It's weird looking at the Opening Day lineup for the Marlins now, because it just looks like a team that doesn't even exist anymore. It feels like it could have been from last year. Oh, remember when Josh Bell, Avisail Garcia, Jazz Chisholm, Trevor Rogers and Nick Gordon were on this team? Yeah, it was just a couple months ago. And it didn't work.
Right now, some of the only remaining Marlins from the April iteration of this team include Jesus Sanchez, who has 17 home runs and 51 RBIs, Nick Fortes, who wasn't exactly being relied upon for his bat anyhow, Jake Burger, who at the very least will finish with a 25+ homer year, and Edward Cabrera, who's been really strong in his last few starts. Everything else has been filled by replacement players, rookies and anyone who needed a job. There are some promising young guys on this team, like Valente Bellozo, Griffin Conine and Connor Corby, but next year the Marlins will likely rival the White Sox in terms of pure ineptitude.
But, just so we have this for science, let's see how some of the people who left the Marlins this year are doing:
Josh Bell: As a sturdy fill-in for Christian Walker, Bell definitely has his mojo back, hitting .283 with 4 homers and 15 RBIs since coming over.
Emmanuel Rivera: In only a week with the Baltimore Orioles, the former extra infield piece is hitting .286 with 5 RBIs and a homer. For a backup infielder for a competitor, that ain't bad, and he could factor into the postseason roster.
Jazz Chisholm Jr.: Chisholm has taken like a fish to water in New York, hitting .333 with 15 RBIs and 9 homers in 24 games. The extra spark that seemed to be missing from his Marlins numbers is all over these Yanks stats.
Bryan de la Cruz: It hasn't been as pretty as some of these other guys, but with the Pirates de la Cruz has, at the very least, been a nice source of power, with 12 RBIs and a homer in 26 games.
Luis Arraez: Regardless of his thumb issue, the veteran contact hitter still leads the NL in hits with 171, and in average with .310. The Padres will be using his effortless hitting abilities heading into a likely playoff scenario.
Christian Bethancourt: After hitting .159 in 38 games in Miami, Bethancourt somehow went on a tear in Chicago, hitting .387 with 3 homers and 15 RBIs. No one knows how this has happened. Not even Bethancourt.
Trevor Rogers: eh...we can skip him.
Tanner Scott: In 16 games with the Padres, Scott has a 2.40 ERA with 17 Ks and 2 saves. It's a solid progression of an already excellent season for the former Marlins chief relief specialist.
Bryan Hoeing: Similarly, the other reliever in that deal has a 1.13 ERA and 13 Ks in 11 games. So they did well all around.
A.J. Puk: This is the most insane one to me. Cause Puk struggled in the first half, both as a starter and just in general. So he heats up after returning to relief work. The Marlins trade him to Arizona. And once he gets there, he sports a 0.61 ERA in 17 games, meaning he's given up ONE EARNED RUN in that time, plus 22 strikeouts. This is incredible. All it took was getting out of Miami.
I really hope the Marlins can improve as a full unit next year, because this just got depressing after a while. The White Sox at least have Garrett Crochet. The Marlins have...like...people coming back from injuries, but...will they WANT to?
Coming Tomorrow- We're waiting to see if this season will have a twenty-game winner, but we definitely have a guy who's pitched in 20 straight losses.
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