JUPITER, Fla. – The 2025 Marlins made for a nice story, improving by 17 wins despite fielding the Majors’ least experienced roster.
But last year is in the past.
The industry continues to doubt what the Marlins are capable of, especially competing in the same National League Division as the Phillies, Mets and Braves. It’s of no concern to them, as evidenced by the mood during Monday’s first full-squad workout at the Marlins Jupiter Academy.
“Our expectations are to be extremely competitive and continue this path to be successful every single year,” principal owner Bruce Sherman said. “Success is not measured by the games in September and August and July. Success is measured by getting to the playoffs continually. That'll be the measurement for our organization and the measurement for the front office, and that's what the Miami Marlins are going to be all about.”
Once Sherman finished speaking, he gave way at the podium to president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, the architect of this organizational vision for sustained winning, and quipped: “Not that I’m putting any pressure on you.”
“We welcome the pressure,” Bendix replied. “The whole idea here is to win. That's what we're doing every single day, is trying to win. And we're trying to win not just one season, not just two seasons. We're trying to win for as many seasons as we can, for a long period of time.
“Sustained success is more than just words. It means important games in September every year. It means playing in October every year. It means winning multiple World Series. That's what we're trying to do. Everything that we do every day, everything that you see, everything that you don't see, it's all towards that goal.”
That includes the newly renovated academy and the state-of-the-art technology. It means signing free agents Christopher Morel, Pete Fairbanks, Chris Paddack and John King as well as acquiring Top 100 prospect Owen Caissie via trade to complement All-Star Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee in the outfield. It consists of experimenting with pitch-calling from the dugout and other innovative techniques.
“Every single team at the end of the season looks to improve,” said Stowers, who sported a ‘Girl Dad’ cap and the glow of a first-time father. “The notion that, because we won however many games one year and then that many the next, there's not going to be that same guarantee of increase, and we know that. There has got to be the hunger to go earn it, and to continue to get as much as we can out of each day. That's all we can do, is prepare. Prepare well, and I like our chances of winning on a nightly basis.”
It’s a hunger Xavier Edwards, the longest-tenured position player, developed as a rookie when he joined the 2023 postseason-bound club. Simply put, the goal is to pop bottles and celebrate with the team eight months from now.
“I think we all embrace it,” Edwards said. “Pretty much everyone across here, our organization, is pretty selfless. We all want to succeed. We want to help the team win more than anything, and I think that's a big part of our DNA in our big league team. And we're just expecting to kind of pass that along and to keep playing that brand of baseball.”
Though the general message was one of excitement on Day 1, the Marlins know they need to be better. At the end of the day, they still got eliminated from playoff contention during the season’s final week.
Fielding a consistent contender is the organization’s aim, but so is seeing growth across the board from players and coaches alike, according to manager Clayton McCullough.
“That's certainly our goal,” McCullough said. “I didn't come here, sign up to lose, and our players in that clubhouse don't show up here each day worrying about where the projection is for this year and what someone else thinks we may or may not do. Best we can [do is] cancel out the noise, and that is the goal. We want to create a culture here. We want to have a group that every year we're putting ourselves in position to compete for opportunities at a championship.”
When asked how difficult it is to compete with bigger markets in spending, the Marlins across the board said they weren't concerning themselves with what other teams are doing. Bendix and the front office just focus on finding ways to beat them, something that happened nearly as often as not in a 79-83 season.
“I'm not in this for a profit at all,” Sherman said. “We haven't taken a nickel out of this in eight years. We keep putting money in, and I'm happy to do that, and the ownership group is pleased to do that. We want to win. W-I-N. Period.”