Marlins All-Time Pitching Staff: The Best of the Best

The Florida and Miami Marlins have had a total of 331 players throw at least one pitch at the major league level through their 27 season history.

In choosing the best of the best, I had to set an innings threshold. One-hundred seemed like a nice, round number for these purposes, and gave me a pool of 115 Marlins pitchers from which to draw. Which statistic though, is the most sensible by which to rank them from best to worst?

Strikeouts per nine innings? That seems short sighted, and getting a ton of strikeouts doesn’t necessarily make someone a great pitcher unless his WHIP is correspondingly low. Walks and hits per inning pitched? That’s pretty good, but doesn’t really indicate if someone is truly a clutch pitcher.

The ERA+ metric seems appropriate for our purposes here, in that it measures which pitcher was good where it counted – keeping runs off the board. Now, we have to figure out what constitutes a “pitching staff.”

In 1993, when the Marlins started play, a conventional major league team had five starters and five relievers. Over time, that number grew to five starters and eight relievers, where it stands today. Here at the dawn of the new major league 26-man roster, it’s been further explained that teams need to carry no more than 13 pitchers, so five and eight will remain the status quo for the foreseeable future.

This method returned a pitching staff that had a lot of notable exceptions, not to mention the rotation I landed with had two “swing” pitchers, who were primarily relievers. One of those two was good enough in the end to remain on as a bullpen option, but swingman Luis Aquino was cut off the bottom. In reaching for the fifth starter, I also had to drop Kyle Barraclough off the list.

I think the group of 13 pitchers remaining would be able to keep the Marlins in contention every year. Here’s the rotation first.

Clocking in with a career 133 ERA+, six-foot-seven right-hander Josh Johnson twice made the All Star team during his time with the Marlins. A fourth-round pick of Florida back in 2002, Johnson made his major league debut with the parent club in September of 2005.

In 2006, Johnson co-led the Marlins rotation in wins, going 12-7 with a 3.10 ERA and a 1.299 WHIP. After two injury-wracked seasons, Johnson returned to go 15-5 in 2009, with a 3.23 ERA and a 1.158 WHIP in a team-leading 33 starts.

In 2010, Johnson led the majors with a 2.41 FIP, and a 0.3 HR/9, while leading the N.L. with a 180 ERA+ and a 2.30 ERA. He got enough votes to finish fifth in the N.L. MVP Award voting, and made his second straight all-star game.

After the 2012 season, Johnson was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a 12-player deal. In 148 games for the Marlins, he was 56-37 with a 3.15 ERA and a 1.233 WHIP in 916 2/3 innings.

Six-foot-five right-hander Josh Beckett played the first five seasons of his eventual 14-season major league career in the teal, black, and white of the Florida Marlins.

Although never really the “ace” of the staff, Beckett topped out with a 15-9 record in his final season with the Marlins, in 2005. In 106 games in total, including 103 starts, he was 41-34 with a 3.46 ERA and a 1.235 WHIP, along with 607 K’s in 609 innings.

Miami Beach, FL native Alex Fernandez co-anchored the 1997 Marlins rotation with co-ace Brown. He joined the Marlins from the Chicago White Sox, for whom he was 79-63 with a 3.78 ERA in seven seasons.

In 1997, Fernandez was 17-12 for the Fish, with a 3.59 ERA and 183 K’s in 32 starts. His 1.187 was the second best mark of his career. Although Fernandez wasn’t available through the entire postseason, his game three series-clinching performance in the National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants is one of many career-highlights. He held them to two runs on seven hits in seven innings to earn the victory.

Fernandez missed the entire 1998 campaign, and after returning wasn’t ever quite the same. Still, by the end of his tenure with the Marlins had racked up a solid 117 ERA+ in 414 innings for the Marlins, going 28-24 with a 3.59 ERA.

Academically, two other starters qualified for the rotation with 117 ERA+’s identical to that of Fernandez, Henderson Alvarez and Mark Redman. Fernandez got the nod due to more innings in play.

RHP Bryan Morris came via trade from the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 1st, 2014, and ended up allowing three earned runs in 40 1/3 innings for Miami.

Although that proved unsustainable, he was still good for a solid 2.30 ERA in 121 1/3 innings from then through the 2016 campaign. He was 9-5 with one save and 96 K’s versus 48 walks, with a 1.343 WHIP and a 166 ERA+.

LHP Dan Jennings spent the first three seasons of his now-eight-season MLB career with the Marlins, going 3-6 with a 2.43 ERA in exactly 100 innings of work. He struck out 84 and totaled a 1.460 WHIP with a 160 ERA+.

In 2004, Armando Benitez‘ lone season as the Marlins closer, he saved an N.L.-high 47 games and made his second consecutive all-star appearance. He left as he came in, through free agency following the season. He returned in trade from the Giants in 2007 and was used in middle relief. Overall he was 4-7 for the Marlins, with 101 K’s in 102 2/3 innings, a 1.062 WHIP, and a 155 ERA+.

Never a closer, middle-relief specialist Brian Sanches surrendered only 145 hits in 181 2/3 innings in three seasons with the Marlins. He was 10-5 with a 2.92 ERA, 158 strikeouts, a 1.288 WHIP, and a 141 ERA+.

A.J. Ramos was the Marlins closer from 2015 through mid-2017 and saved 92 contests. In 325 appearances in total, he was 15-16 with a 2.78 ERA and 379 K’s in 327 1/3 innings, a 1.228 WHIP, and a 139 ERA+.

More from Marlins History

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• Miami Marlins players & the 2023 Hall of Fame
• Former Miami Marlins star is retiring
• Gary Sheffield or Mark Buehrle, will either Marlin make the Hall of Fame?
• Why don’t we see more dynasties? Part 3

Miami’s closer from 2012 until his eventual replacement by Ramos, Steve Cishek was 17-20 with a 2.86 ERA in 284 games for the Marlins. He posted a 1.222 WHIP, a 137 ERA+, and struck out 312 in 289 2/3 innings.

Maybe not as well known as the others in this iteration of the Marlins bullpen, Rick Helling arrived from the Texas Rangers in mid-1996, went back to them in mid-1997, and joined the Marlins post-deadline 2003 from the Baltimore Orioles. He surrendered only 86 hits in 120 innings for the Marlins over parts of those three seasons, striking out 91 and going 5-7 with a 3.30 ERA, a 1.217 WHIP, and a 124 ERA+.

Robb Nen was a 1993 trade-deadline acquisition from the Rangers, and stayed on with the Marlins through their first World Series Championship. He was 20-16 with a 3.41 ERA in 269 games, with a team-record 108 saves. He struck out 328 in 314 frames, posting a 1.283 WHIP and a 122 ERA+.