Miami Marlins 80 Game Season: The 50-Man Roster

A lot of the more recent rumors have centered on an 80-game abbreviated season for Major League Baseball in 2020.

Attached to at least one of these alleged proposals was the probability of greatly expanding the roster. With minor league baseball a big question mark in this calendar year, we could be getting a much earlier look at some of the Miami Marlins top prospects. What could a 50-man roster look like?

First of all, a 50-man roster would eliminate a lot of questions, as in who is going to make the final cut? The answer is almost everyone in this particular scenario.

A 50-player roster would almost certainly be heavier on pitchers than on position players — probably as many as 30. Furthermore, we can safely assume that most of the 40-man roster would be included in the final decision.

As far as a five-man rotation, it’s possible the Marlins could end up defaulting to a six- or even seven-man rotation.

Possible Seven-man Miami Marlins Rotation

Sandy Alcantara
Robert Dugger
Pablo López
Jordan Yamamoto
Nick Neidert
Caleb Smith
José Ureña

Here, we see the expected Alcantara, López, Smith, and Yamamoto. The other three don’t really represent a very big stretch, especially two-time Opening Day starter Ureña. The only downfall I would see with a seven-man unit would be if we had a Jose Fernandez type in the rotation. That’s a guy you want to see every fifth day, no exceptions.

This leaves us with a gigantic 23-man bullpen, with several players who can also fill in as starter if needed. Here’s your 23-man bullpen, starring most of the remainder of the 40-man roster plus a healthy smattering of who would possibly come up from the Wichita Wind Surge in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

Possible 23-man Miami Marlins Bullpen

Jeff Brigham
Edward Cabrera
Adam Conley
Yimi García
Jorge Guzman
Elieser Hernandez
Brandon Kintzler
Sixto Sanchez
Sterling Sharp
Ryne Stanek
Drew Steckenrider
Stephen Tarpley
Brad Boxberger
Parker Bugg
Daniel Castano
Ryan Cook
Tommy Eveld
Brett Graves
Dylan Lee
Aaron Northcraft
Chad Smith
Josh A. Smith
Pat Venditte

That’s a lot of firepower on the bench, and a bullpen nearly as large as most major league teams in any other season. We know what the Miami Marlins probable starting lineup looks like, roughly. To wit:

Miami Marlins Probable Starting Lineup

Jonathan Villar CF
Brian Anderson 3B
Corey Dickerson LF
Jesus Aguilar 1B
Garrett Cooper RF
Jorge Alfaro C
Isan Diaz 2B
Miguel Rojas SS

With apologies to the designated hitter, who I’m led to believe will be included in every game in 2020, these eight are likely to start on Opening Day, whenever that happens to be.

That leaves us with a 12-man bench. Hardly the shocking total of the bullpen, 12 men is a lot of guys to get regular reps throughout the season, especially when you include the starting eight.

Miami Marlins 12-Man Bench

Catchers

Francisco Cervelli
Chad Wallach

Infielders

Jon Berti
Jazz Chisholm
Lewin Diaz
Eddy Alvarez

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Outfielders

Lewis Brinson
Monte Harrison
Matt Joyce
Matt Kemp
Harold Ramirez
Jesús Sánchez

That’s a healthy bench, and really, a pretty good B-unit as well. I know split-squad games are an artifact of Spring Training only, but if we ever needed a B-team, ours would compete.

Now, add to all this, each proposed 10-team division is likely to have seven teams make the postseason. Unfortunately, the other nine teams in the “MLB East” include such stalwarts as the defending champion Washington Nationals and the AL East stalwart New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. On the bright side, the Marlins could easily wind up on top of the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays. If the New York Mets have a bad season, Miami could end up in the postseason picture.

That’s my guess as to what a 50-man roster would look like when Opening Day finally rolls around, sometime between mid-June and early-July. Let me know what you think. Did I get it all wrong? Lets talk about it in the comments. Thanks for reading.