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

After finishing last season with a loss in the 2020 NLDS to the Braves, the Miami Marlins entered the offseason with a ton of momentum. Coming off a season in which the Marlins surprised everyone making the Postseason, Miami now appears set to make a lot of noise in 2021 as one of the most exciting young teams in baseball.

While most will argue that the Miami Marlins only made the 2020 MLB Postseason due to the shortened schedule, the Marlins had the pieces needed to win then, and guess what? They still have them now.

The Marlins display an impressive pitching staff headlined by Sandy Alcantara, as well as a sneaky-deep lineup capable of beating you in many ways. Combine those with a top farm-system with numerous prospects knocking on the door of the big leagues, and it’s clear why the Marlins can show that 2020 was no fluke.

There will however be a few dominoes that need to fall a certain way for this to happen.

The Miami Marlins will need some notable players to improve in 2021 to contend again.

The Marlins have the pieces needed to contend once again in 2021, but need to see a few notable players take the “next-step” to make that thought a reality.

Not only do these players need to show improvement to help the team’s success, but also for themselves as well. Whether they are top prospects debuting or major leaguers still getting adjusted, the threat of being traded or sent-down is always there.

Now there is no secret that contending teams will do anything to go win a World Series. We’ve seen top prospects and highly-touted younger players traded to help put a team “over-the-hump” in the past, and that could happen to these players if their performance is lacking per say.

With that being said, here are three players in particular for the Miami Marlins that need to put up big numbers during the 2021 season, partly for the Marlins’ success, but themselves as well.

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.