on the team’s ability to capitalize on the surprise 2023 postseason appearance? This seems to be where the majority opinion within the fanbase lands, and falling in line with that thinking, many have criticized the front office as well as owner Bruce Sherman.

They see the recent turn towards youth representing another cold, calculated move in the sake of chasing profit. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are those, of which I am admittedly included, who believe the run 2023 was extremely fun, but always doomed to be a one year postseason escapade. Therefore, it would only seem reasonable to those folks that the Marlins take a turn towards the future, developing talent and building from the bottom up. I’m not here to pontificate on what the right approach is or is not, but rather setting the stage for what can be a crossroad type season for this iteration of the front office, and ownership group in 2025. 

The Miami Marlins offseason was quiet, until it wasn’t. For the first month and a half or so, all the Marlins had seemingly managed to do was add a new manager in former Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough. It was a rather nondescript hire for the fish, who had publicly swung and missed on their presumed top two targets. Regardless, the McCullough hire was well received in baseball circles as a guy who has the respect of his players, and has a history of working with young players who are still developing down in the minors. On December 11th, however, the Marlins dealt 1B/DH Jake Burger to the Texas Rangers in exchange for a pair of middle infield prospects, they then followed that move up 12 days later by making by far the most controversial move of their offseason, dealing LHP Jesus Luzardo to the division rival Phillies that netted them a pair of prospects, including top 100 prospect Starlyn Caba. From that point forward, the remaining moves would be either house cleaning moves or low-risk high reward buy lows like 1B Matt Mervis from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for waived utility man Vidal Brujan.

And so the Marlins find themselves occupying an odd space headed into 2025. They have clearly gotten worse on paper, having dealt away Luzardo and Burger, but they also have returning starters Sandy Alcantara, Ryan Weathers, and eventually Eury Perez rejoining the mix. In the field, the Marlins will have some extremely unproven, but encouraging, young talent. Players like Xavier Edwards and Connor Norby will no doubt be looked at as the two legitimate young pieces the Marlins have headed towards the future, but players like Kyle Stowers, Griffin Conine, and Dane Myers all had shown at the very least intriguing flashes at points in 2024, while 2024 overachievers Otto Lopez and Jonah Bride look to repeat their surprising success this season, and the perpetual question of “Can Jesus Sanchez put it all together for a full season?” still looms.

Additionally, the Marlins have several prospects seemingly on the cusp of being ready for their first taste of the big league, players like 1B Deyvison De Los Santos, acquired at last year’s deadline, who clobbered 40 homers in 137 games across double and triple-A, while posting an OPS of .914. Catcher Agustin Ramirez, who was acquired in the Jazz Chisholm, Jr. trade last deadline and impressed in the minors all 2024 between the double and triple-A levels, is not far behind him. He enters camp with as good a chance as anyone seemingly to take the second catcher spot, with Nick Fortes being the only catcher on the roster with MLB experience after the Marlins waived journeyman Jhonny Pereda last month. In the outfield, prospect Victor Mesa, Jr. looks to make the 2025 roster off the heels of an impressive 2024 season at the triple-A level. 

Now, it sounds a lot like what is being said here is that the Marlins are set to be your next surprise young team in the mold of the Cincinnati Reds and Baltimore Orioles of recent seasons. That’s not necessarily the case. What is being said here, however, is that the Marlins are coming into the spring of 2025 with possibilities. Young players are inconsistent, unpredictable, and sometimes downright frustrating. Past that, though, there are few things more rewarding as a sports fan, for me personally, at least, than watching young players begin to figure it out and tap into their potential. In previous seasons, the Marlins had hoped for journeymen like Garrett Cooper, Jesus Aguilar, and Avisail Garcia to match, or play above their career bests in order to be able to compete. They were known quantities. The Marlins now have much less certainty, which, admittedly, provides them with a much lower floor, but a ceiling that could pleasantly surprise. Connor Norby, Xavier Edwards, Kyle Stowers, Otto Lopez, Griffin Conine, Matt Mervis, Jonah Bride, Deyvison De Los Santos, Dane Myers, Jesus Sanchez, Agustin Ramirez.

All of these players could be busts, there are no guarantees of anything with any young player. However, if even four or five of these players emerge as real legitimate MLB starters, the outlook for 2025 and beyond for the Marlins looks immensely different. Combine that with the returning starters that the Marlins have in the rotation, the intriguing starting pitching prospects the Marlins have waiting in the wings (Robby Snelling, Adam Mazur, Noble Meyer, Thomas White, Jacob Miller) and a bullpen that is deeper than first appears on paper, and you have a team that has about as wide of a range of outcomes as one can imagine.

The Marlins could be in for a repeat of 2024, dealing what’s left of the established MLB talent by midseason as the young players struggle to find their footing. The flip side, however, is that the younger players the Marlins do have, continue to build off of 2024, Alcantara returns to 2023 form, Ryan Weathers picks up where he left off in mid 2024, and Eury Perez comes back by mid May to create one of the most devastating 1-2 punches atop any rotation in baseball. This isn’t a plea to the fans to give this roster a chance, if you have been burned by the organization one time too many and are jaded, that is more than understandable in these circumstances. But, for those in the fanbase who are willing to give this roster a chance, this could be an extremely fun season, a la 2007, when the Marlins finished with a record of just 71-91, but gave fans plenty of reasons to dream for the future, a feat that the current Miami Marlins roster will look to duplicate headed into 2025.