Coop d'etat

 

You know, a lot of these competitive teams, you have to play the game of 'what is gonna be the takeaway from this season if they don't win enough to matter', and it's hard for some of them. What the hell is the Tigers' takeaway this year? 'That didn't work, Part 11'? What are we gonna say about the 2022 Nationals? 'At least these players from other farm systems are good?'

Suffice to say, I do not have that problem with the 2022 Miami Marlins. As far as bad teams go, this is a pretty good one. I can confidently say that a Cy Young candidate, multiple all-stars and a 30-steal guy came from this team. That is a lot more than most bad teams have.

The one downfall is that a lot of the all-star energy from this team got injured pretty quickly. Jazz Chisholm got his starting ASG gig and wasn't healthy enough to truly enjoy it. Garrett Cooper got a surprise DH appearance at the ASG and then missed, like, a month of play. And then the team is playing without a lot of key players, like Avisail Garcia, Jorge Soler, Trevor Rogers and now Braxton Garrett. Hell, in the time it took for me to slot Cooper back into the schedule after he got activated again, Cooper is now injured AGAIN due to concussion protocol. But I'm not gonna move him again. Look, I've got two other customs I've been holding for months due to injuries, and it looks like I'm finally gonna get to one of them in a week or so. So I'm posting this friggin Cooper one. 

Garrett and Rogers' injuries do clue us into the Marlins' biggest problem at the moment, which is the carousel of low starting candidates. Sandy Alcantara, Jorge Lopez and Jesus Luzardo are all great in those first three spots, it's the rest of the rotation that hasn't been consistent. The good news is that this team finally has Edward Cabrera healthy, and he's been beautiful in all 6 of his starts. But this team has gone through all of Elieser Hernandez, Daniel Castano, Cody Poteet, Max Meyer, Nick Neidert and now Bryan Hoeing in open starting positions. Hoeing just gave up 7 runs against the Dodgers last night, which goes back to my age-old theory, Hoeing ain't easy.

Funnily enough, this problem hasn't spread to the rest of the roster. There's plenty of steady depth options in the lineup, and we've seen people like Nick Fortes, Charles Leblanc, J.J. Bleday, Luke Williams, Peyton Burdick and Jerar Encarnacion provide decent results when thrust into the spotlight. Though they're getting these opportunities due to injuries to veterans, I'm not sure when they'll inherit this team, but hopefully it's soon. I'd be a lot comfier with Nick Fortes catching everyday vs. Jacob Stallings, who is looking more like a backup than he did with Pittsburgh.

So yeah. Tons of takeaways from this team, even if they aren't great. I wish all the non-competitors were like that.

Coming Tonight: I talked last year about this guy could be a future Hall of Famer if we're not careful. This year I still kind of think that, even if he's not catching as frequently.