de la Cruising

 

The Miami Marlins are in second place in the NL East right now, and have a better record than the Phillies, Mets, Twins, Brewers, Guardians, Padres, Cardinals, Angels and Mariners. I'm more impressed than truly shocked. Like, yeah, this was not an outcome I was expecting at all, but this is also awesome.

I dunno, the Marlins doing well is always a good thing, because they've been notoriously bad for so long, and have so many droughts and rebuilds, that it's good to see them when it all comes together. It's a bit depressing that so many members of the 2020 playoff-series-winning club aren't here for this one, but they at least have Jon Berti, Sandy Alcantara, Garrett Cooper, Jazz Chisholm, Trevor Rogers and, somewhere in the depths of the ether, Sixto Sanchez. They've shed a lot of great players since then, and have updated their approach thanks to Skip Schumaker replacing Don Mattingly, and now they're...somewhat competitive again.

I say somewhat because we're still in the period of the season where things could flip back to as they were at any moment. They're 37-30 as I write this, and that's a lead that can be evened out with a crappy week, plus a lot of this record is thanks to a 13-5 run since May 25th, which is pretty awesome. The other shoe could drop at any moment, but I'd...kinda prefer that it didn't. Because this is a really fun team.

One of the big, fun things about this team is a bunch of the guys who've taken a few seasons to A.) stay healthy and B.) acclimate to the bigs are finally operating at normal levels. Bryan de la Cruz has mellowed into a very fun and very lethal mid-lineup bat, and he's got 35 RBIs, 8 homers and a .290 average. He'd lead the team in hits with 67 but y'see there's this other contact guy they have who's a liiiiittle better. de la Cruz is an entertaining outfield bat that's finally here to stay in the bigs. Jesus Sanchez is similarly performing consistently in the majors, hitting .270 with 18 RBIs, 6 homers and some defensive perks. Braxton Garrett, Jesus Luzardo, Eury Perez and Edward Cabrera have all gotten over recent learning curves to provide the Marlins with a consistent, solid, young rotation that would be a little better if Sandy Alcantara hadn't been taking a while to regain his mojo after having the best season of his career.

This is a team where lots of homegrown and traded prospects are becoming heroes alongside actual preexisting guys like Arraez, Jorge Soler and Yuli Gurriel. There's more emphasis on contact than stupid power, and there's so many young pitchers to save the day even if Sixto and Trevor Rogers are still out. This team is blossoming, finally, and the best portions of this squad are putting in the work and making the Marlins newsmakers again. I absolutely love to see it, and even if I'm not sure how long these good feelings will last, I'm happy to watch it.

Coming Tonight: Last year he burst onto the scene with an outstanding rookie campaign. He's still just as useful now as he was then.