It’s the beginning of a very new season, with the team sporting a new manager, Clayton McCullough, and several new players. That being said, it feels like this season will be painfully interesting. The latter because everything about the team is new, from the manager to a large number of players, and anything that new is interesting to watch grow and to understand the direction of that growth. Painful because new teams do not usually fare well until the coaches and players become more seasoned working together and adapt to the unfamiliar field and, in some cases, to newly assigned positions.
Players to keep in our focus include Xavier Edwards at short, Connor Norby at the hot spot, and out-fielder Jesus Sanchez. Of course, all the others are important as well, but we have some history with the ones mentioned and for some it is a positive history.
But right now, predictions about players or the team as a whole are extremely premature. If pushed, however, it would seem that pitching will again be the team’s strong suit but hitting and defense will take some time to develop. Either way, it is extremely unlikely that the Marlins will be competitive this season. The most we can hope for is that management will be able to identify the players who will carry the club into competitive territory in the years to come, hopefully years not too far in the distance.