Miami Marlins: 3 Players that need to “Break-Out” for the Marlins in 2021

1. Pablo Lopez – Miami Marlins SP

While Pablo Lopez may be a known commodity to Miami Marlins’ fans, he is fairly unknown on the national baseball scene.

Lopez is in year four of his young MLB career, but hasn’t necessarily had the most “eye-popping” production during his first three MLB season’s.

The now 25-year old RHP made his MLB debut during the 2018 season by starting 10 games on the mound for the Fish. At first glance for fans, Lopez appeared to be just another average starting pitcher posting a 2-4 record with a 4.14 ERA during 58.2 innings pitched. While he showed flashes at times, things however didn’t necessarily improve during year two for Lopez either.

Lopez doubled his starts during the 2019 MLB season where he went 5-8 with a 5.09 ERA in 111.1 innings pitched. Every statistical category nearly doubled for Lopez during year two, which was expected, but would need to show improvement entering year three.

That improvement did come in the shortened 2020 MLB season as he had a “break-out” season going 6-4 with a 3.61 ERA in 11 starts. This was evident through a few notable categories, which included a career-low 7.8 H/9, as well as a career-high 9.3 K/9.

Fast forward to this season, and the Marlins are receiving exactly what they hoped for with Lopez. Through his first six starts of the season, Lopez has a career-low ERA of 2.34, as well as also being on track to put up career-highs in K’s, K/9, as well as career-low’s in WHIP and H/9.

As mentioned previously, Lopez isn’t underrated to the Marlins, but is on track to solidify himself as a legit top pitcher in the Miami rotation for years to come.

If Lopez also continues his current trends, could he make a case to be the Marlins ace?

2. Trevor Rogers – Miami Marlins SP

After a fairly disappointing 2020 season in which he made his MLB debut, Trevor Rogers is quickly emerging as a potential massive piece of the Miami Marlins future rotation.

As mentioned previously, the 23-year old LHP made his MLB debut during the 2020 MLB season. Rogers however struggled posting a 6.11 ERA through 7 starts, and showed numerous areas of potential improvement.

Rogers came to the MLB as a highly-touted pitching prospect within the Marlins system. Drafted out of high school in the 2017 MLB Draft, Rogers displayed a plus fastball and changeup with potential to make batters miss often. Rogers flashed those pitches often during the limited 2020 season giving Marlins’ fans reason to hope next season.

Now in 2021, Rogers has been one of the top pitchers in baseball so far during the 2021 season in nearly the same sample size which we saw from him a year ago.

Rogers has gone 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA through his first five starts while sporting an impressive 1.000 WHIP and an insane 12.2 K/9. Now while it is unlikely the young left-hander sustains those numbers throughout a 162-game season, especially nearly cutting his H/9 allowed in half from a year ago, it is impressive to see what he is doing so far.

Rogers will still need to improve on a few areas, including his 3.7 career BB/9, but the stuff is obviously there to be a special piece of the Marlins future rotation.

If Rogers continues to show this level of improvement, Miami has one of the better strikeout starting pitchers in baseball in the back-end of their rotation.

3. Lewin Diaz – Miami Marlins 1B

The Miami Marlins #5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, the Miami Marlins need a big year from Lewin Diaz.

Diaz is regarded by some as the Marlins first baseman of the future, and is on-the-verge of scratching the big leagues full time.

Diaz, a career .268 hitter in the minor leagues, made his highly-anticipated MLB debut during the 2020 season, but didn’t necessarily have the most success. Only appearing in 14 games, Diaz went 6/39 from the plate while also driving in 3 runs, but struck-out in twelve of those at-bats.

The 24-year old first baseman didn’t necessarily “light-it-up” in spring training either, only hitting .227 in 22 at-bats. Diaz, because of this slow start, started this season in the minor leagues.

With MLB veteran Jesus Aguilar set at 1B for the Marlins currently, Diaz has the talent and potential to challenge Aguilar for playing time eventually. This year will be an important one because of this, not only for Diaz, but for the Marlins as well.

If Diaz struggles to take the next-step combined with Aguilar continuing to impress in the major leagues, Miami may opt-to prefer Aguilar long-term. If this is the case, Diaz could become a trade candidate for the Marlins to land an instant-impact star player.

The talent is obviously there for Diaz. Now knocking on the door of the big leagues full-time, it’s clear why 2021 is a massive season for Diaz and the Marlins both.

If Diaz develops and succeeds in the big-leagues, Miami has its first-baseman of the future.

If not, combined with continued success from Aguilar, you could possibly let the trade talks begin down in South Beach.

While the Marlins will still have a talented roster even if these three under-perform this season, break-out season’s from Lopez, Rogers, and Diaz could help put the Fish back in the Postseason once again. Not only would this benefit Miami this season, but could also help provide clarity of the future positional outlook of the Marlins for years to come.