PHOENIX -- Auditions for high-leverage roles in the 2027 Marlins bullpen will hit full swing down the stretch, as the club will be without closer Pete Fairbanks and setup man Anthony Bender for the rest of the season.
The showcase started in earnest on Tuesday night at Chase Field, where seven relievers covered eight frames in a 4-2 win over the D-backs in 11 innings. Rookie right-hander Josh Ekness worked the 10th and 11th for his second career victory.
“Phenomenal, phenomenal job to be able to buckle down,” manager Clayton McCullough said after the bullpen finished capitalizing on Esteury Ruiz’s three-run double in the 11th. “We had a lot of traffic at times, but we were able to stray a lot of runners on base. But those guys buckled down, put up zeros, allowed us to keep on going until we were able to finally break through. Great win after a tough loss last night.”
Fairbanks, who exited after just six pitches on Monday in his second outing since coming off the injured list, was put back on the shelf before the game with the right median nerve irritation that has plagued him all season.
“Pete's pretty bummed out. I'm bummed out for him, for it to come down here to the end of the year,” said McCullough. “But he’ll go get it looked at, get it sorted out, and he'll be fine.”
Fairbanks finishes the season after 46 appearances with a 6.31 ERA, well below the standard the right-hander set during his time with Tampa Bay before signing a one-year deal with Miami in December.
There were stretches in which Fairbanks found his form, but his Marlins tenure never really hit its stride. He went on the paternity list April 6 after just four appearances, then landed on the injured list when the nerve irritation first popped up a few weeks later. He returned on May 13, but struggled to find consistency before landing back on the IL with the nerve irritation on Aug. 28.
The 32-year-old hoped the issue was behind him when he returned last Wednesday.
“Having this is an impossibly frustrating thing to deal with,” said Fairbanks. “Because for the most part, the motor output is there. But everything else, physically or neurologically, whatever the proper word is, it’s just not there.”
McCullough said the Marlins will take a committee approach in save situations for the remainder of the season, noting he’s more concerned with getting to the ninth inning with a lead than what he’ll do when he gets there.
“We’re not going to designate someone to finish games,” McCullough said. “We just look at using the best people we can to get to that point and then whoever’s left will get that opportunity.”
Top options for leverage situations would appear to be right-handers Calvin Faucher and Michael Petersen, but the Marlins need to worry about more than the ninth, as top setup man Bender will also not be returning from the IL this season either.
“Bender was able to see a doctor, and he's decided to go through with a surgical procedure,” McCullough said. “And the good thing about that now is it sounds like he'll be ready for Spring Training when that begins. … I think it's gonna be something he can put behind him now and go into next year ready to pitch pain-free through an entire season.”
Bender has been on the IL since June 30 with a right shin stress reaction, an injury similar to the one that ended his 2025 season last August. He was rehabbing with Triple-A Jacksonville in hopes of returning, but a recent flareup led to him being shut down and his decision to have surgery.
Losing Bender was as big of a blow to the Marlins’ bullpen as losing Fairbanks. When Bender went on the IL, the Marlins had a 3.38 bullpen ERA that was fourth best in the National League. Since he’s been gone, that number has skyrocketed to 5.08, 14th out of the 15 NL teams.
“Anthony was having a phenomenal season,” McCullough said. “He had taken a ton of steps this year, especially with how he performed against left-handed hitters. I think that allowed him to be able to be deployed in different, more mixed pockets of a lineup. … He was having as good a season as really any non-closer in baseball.”