Marlins' spot in Trade Deadline market unclear

MIAMI -- As Marlins general manager Kim Ng fielded Trade Deadline questions on Saturday, she paused on an answer because the loanDepot park crowd erupted into cheers. The television behind the media scrum showed Mets All-Star second baseman Jeff McNeil rounding the bases to break a scoreless deadlock in the third inning.

Miami went on to lose, 4-0, to the National League East-leading Mets (63-37) on Saturday night. With the defeat, the Marlins (47-54) dropped to 6 1/2 games back of the third NL Wild Card spot. According to Baseball Reference, the club entered Saturday with a 0.7% chance of making the postseason.

"I do think that there's an outside shot -- a very outside shot," Ng said. "If we have a little luck, and we are hoping to get some pitching back here in the next 7-10 days, we feel that should help. Sometimes a lot of this boils down to who gets hot at the end. So it'll be interesting."

Left-hander Jesús Luzardo (left forearm strain) and right-hander Edward Cabrera (right elbow tendinitis) would be the pitching Ng alluded to. Both are nearing returns from their rehab assignments. Luzardo, who was in the Opening Day rotation, has been sidelined since May 12. Cabrera has been out since June 13.

Until then, the Marlins will continue to make due thanks to their surplus -- though Ng is cautious to call it that -- starting pitching. Right-hander Nick Neidert became the 12th Marlin to start in 2022 with lefty Trevor Rogers (back spasms) landing on the 15-day IL on Friday with back spasms.

It has been a “crazy year” for Neidert, who was being converted to a reliever during Spring Training before being designated for assignment on April 4 as part of a 40-man roster crunch. He also dealt with a knee injury that sidelined him for nearly a month. The 25-year-old was solid in his return to the Majors, allowing two runs on five hits across five innings. Both runs came in the third -- one on McNeil’s homer and one on Francisco Lindor’s RBI single.

“This is probably the best I've thrown up here,” said Neidert, who entered with a 5.12 ERA in seven career MLB starts. “Last year was a lot of misses and kind of limiting damage the whole time. Today, I felt like I could actually pitch. My mechanics have been feeling really good. I thought I did a good job, guys played great behind me.”

But Miami’s season-long offensive struggles continued against Carlos Carrasco (7 2/3 IP) and Seth Lugo, as the club was shut out for the 11th time (sixth this month). The Marlins also extended their streak to 11 consecutive home games without a homer. That's a franchise record.

Five of the nine members of Miami's Opening Day lineup didn’t play on Saturday, including the organization’s top offseason free-agent signees: Avisaíl García and Jorge Soler. García (67 OPS+) sat, while Soler (96 OPS+) is on the IL for the second time with a pelvic issue.

“I think it's been disappointing,” Ng said. “Jorge and Avi are disappointed in their seasons as well. It's not what they're accustomed to, and it's not what we thought we would see this year. Jorge, with the back, it's been an issue for him and he's battling through it.

“Avi wishes he was doing better. We all do. I think it's not for lack of effort. I will say that there are some pretty big players last year who were in the same boat and this year as well. I've looked back at the other potential acquisitions that we could have made in the offseason, and there are some that aren't doing what their new teams have expected either. It's just bad luck. In terms of why that's happened? I think sometimes players exert a lot of pressure on themselves. And again, it's not necessarily what anybody wanted. It's not what they wanted.”

With the Trade Deadline at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the Marlins aren’t a clear buyer or seller due to where they are in the standings and the promise of players returning from injuries, according to Ng. Plus, they will be facing the clubs ahead of them in the standings quite a bit over the remaining two-plus months of the season, so ground can be made up.

“We're a club that's hopefully going to get healthy with our guys, get them back, and capable of putting some wins together,” manager Don Mattingly said before the game. “We've shown that. That's what the last couple of months are about as a team that can get hot, and we've just got to have that mindset that we've just got to keep going, keep fighting, get all the wins we can. If we can get our guys back and find a hot streak in there.”